Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WIND VERSE- Hunger's Harmattan (26 page)

“Believe what you will, old woman,” Shanee
said. “Either way, you are toast.”

Ailyn’s mother’s forehead furrowed for a
moment then with teeth bared, she rushed Shanee—no doubt believing the element
of surprise would be on her side.

* * * * *

“Your queen?” Bakari questioned, his mouth
dropping open.

“Burgon?” Polemusa prodded. “Do you want to
be on the bridge when we take Cean down or not?”

“I told you to go, Ry,” Leveche said. He
had removed his shirt and was motioning for a gurney to be rolled up so he
could lie down. “I have to transfer my queen to him. That is the only way to
save his life. Now get your ass up there and spray Cean into space particles.”

“Removing your queen won’t harm you?” the
healer asked.

Leveche shook his head. “I’ll be weak but
the nest will choose another fledgling to be queen.” He scowled at Bakari. “Get
the hell out of here, Burgon!”

Bakari hesitated only a fraction of a
second longer then sprinted into the open cage of the elevator. He saluted
Leveche as the Reaper hopped up on the gurney.

“What do I need to do, your grace?” the
healer asked.

“You’ll need to make a twelve-inch-long cut
from kidney to kidney on both of us. Take my queen first then open him and
remove his. Scoop out as much of Her as you can because I imagine She’ll be
disintegrating by now. Place my queen in him and then stand back. She’ll close
up the wound.”

“The Sustenance is laced with nephrotoxin,”
the healer’s assistant reported. “So is the tenerse.”

“I’ll go back down and destroy all of it,”
Quinn said. “Do you have extra for him, Gabe?”

“Aye, there’s plenty on board,” the Reaper
replied as the healer began swabbing his back with an astringent.

“Do you want me to put you out?” the healer
asked.

“Not necessary,” Leveche said. “Just get on
with it!”

* * * * *

Bakari sat down in his command chair just
as the Ceannus LRC began its ascent. He asked if the
Scaans
had returned
to the
Raptor
and was assured they had. “Open a channel to that bitch’s
ship,” he ordered.

“They are blocking us,” the com officer
replied.

“We’re locked on them, Burgon,” the weapons
officer told him.

“Then blast their reptilian tails out of my
sky!” Bakari hissed.

As soon as the harsh flare lit the vid-com
screen and the percussion wave rocked the
Raptor
, the ex-Burgon watched
until the last flicker of debris was gone. “Are you sure Cean was on board?”

“We’re sure,” Polemusa said.

“Where is the hag’s son?” he asked.

“In a holding cell,” the security chief
replied.

“Is Shanee finished yet?”

“Not yet,” Polemusa answered. “If I know my
daughter, she’ll prolong that bitch’s death for as long as possible and make
her suffer as much as she can.”

“Well,” Bakari said, settling into his chair.
“Let me know when she’s finished and then send the pup to the gym. Give him a
sword. We want to make it a fair fight.”

Polemusa snorted. Like everyone else on the
bridge, she knew there would never be a fair fight between a Fleet Command
ensign and a full-fledged scythelord, but it didn’t matter. Felix Harmattan’s
life was forfeit.

* * * * *

Elspeth fought tooth and nail but nothing
she did seemed to faze the Amazeen. Wounds closed automatically and the younger
woman inflicted just as much damage as her opponent but it took the older woman
longer to heal.

“You hurt him,” Shanee said, crouched over
and circling her enemy. “You caused him so much pain all his life.”

“I never wanted him,” Elspeth said. “Any of
them.” She feigned grabbing Shanee’s leg then skipped away, out of reach as the
Amazeen reached for her.

“You signed his death warrant,” Shanee
accused, a muscle grinding in her jaw.

“Not once but twice,” Elspeth agreed with a
grin. “And I agreed to have him tortured by Cean and her scientists.”

Shanee knew the other woman was attempting
to make her lose her concentration, to make her angry and thus allow her
control to slip.

