Amulet Rampant

by M. C. A. Hogarth

  “I have, yes,” Lisinthir said, drawing the box from his inside breast pocket. Sliding it to the wolfine, he said, “I want the chip in that card inserted in the back, where it can rest against skin. Can you make it unobtrusive?”

  The jeweler opened the box and turned it at a slight angle, catching the light. “That won’t be a problem.” He looked up at Lisinthir without lifting his head, just a flick of eyes. “I trust I won’t be charged with any crime for this, my lord.”

  “I’ll record an authorization for you before I pick it up.”

  The Hinichi smiled. “Another three days, then.”

  Lisinthir inclined his head and left the man to his work. As he went up the stairs toward the nearest set of lifts, he thought of the jackal chest his cousin had sent him. The illegal claw-knives in that chest had saved Lisinthir’s life in the Empire. It was time now for him to return the favor. Because he was what he was. The Alliance and the Eldritch were his sacred charges and to protect them he would sacrifice whatever tool was available and necessary. Jahir had offered himself, and Jahir had become too powerful a sword to be left sheathed.

  All that remained was for Lisinthir to make sure he survived the experience.

  CHAPTER 13

  Laniis had been having enough jitters waiting for the Slave Queen’s return call. Her mood was not improved by the arrival of the Eldritch and her insistence that she would also be speaking to the Chatcaavan.

  “Can she do that?” Laniis whispered to Na’er.

  “She can now,” Meryl said, wry. “Since she’s become an official Ambassador ad’Alliance.”

  “From the Eldritch Queen?” Laniis asked, wide-eyed.

  “Apparently our request lit a fire under them,” Meryl said, arms folded.

  Sediryl was seated in the waiting area outside the secure comm room, reading from a data tablet with a nonchalance Laniis found enviable. The Eldritch was dressed in a tailored tan jacket, its sleek hems reaching halfway down matching trousers and high boots, and if the styling hadn’t been so obviously Pelted in execution one might have thought her about to go for a ride in some historical drama. But the cut was modern, and the sleek austerity of it suited her. The sash she wore from shoulder to hip made sense now, as did the pin on it: argent unicorn on cobalt ground. Sediryl had found some jewelry at last.

  “There’s going to be trouble, isn’t there,” Laniis said.

  “Maybe,” Meryl answered. “Maybe not. I’m guessing her Queen’s playing the politics. If she gets involved with offering amnesty, then it gives the Alliance another reason to protect the Eldritch.”

  Laniis glanced up at her. “You think it’s that cold-blooded?”

  The Hinichi snorted, ears flicking back. “Yes. And no. You can’t be in charge of a planet full of people and not start thinking that way. It’s your duty at that point.”

  “That’s a sword that cuts two ways, anyway,” Na’er added. “If the Eldritch harbor the exiles, we can always point at them and say ‘we’re not involved, they’re the ones you want to string up.’”

  Laniis’s ears sagged.

  “Not that I think we’d do that!” Na’er exclaimed. “But… it’s complicated.”

  “Everything’s complicated,” Laniis muttered.

  He chuckled. “If it wasn’t, we’d be bored—”

  The intercom woke. “Captain Osgood? We’re receiving something.”

  “Get the lady,” Meryl said to Na’er, and pushed Laniis toward the booth. “Go, alet, you’re on.”

  Laniis hurried into the room and sat in front of the projection, clasping her hands tightly in her lap to keep from fidgeting. She heard the Eldritch enter after her, standing too far back to be in view of the pick-up, and then the closing door sealed them into the soundproofed quiet. A few moments later, the Slave Queen’s image phased into view.

  “Mistress,” Laniis said, knowing they couldn’t afford to waste time. Every minute they spoke was a minute they could be discovered. “We can do it. If you can get your people out of the palace, we can get them off the world and into safety in the Alliance.”

  The Slave Queen’s eyes widened. “You have contacts? All the way onto our world?”

  Laniis managed a smile. “We do now. It would have been useful to know before, wouldn’t it? The Ambassador wouldn’t have had to figure it out on his own. But apparently we can do this, Mistress. And once you make it here, you’ll be safe.”

