First Lord's Fury (Page 64)

Amara considered the man for the space of a breath. Then she nodded to him, somewhat more deeply than she needed to. "Very well," she said, "Your Highness."

Chapter 19~20

Chapter 19

In the hours that followed, Isana listened to the vord Queen assault and savage the collected military might of the Realm.

She never left the glowing green chamber beneath the earth. Instead, she simply stared upward, into the glowing light of the croach, and gave Isana a running commentary of the battle. In neutral, unhurried tones, the Queen reported the outcomes of maneuvers and attacks.

Isana had seen enough of the war with the vord to translate the words into images of pure horror in her thoughts. She stood beside Araris, checking every so often to be sure that his nose and mouth were still uncovered. His skin, beneath the surface of the croach, did not appear to be irritated or burned – yet. But it was hard to be certain. It was like looking at him through tinted and ill-shaped glass of particularly poor quality.

"I find it… I believe this is a form of anger, though not a particularly potent example," said the vord Queen, after several moments of silence. "There is a word for it. I find the Aleran defense to be… irritating."

"Irritating?" asked Isana.

"Yes," the Queen said, staring upward. She pointed with one black-clawed finger. "There. The workers and noncombatants are fleeing the city. And yet I cannot, quite, reach them. Their destruction would all but assure the end of this war."

"They are defenseless," Isana said quietly.

The vord Queen sighed. "If only that were true. Assigning nearly half the population as expendable protectors is wastefully unnecessary. Most of the time. It won’t make a difference in the end, but for now…" She lifted a hand and let it fall again, a gesture that somehow contained her irritation, her passing annoyance, and the fate of Alera, all in the same imagined handful. "This world has been ferociously competitive since long before my wakening."

"Those are women," Isana said quietly. "The aged, the sick. Children. They are not a threat to you."

The vord Queen’s eyes glinted oddly. "The women can produce more of you, and that cannot be tolerated. The aged and sick… there might be some merit in continuing to allow them to drain your people’s resources, but their experience and knowledge might tip a balance, which would prove costly."

"And the children?" Isana said, her voice growing colder despite herself. "What harm could they possibly do you?"

The vord Queen’s lips spread in a slow, bitter smile. "Your children are indeed no threat. Today." She turned her eyes from the ceiling and stared at Isana for a time. "You think me cruel."

Isana looked from Araris’s slack, unconscious face to the vord Queen. "Yes," she hissed.

"And yet, I have offered your people a choice," the Queen said. "A chance to surrender, to accept defeat without losing their own lives – which is more than your people have ever offered me. You think me cruel for hunting your children, Grandmother, but your folk have hunted mine, and killed them in tens of thousands. Your folk and mine are the same, in the end. We survive, and we do so at the expense of others who seek nothing more than to do the same."

Isana was silent for a long moment. Then she asked, very quietly, "Why do you call me that?"

The vord Queen was also quiet for a time. Then she answered, "It seems fitting, as I understand such things."

"Why?" Isana pressed. "Why would you consider Tavi your father? Do you truly believe yourself his child?"

The vord Queen moved her shoulders in a shrug that did not look as though it came naturally to her. "Not in the sense that you mean. Although, like you, I did not choose those whose blood would merge to create mine."

"Why would you care?" Isana asked. "Why should it matter to you whether or not you refer to me in a way that is appropriate to Alerans?"

The Queen tilted her head again, her expression abstracted. "It should not matter." She blinked her eyes several times in rapid succession. "It should not. And yet it does."

Isana took a deep breath, sensing something vital stirring beneath the vord’s cool, smooth surface. She wasn’t sure if she was speaking to the Queen as she murmured, "Why?"

The vord Queen folded her arms abruptly over her chest and turned away, a motion that appeared quite human. She looked up at the glowing ceiling above her, at the other walls of the room – anywhere but at Isana.

"Why?" Isana asked again. She took a step closer. "Does the answer to the question matter, to you?"

Frustration and a desperate, unfulfilled need flared through the chamber, bright and solid against Isana’s watercrafting senses. "Yes. It matters."

"And finding the answer is important to you."

"Yes. It is."

Isana shook her head. "But if you destroy us, you might never know the answer."

"Don’t you think I know that?" the vord Queen spat. Her eyes flared wide open as she bared her teeth in a snarl. "Don’t you think I understand? I sense as you do, Grandmother. I feel everything, everything my children feel. I feel their pain and fear. And through them, I feel your people as well. I feel them screaming and dying. I am so filled with it that I could almost split open down the middle."

A calm, hard voice spoke into the chamber, causing Isana to flinch in surprised reaction. "Be cautious," said Invidia Aquitaine. "You are being manipulated." The former High Lady entered the chamber, attired in the formfitting black chitin-armor apparently worn by all of the Aleran Citizens who served the vord.

The vord Queen turned her head slightly, her only acknowledgment of Invidia’s words. She frowned, and swiveled her unsettling eyes back to Isana. Silence stretched for a time before she asked, "Is this true?"

Isana stared at Invidia. She had heard Amara’s descriptions of the creature clinging to Invidia’s torso, its bulbous body pulsing in a rhythm like a slow heartbeat. But seeing it happening, seeing the blood that seeped weakly from where the creature’s head thrust into the woman’s chest, was a different matter altogether. Invidia had been many things to Isana – ally and manipulator, mentor and murderess. Isana had ample reason to hate the former High Lady, she supposed. But looking at her now, she could summon forth nothing more than pity.

And revulsion.

"That is a matter of viewpoint," Isana replied to the vord Queen, her eyes never leaving Invidia. "I am attempting to understand you. I am attempting to enable you to understand us more clearly."