Knives in the Night

by Nathan A. Thompson

  “Making one or two isn’t bad, and is actually how I figured out a way to escape Cavus more easily,” Stell explained, “but making this many should knock me out completely for about an hour. The fatigue should be hitting me any moment now.”

  The woman braced herself against the table she was sitting at, and seemed to be waiting.

  “Any moment…” she repeated, clearly still waiting.

  We all stood awkwardly.

  Finally, another moment passed, and Stell sucked in a breath, sagging further against the table.

  “There’s a little bit more…and…” She blinked. “That’s it?”

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “It sounded like it was supposed to be really bad.”

  “It was supposed to make me need a long nap,” the Starsown admitted, still looking confused. “But instead I’m just really winded…I mean,” she said, sounding confused. “I’m still really tired, but I could still run around or climb a flight of stairs if I absolutely had to. But I’ve gotten stronger, somehow. Much stronger, and I just haven’t had time to notice. How can this be?”

  As she continued puzzling out her new growth, Invictus’ quiet voice whispered in my mind.

  Crown her. And write love on her arms.

  Both an explanation and a command, I realized.

  “Either way, Stell, I’m super grateful for your help,” I replied. “And it’s good to see that you can protect yourself a little better. I’m going to let you and Anahita tell me what to do, and then I’m going to find somewhere comfortable to sit. Since I’m about to go on the longest blood drive of my life.”

  They took me to a room that reminded me of a sultan’s palace.

  It was a large open space with a large, comfortable-looking chair set on a raised portion of the floor.

  I sat down and leaned back in it, while Breena fetched some pottery and Anahita went to go find the dancers, who had apparently decided to give us some privacy after witnessing Anahita flirt with me for so long.

  The Satellite brought the women before me, while Breena grew to a much larger size and Stell stood next to me. Together we were able to convince them of our plan, and to convince them to bring in a few more leaders so that we could convince them in turn, since many of Sejmera’s leaders had once been patrons of the Ghawazee art, and this current troupe was the most famous of them all.

  While that happened, I converted the mist-bodies into clones of the proper Malus operatives and had them go about their duties, so that the Horde wouldn’t get suspicious.

  That wound up being easy, since the two sides had been in an established routine for decades. The only change at all was that they were expecting to resupply the Malus army when they got here, and that most of the local Horde were expecting to join the fight.

  But the Malus Men had already beaten into the beastmen’s brains just what orders to expect, so other than a little bit of posturing that Teeth thoroughly enjoyed acting out, the whole thing went smoothly.

  Meanwhile, Anahita quietly arranged visits with the different leaders whose assistance we would need to pull off our scheme. As I suspected, they were pretty apprehensive at first, but once they realized that the only thing we wanted them to do was to ensure all the proper tribute was brought to the palace, which was what they were required to do anyway, then they were on board.

  They also all noted that I specifically wanted them not to try and take up arms against their oppressors, and that I knew that would only get them slaughtered wholesale.

  And that I was literally bleeding myself out on their behalf.

  In addition to that, I reached out to my retinue through the mindlink. Val and the others were almost here, at a time when the army was about to arrive. We decided it would be too risky for them to wait here, so they found a hiding place some distance away from the city, and would spend a day or two out there.

  Then, when the army left and the remaining Horde were all poisoned, my retinue could do what they did before: swoop in, overwhelm the weakened defenders, and destroy the Pit.

  Everyone agreed with the strategy in the end, though the Testifiers complained about spending extra time out in the desert and their complaining made me far too happy.

  But that was the last bit of logistics left to distract myself from turning myself into the ultimate Red Cross supplier. Stell and Anahita set up some kind of apparatus where I could rest my arm and bleed into a funnel below, where either the Starsown’s bodies or one of the dancers would constantly be swapping out vials and jars to contaminate the Malus larders.

  Anahita used the mindlink to help me figure out the proper potency for the dosage, since we wanted it to be slow-acting and because we would have to spread it out among potentially thousands of flasks and rations—something only made possible by my extremely robust vital guard and Constitution score.

  Breena kept steady watch on my vitals, and that was pretty much how I spent the next couple of days.

  Stell, for her part, worked to make me as comfortable as possible.

  “I already ate an hour or two ago,” I said as the Starsown came toward me with another tray.

  “Yes, and you’ve lost half a liter of blood since then,” the currently olive-skinned woman replied. “But since you’re probably tired of spinach and other leafy greens by now, I thought I’d make you some heartier food.”

  “You cooked for me?” I asked, as she set the tray next to me. “When did you have time for—where did you even get rib-eye?”

  My eyes widened as Stell removed the lid, locking onto the large steak set in the middle of the tray. Surrounding it were large portions of sausage, herb-baked chicken, smoked fish, and roasted lamb.