  From behind her shoulder, she heard movement, and then Sediryl spoke.

  “We’ll protect you.”

  The Queen’s eyes flicked upward, seized there as the connection brought the Eldritch into focus.

  “I am Sediryl Nuera Galare,” Sediryl said. “Ambassador ad’Alliance from the Eldritch, and the niece of the Eldritch Queen. In her name, I greet you and offer you and yours asylum. The Alliance has agreed to give you to our care if you wish to come.”

  Laniis had rarely seen the level of shock on the Slave Queen’s face she saw now, so intense the pupils in her brilliant eyes trembled, just a little. “Asylum. Among the Eldritch.”

  “It’s not enough to flee,” Sediryl said. “You have to go somewhere you know you won’t be stolen again. And we owe you. You freed the heir to our throne.”

  “The Ambassador was responsible….”

  “The Ambassador succeeded with and because of your help,” Sediryl said, gratifying Laniis. “There is a debt there. We pay our debts.”

  The Slave Queen stared at her a moment longer, then twitched her head back toward Laniis. “How soon?”

  “You could ask it now,” Laniis said. “All you need to do is get a message. We’re going to position people to come to your aid when you call.”

  She said nothing for several heartbeats. Then, quietly, “Laniis. Thank you.”

  Laniis shook her head. “Mistress. It is my job. My work.” And with a deep breath, added, “I hope to see you soon.”

  “I hope so as well,” the Slave Queen said. “But if we don’t, I will find a way to reach you again.”

  “Hopefully you won’t have to,” Laniis said. “Now, please, go. You have my commtag. The Ambassador’s as well, if you need her.”

  The Chatcaavan glanced again at Sediryl, nodded. “I’ll send word if I need you.”

  The screen blanked, and it was over. Laniis twisted in her seat to look up at the Eldritch. “Is it true?”

  “That we’re offering them asylum?” Sediryl asked. “Or that we’re doing it for a noble motive?”

  Laniis sank into her chair, ears heating.

  “Yes. And yes. And also no.” Sediryl grinned. “We’re Eldritch, I think we’re allowed to answer like that.” She pressed a hand to her breast and inclined her head. “Good afternoon, Lieutenant.”

  By the time Laniis left the room, the Eldritch was gone and Na’er, predictably, was peering into the corridor after her.

  “Go well?” Meryl asked, quietly.

  “Yes,” Laniis said.

  “But?”

  Confused, the Seersa looked at her.

  “There’s a ‘but’ in your voice,” Meryl said. “What did you see?”

  What had she seen? Nothing she could have described or pinpointed. But she’d lived in close proximity to the Slave Queen for months, had slept in a basket in the Chatcaavan’s room, had groomed her, bathed her, seen to her injuries after the violent attentions of the males who’d visited her.

  “I think we should be ready to move soon,” she said. “She’s afraid.”

  “You’re sure.”

  Was she?

  “Yes.”

  Meryl nodded. “I’ll tell them to set it up.” She tilted her head. “The Eldritch offer them refuge?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nice to know I’m not losing my touch either,” Meryl said, smiling.

  “We’d be in trouble if you had,” Na’er said, finally giving up on his attempt to Eldritch-watch. “Since they don’t tell us peons anything.”

  “Peons,” Laniis r
epeated, ears splaying.

  “Absolutely! ‘PEONS ARE NEEDED!’” He jerked a thumb at his chest. “That’s us.”

  “If I remember right, the peons in that game were needed so they could build monuments to emperors,” Meryl said dryly.

  “If the uniform fits….”

  Meryl laughed. “We fill it. All right, soldier. Out we go. We’ve got some calls to make.”

  “This is Uuvek,” the Knife said to her.

  The male sitting beside the Knife on the bench in the nursery was shorter than the Queen, thicker through the torso, and had the heftiest wing arms she’d ever seen. The knots of muscle at his shoulders and girdling his arm joints were nearly grotesque in their size. But he had an interesting face, lacking the hard cunning of the average Chatcaavan male. She perceived him to be analyzing her the same way she was him, and she found this refreshing.