“Didn’t work either time,” Shanee said with
a snort. “He’s stronger than you could ever have imagined.”

“Oh he’s dead by now,” Elspeth declared.
“Felix would have seen to that.”

“No way, old woman,” Shanee said. “He’s got
a new queen.”

Elspeth faltered. “That’s a lie!”

Shanee didn’t know how she knew what was
happening to her husband but she suspected it was because the fledgling queen
growing inside her had come from Leveche’s queen and they were communicating in
some fashion. She also knew Leveche would do whatever was needed to save
Ailyn’s life.

“He and I will be around when you are ashes
floating in the wind,” Shanee said.

With a furious snarl, Elspeth flung herself
at Shanee, changing in mid-leap to her lupine form. She never heard the laugh
that erupted from the Amazeen’s throat as Shanee threw her arms around the
furry form and clasped it to her in a savage bear hug.

Jaws snapping, fangs dripping, enraged
howls and snarls issuing from her throat, Elspeth struggled to pierce her claws
as forcefully as she could into Shanee’s shoulders. Her back legs raked at the
younger woman’s thighs—drawing blood and shredding flesh—but still the deadly
embrace kept Elspeth imprisoned. Her head was turned to the side and held taut
against the Amazeen’s chest, Shanee’s arms crossed behind the older woman, her
hands on Elspeth’s neck so she could not snare Shanee with her fangs.

Shanee tightened her grip on the furry
neck. She wanted to snap the wolf’s neck and knew she could.
“Wait,”
came
the silent command from her hellion.

Elspeth realized her strength was waning
and she changed back to her human form, but the change wasn’t as quick as it
should have been. She was still trapped in Shanee’s arms with her neck in a
lethal grip.

“Wait.”

Shanee unlocked her arms and stepped back.
She hurt in twenty places where claws had poked into her flesh but that didn’t
matter. The wounds were healing quickly and the older woman in front of her was
breathing heavily, panting, staggering backward.

“Ailyn and I will be around when you are
ashes floating in the wind,” Shanee said again.

Elspeth leapt at her only to find her neck
gripped fiercely between the younger woman’s hands. She raked her nails along
the black silk clad arms of the female Reaper, tried kicking out at her, but
the grip on her neck tightened until she saw stars. She gagged, her queen
buckled beneath the skin of her back to cause hideous pain that weakened her
further.

“Now.”

With a twist of her hands, Shanee broke
Elspeth’s neck then stepped back to allow the body to fall. She drew her
phospho gun and not even bothering with anything else, hit the direct discharge
button, and simply turned the old woman into so much black dust. Though she was
watching closer, the queen never tried to escape. It too was reduced to soot.

* * * * *

Leveche was in agony as his queen was
pulled from his back and he lay there with his hands curled around the sides of
the gurney. He was dragging in heated breaths as he watched the healer drop the
queen into a large beaker then hurry to Ailyn to open the incision on the
younger Reaper’s back.

“Hurry,” Leveche warned. He could feel the
life force leaving Ailyn.

Incision made, the healer staggered back
from the horrid stench that erupted from Ailyn’s body along with a copious
amount of a putrid green jell-like substance.

“Get it out of him,” Leveche said. His own
strength was waning and he knew unconsciousness was but a heartbeat away as his
nest took over closing his wound and electing a new hellion to control him.

Scooping out the foul matter, suctioning
the rest, the healer made quick work of cleaning the fetid debris from Ailyn’s
back. As soon as he was sure he had almost all of it, he dropped Leveche’s
queen onto the young man’s back.

At first the queen balked—sensing the
putrid death of one of Her kind. She sniffed at the wound, reared up like a
cobra for a moment, hovering there with Her head bobbing back and forth.

“Save him.”

The queen snapped Her triangular head
around and stared at the woman who had come into the room.

“Please,” Shanee asked. “He is one of
Yours.”