  “These will refill the iron in your blood stream pretty well,” my new favorite woman in the world explained. “I’m hoping I got all this right, though. Your mother and sister explained most of your favorite meals, but I couldn’t spend enough time with them to get the exact recipes, and this is all I can come up with on short notice. But I hope I got at least a couple of these dishes right.”

  “How did you even have time?” I gasped again, because the woman had been running around all day handling errands as well as stopping by every ten or fifteen minutes to make sure I was as comfortable as possible.

  “Oh, right,” she responded, smiling as she set out some silverware and a drinking goblet. “I keep forgetting that you’ve mostly been interacting with my Satellites, instead of my main consciousness. And that you don’t understand just how many thousands of years I’ve had to practice different things, between all my bodies.”

  “Right,” I said, “Guineve had talked about that. I forget the specific process, but you can impart power and information between your different bodies.”

  “Power is actually a lot harder—is orange juice okay?” she asked as she poured the fruit juice into the goblet. “Dumb question, sorry. You need to drink it anyway to help with your blood loss. But yes. Not only do I have most of Guineve’s knowledge in cooking, but it was one of the things I practiced with my primary body all those years, because there just wasn’t that much to do, when I wasn’t handling a Tumult. As for power—should I start with the fish?” she asked as she began slicing the smoked piece of seafood that she had somehow acquired in this desert city. “Let’s go ahead and start with the fish. Anyway, transferring power is much harder. Starsown are incredibly long-lived, comparable to Icons and even ancient races of elves, but we grow very, very slowly, when it comes to acquiring power. The power we gain from Rising doesn’t come all at once, like it does for other races, so for the longest time, it made me feel like I was lagging behind heroes, rulers, and Icons so much younger than me. And our pools are inherently smaller than other races, though I never knew why.

  “Then again,” she continued as she scooped some smoked fish onto a plate, then added side dishes of bananas and nuts, “I suddenly seem to have gotten much, much stronger recently, so maybe that can start to change. It would be wonderful if it could. You�
�ve done a marvelous job so far, but Minerv and Jarta could probably use all the extra power I can spare.”

  “How are your other bodies?” I asked. “It sounded like things were going badly in the other worlds.”

  “Well, yes—here you go,” she said as she held the fish-covered fork in front of my mouth. “Do you mind if I do this? You really do need to rest as much as possible, and it will make me feel better about bleeding you like a sacrificed animal. Thank you. Anyway, things are bad, but they have been bad for fifty years. I really can’t go into all the horrible things that are constantly happening, but the Dawnlands just lost another ancient kingdom, including two senior Icons that had come to its defense. It was one of the biggest blows we’ve had since we lost the entirety of the Sun-Jeweled Seas—and saying that last bit out loud shows just how much of a whiplash this whole war is.”

  I nodded as I chewed the bite of deliciously cooked fish, wondering what ingredients were in it and how the hell Stell had found time to smoke it in the day or so she had been here.

  “You see,” the beautiful woman continued as she offered some slices of banana, “on one hand, I’ve lost so much of what I’ve spent centuries protecting and nurturing, and in the span of a few decades. But this past year, I’ve not only gained two entire planets back—or three, if I count Avalon—I’ve gained previously extinct civilizations, or have had an entire world expand, in the case of the Woadlands absorbing some of the Hoarfolk’s territory. I’m constantly having reasons to believe everything is doomed, yet every time I dig in and try to make things work for at least one more day, a miracle happens, and then suddenly I have to deal with the possibility that things might not just turn out okay, but they’ll turn out better than they ever were, better than I could even imagine.

  “It’s been such a whiplash to figure out, which is probably why I’ve been yelling at you so much,” she admitted, handing me the goblet of fruit juice. “And they actually do have a few groves of orange trees in this world, since you’re wondering. Anyway, my Satellites are all more or less dealing with the same emotions: trying to make it one more day, and then going through the immediate shift of getting absolutely fantastic news that hints at all sorts of possibilities for the future. I’m sure Cavus is hunting for them, like he is here with Anahita, but he’s being extremely subtle about it. Maybe that’s because the other Satellites have more Icon support with them, and he’s just being careful. Even though Warren Rhodes already demonstrated that he can handle more than one Icon by himself, and Warren still defers to Cavus. So maybe I don’t know why he’s avoiding so much collateral damage, but I’m still extremely grateful for it. And I’m finally starting to accept your crazy story of three of my other bodies taking him on and winning…”

  She waited for me to finish drinking, smiling knowingly at me.

  I had to work to avoid choking, because I was really excited to hear about her mental breakthrough and wanted to shout, but I was still in the process of swallowing her latest culinary surprise.

  “That’s great,” I said, after I finished swallowing. “Really, really great.”

  “What I just said, or what you just drank?”

  “Uh, both,” I clarified, staring into my cup with surprise, “and what did you do to make the orange juice so delicious?”