  “I have stolen him from the Navy,” the Knife continued. “He is deft with computers.”

  “Oh?” She rested her folded hands on her knees. “Are you the one responsible for the security of my communications with the Alliance?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I also doctor the security footage generated in the nursery.”

  The Queen glanced up sharply at the walls, the ceiling.

  “There is surveillance throughout the tower,” the Knife said. “Throughout all the towers. That has always been so, my Queen.”

  The thought that Second—the previous Second—and Third, and the Emperor! might have been able to watch her during the Ambassador’s stay…she pressed her palms onto her knees, steadying herself. “I can’t imagine this hasn’t been used against us in the past.”

  “Nothing like that,” the Knife said. “No one cared, my Queen. The only time anyone accessed that footage was during times of significant turmoil in the Court, and very few people have that access.” He canted his head. “Your rooms were never fitted with those cameras.”

  She gaped. Around them, the squeals of female Chatcaavan children playing their new alphabet games with their brothers seemed distant, unreal.

  “You are the most exalted female in the Empire,” Uuvek offered.

  “More to the point,” the Knife said, “you belong to the Emperor, my Queen. For anyone else to spy on you would have been an insult to him. Only he should have access to you.”

  Her breath shuddered out of her and she dipped her head. All the confidences she’d shared with the Ambassador, the plans to secret the Eldritch and the slaves out of the Empire, the sweeter and crueler things that had happened when the Emperor had joined them…all those things had remained private. Thinking back on it, she knew it had to be true: if there had been surveillance in her apartment, Second wouldn’t have had to abuse the truth out of her about whether she was helping the Ambassador. He would have known.

  “So my rooms are safe,” she murmured.

  “But the rest of the tower is not,” the Knife said. “So I brought Uuvek here to work his magic.” He grinned at the other male, and this evidence of camaraderie shocked her. “He has been making the footage here report the same sorts of activities the children used to undertake before you changed everything.”

  “That is magic,” she said, considering him with interest.

  “It is not,” the male said, shifting his wings against his back. “It is skill.”

  “Underrated skill,” the Knife agreed. “Which is why I stole him from the Navy, where he was languishing.”

  Uuvek sighed. “Yes, languishing. Being paid well, given computers to oversee—”

  “Shoved into the backside of a station, where the only thing your computers were processing was the flow of materiel—”

  “Logistics is interesting.”

  The Knife snorted and said to the Queen, “You see why he needed rescue.”

  “Surely the Empire needs such males,” the Queen said, fascinated. “Otherwise, the warships would soon be reduced to drifting without food or fuel. They do need fuel, I imagine.”

  “Don’t start him on that tack,” the Knife warned, grinning. “He’s the one who taught me everything I know about the importance of logistics. Intelligence, I knew about already, but the rest of it…”

  Uuvek wrinkled his nose, ignoring the Knife. “If you are interested, I will tell you about it. One day.”

  “The important thing is that I’ve brought him here to help me oversee your security and to enable your secure communication with our allies outside the Empire,” the Knife said. “This is important now that it seems likely Second will be moving through the tower more often. Particularly since we don’t know why Second is moving through the tower, and whether he has permission or not.” He glanced at Uuvek. “That is another reason I have brought him here. He is the one I wish to entrust with contacting the Emperor.”

  “Because?” the Queen asked, tilting her head.

  “Because we would not want anyone hearing us ask the Emperor whether Second is his enemy or his ally,” the Knife said. “I almost made that call myself when I realized how utterly it would indict us. And Second would be notified of any such call to the Emperor.”

  The Queen said, “Perhaps he would approve of your paranoia.”

  “The male chosen to be Second would not approve of anyone questioning his authority,” Uuvek said.

  Since that was manifestly true, the Queen said, “Perhaps we should not call, then.”

  “We must,” the Knife said. “To do otherwise would be too risky. I would not take that gamble, not when the Emperor charged me with your safety.”

  “And not when you do things that will endanger it so flagrantly,” Uuvek added, considering the children.