Moving so fast no one saw it happened, the
hellion wedged Herself into the wound and disappeared. The flesh of Ailyn’s
back buckled in several places then subsided, accompanied by his low groan.
Almost instantly, the incision closed up and sealed Her inside the Reaper.

Shanee glanced over at Leveche and could
tell he was out of it. His eyes were closed and one arm was hanging limply off
the edge of the gurney on which he was lying. She walked over to him and gently
picked his arm up to place it beside his head.

“Are you all right?” Quinn asked, coming to
her side to put an arm around her shoulders. He had seemingly dropped down out
of the thin air. He looked down at her uniform that was ripped in places and
was dark with expended blood.

“I will be,” she said.

He hugged her to him. “Did I tell you the
Elfinish is expecting?” he asked.

She nodded wearily, her head sagging to her
chest.

“Did I also tell you Munchkin wishes for
you to be the Keeper of the Offspring?”

Shanee lifted her head. “Are you just
saying that, Phantom?” she asked.

“No,” Quinn replied. “She and Dasher made
the decision together. They feel you will make a good servant to the young
one.”

Giddy elation filled Shanee’s weary body
and she hugged Quinn back. “I am honored,” she said. “I am so honored.”

“Well, better you be the young one’s
servant than Kenni and me,” he grumbled. “One Elfinish is one too many in my
household sometimes.”

“Boy or girl?” Bakari inquired as he joined
them.

“Munch says it will be a girl,” Quinn
replied.

“A female,” Shanee breathed. “Oh by the
gods, I am doubly blessed.”

“Blessed by what?” Polemusa asked. She was
never too far from the ex-Burgon’s side.

“Quinn’s Elfinish is pregnant and she is
gracing me with her offspring,” Shanee said. “A female!”

“Oh my,” Polemusa said. “That is indeed a
blessing.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Quinn growled. “Whatta
blessing.”

“A name!” Polemusa said. “You must pick an
appropriate name for a Worldly One.”

“Gabrielle.”

Everyone turned to find Ailyn’s eyes open.
His voice had been weak when he spoke. “She’ll be Gabrielle,” he repeated,
smiled tiredly and then fell into a painless, healing sleep.

Shanee leaned over him and smoothed his
tousled hair back from his forehead. “His body temperature is lower.”

“We have Gabe to thank for that,” Bakari
stated.

“Gabrielle,” Polemusa said. “Aye, and it is
appropriate, I believe.”

“He’s going to be fine,” the healer told
Shanee as he looked up at the diagnostic panel. “His breathing is much easier
and his heartbeat is stronger. The proof he is on the road to good health will
come when he begins to urinate.”

“We came to tell you that your mother will
be leaving us on Breva’s ship,” Bakari said. “And I’ve a small matter to take
care of in a few minutes.”

“Why are you leaving, Mother?” Shanee
asked. “I was hoping you would stay to help me care for Ailyn.”

Polemusa lifted her chin. “It was reported
to us that the identity of the second person who contracted for your death has
been discovered,” she said. “I will be making a visit to that person.”

“That’s my right,” Shanee said.

“No,” her mother disagreed. “It is mine.
The culprit is your Aunt Molpadia. I will call her out and we will end this
feud between us. The Council of Elders will be shocked to learn what their
domestic queen is capable of doing and will want to execute her but that is my
right. She will die at my hand and no other’s.”

“But why?” Shanee asked. “Why would she
want me dead?”

“To hurt me,” Polemusa answered. “It is my
belief that during my grieving period, she would have struck to eliminate me.
Alone, weaponless on the Plains of Memory, I would have been defenseless
against her were she to come with
Dóigra
in hand. There is no honor in
my sister and she brings disgrace to the Iphito name.”

Shanee saw Bakari leaving. “You have my
gratitude, Burgon,” she said.

He waved a hand but did not turn around. He
was anxious to remove the last obstacle to Ailyn Harmattan’s future happiness.

“I’ll be leaving with Breva too,” Quinn
told Shanee. “If you ever need me, you know where I am.”