  “It’s called mulling,” Stell said with a proud grin. “They do it a few places on Earth, too. It’s how I learned. But yes. I feel a little freer now. Like I can turn the tables on Cavus someday, if I can just get enough time to figure out how. But Merada and Breena and Via were right. I’m going to work on listening to the non-hurting parts of myself. So that I can hear everyone else more clearly.”

  “That’s a good plan,” I replied, setting the drink down, and touching her hand. “It’s something I’m still working on myself.”

  “I know,” Stell said with a smile. “I’ve seen everything you’ve overcome. And you’ve done it in a way that motivates the rest of us. It’s why I have so much confidence in you. But for now,” she said, lifting a bite of expertly seared meat, “try the steak.”

  CHAPTER 35: SUCCESS

  “I can’t believe you actually pulled it off,” Stell said as she shook her head, looking at all the jars, vials, and other containers of my blood. “This is amazing. This is enough right here to disrupt their supply lines on every world. This should help with two really big battles coming up…and for countries on the verge of being conquered, this will slow down all manner of sieges and invasions. I’ll be able to get more evacuations set up…I’ll have all this extra time. You’re going to help me save thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of lives, Wes. I can’t stress how big of a deal this is…even though this is what you’ve been doing ever since you retook Avalon. I can’t stress how grateful I am that you were willing to do this.”

  “In fairness,” I responding, grinning, “you did make every effort you could to make sure I was comfortable.”

  It had taken at least three days—possibly more, I didn’t feel like counting—to drain enough of my poisoned blood to make the kind of impact Stell was referring to. During that time, she had fed me, fanned me, shared whatever stories she could have, even read to me some of Via’s favorite non-Earthborn literary works.

  She had utterly lavished me with attention, and Teeth and I had felt so fantastic we hadn’t even cared about the red ocean she had removed from us.

  Furthermore, she had helped Breena and Anahita carefully monitor my vitals, making sure that my vital guard never came close to being overtaxed.

  Stell’s expression shifted, from hopeful and happy to the kind of flirtatious look Merada had given me far more than once.

  “I didn’t do everything,” she said as she playfully touched my arm.

  The next moment, she panicked and hurriedly took her hand away.

  “Sorry,” Stell said quickly. “I didn’t mean…I mean I thought about it, but you were also strapped down, and being bled, and we didn’t have guaranteed privacy, so it seemed like it would have been too weird if I had—”

  “It totally would have been,” I assured her, reaching back for her hand. “You made the right call. I had a fantastic time. Really.”

  The multibodied woman smiled, relaxed, and let the flirtatious expression return to her face.

  “Thank ye,” she said, sounding exactly like Merada in that moment, before blinking and returning to her normal voice. “I mean, thank you. Speaking of that matter, I’ve uh, spoken to Breena, and I realized my other bodies received some unclear instructions from me. I know things are crazy busy, but can we talk about that for a moment? Before somebody walks in on us?”

  “Please,” I insisted, looking around myself.

  We were still in the main hall, the place that probably was a throne room back when this city was a city-state.

  “Good.” Stell said, relieved. “Anyway, so I want to affirm that I’m still very interested in moving things forward, but…I sort of didn’t realize how complicated that would be with a non-Starsown partner…and it’s difficult to explain why.”

  “Does it have something to do with the whole multiple bodies thing?” I asked, curious.

  “Yes,” the alien woman answered nervously. “That’s a big part of it. And one I didn’t understand myself at first, because my planet was overrun long before it was time for my parents or anyone else to explain the uh, ‘birds and the bees’ or whatever. Most of what I remember was my mother teasing how I would break all the other Starsown boys’ multiple hearts when I got older one day, and my father and grandfather panicking and swearing that they would devote three bodies each to chasing away any rascal who came within a mile of me.”

  “That sounds like something Dad used to say about Rachel,” I said, grinning with the memory.

  “Yeah, I vaguely remember them saying something about Earthborn men, too, but I was far too young to understand it.” Stell smiled, looking gloriously relaxed again, now that she had managed to put down
the mountain of pressure she was under for a moment. “But anyway, from what I do know, when courtship begins, usually the two interested Starsown start pairing their bodies with each other to determine compatibility. It also helps everyone’s bodies to handle the cocktail of emotions that gets launched. Otherwise, you can have one body start blasting some really, really intense attraction into a bunch of other bodies that haven’t even met the person yet. That can cause all kinds of issues and one of the few things I can remember from my time on my home planet was the number of stories regarding Starsown who couldn’t properly handle a romance between their multiple bodies. That’s probably why we had so many strict rules about courtship.”

  “Huh,” I said, thinking over her words, “I can see why that’s made things so hard for you.”

  “It really has,” Stell breathed, “and now that I have time to think about it, it’s probably been another reason why I’ve had trouble figuring this all out. But we’re going to,” she said firmly. “I’m not going to let difficulties like this stay in the way. Or the Tumults. Or the interplanetary wars. Or any creepy nightmare monster from who knows where.”