  “You disapprove?” she asked.

  “What? No.” Uuvek turned a puzzled look at her. “How could I disapprove of education?”

  “Even of females?” she said, wondering why the Knife was grinning again.

  “We will soon reach a point where our workforce will curtail our growth if we do not begin to employ females,” Uuvek said. “Over half our population is idle. What good is that? By all means, teach females to read. Put them to some useful work, even if it’s just counting boxes in a warehouse. Then we might take over the universe.”

  “And is that what you want?”

  “Isn’t that what all Chatcaava want?” he asked.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You are not all Chatcaava, Uuvek.”

  He jerked his head back. Then, slowly, he said, “No. I’m not. I like to observe the universe. I like to learn. But you cannot learn how the universe is if you are constantly trying to manipulate it into being what you want. When you do that, you ruin the data.” He paused, then added, “I have other reasons to dislike how things are, though, if this is a test of my loyalty.”

  “If you are good enough for the Knife, you are good enough for me,” the Queen said.

  He seemed skeptical, but when she didn’t push, he relaxed and said, “You are an uncommon female.”

  “I am a very average female,” the Queen said. “It is you who are uncommon, for daring to observe things without imprinting them.”

  He snorted. “I have been overseeing your comm security. The console in your room is the only one in this tower that is not directly monitored, but that’s meaningless—any computer can be watched if someone decides he wants to... and any encryption can be broken with sufficient will. In the future, I would like you to limit your calls. The Knife tells me you have spoken twice with your wingless slave friend?”

  The Slave Queen turned this phrase over in astonishment. Wingless slave friend. What a monstrosity. “I have spoken twice with the Seersa, yes.”

  “I’ve been told the purpose of those calls. You should not make another unless you are ready to run.”

  A frisson of dread traveled her spine, rattling the edges of her wings. To her surprise, the Knife held up a hand, almost touching her arm. “It is a precaution, my Queen, but a necessary one. We must assume you have enemies because everyone has enemie
s.”

  “I understand. And I am grateful. To you as well, Uuvek. Thank you for consenting to be… stolen… from the Navy.”

  “He was not receiving the respect he deserved,” the Knife said.

  Uuvek twitched his head. “I don’t need respect. Only to be left alone.”

  The Queen canted her head. “He protects you as if you were a female. Does it bother you?”

  “No,” Uuvek said. “If a crew is good, they watch one another’s backs. The Knife is just… very assiduous in his duties to his crewmates.” He smirked. “It’s because he didn’t have honest work. He kept having to make up things to do to fill his time.”

  The Knife said, “Fortunately for you!”

  “I will return to the work you’ve set me to,” Uuvek said. To the Queen he added, “You will see me from time to time. The Knife wanted to introduce me to you.”

  “I have been introduced,” she said. “Thank you, my-better.”

  He flicked his gaze over her. “Somehow I doubt that. Which interests me. Maybe another time you can talk to me about it, being female.”

  “If you would want to know,” she said, startled.

  “The Knife will tell you. I want to know everything.” He grinned at the Knife, then dipped his head and left the room. When he turned his back on her, she understood the over-development of his musculature, because the wings themselves were stunted. To fly with them must involve a great deal of flapping—there would be no gliding with such small pinions, and certainly no aerobatics. Small wonder he had become enamored of his computers: at a console, he could be free to move in every dimension without effort.

  “You understand,” the Knife said.

  “Yes,” the Queen replied. “At least, I understand why he has no love of how things are. What puzzles me is that there is amity between you. I was not given to understand that males could be…” She sought the old word, tasted it. “…friends.”

  “The court would have you believe that all males are solitary predators,” the Knife said. “But that is because they are the apex of the Empire, my Queen. To be here, they had to fight their way over the bodies of everyone else. If all the Empire behaved the way they did, we would accomplish nothing. We would be too busy killing one another.” He looked after Uuvek. “There are places where males trust one another. The Navy is one such. There are others, but none so good as the Navy. If we do not trust one another there, we die. It is… a strong incentive.”