Queen of Mars - Book III in the Masters of Mars Trilogy (22 page)

There were two wagons returned, and one
missing. The toll taker in the mall, who kept track of everything,
reported that there had been three wagons in all. After examining
the two remaining wagons, which contained surveying equipment and
engineering supplies, he looked at his manifest and said, “The
missing wagon was filled with explosives. They were heading out to
the Planitia Oxygenation Station, in advance of a Science Guild
team.”

I needed to hear no more.

“B
ut you can’t go
alone, Clara!” my mother begged. She had regained some of her
color, though she was still very weak. “Wait for Darwin at
least!”

Hector, who had taken to my mother after her
condition improved, sat on her bed and made contented noises as my
mother stroked his head.

“If Darwin comes back, tell him where I went.
He’ll know what to do.”

“But daughter!” She began to weep and
tremble, and I went to her and sat on the bed next to the dog and
held her. No longer was she an automaton, staring into space. She
was my mother again.

“I have no choice,” I soothed. “Anna will
take care of you, and you have Hector to keep you company. When I
come back, Darwin and I will take you to Bradbury. You’ll never be
in danger again, I promise.”

“But I don’t want to lose you! I couldn’t
bear it...”

Her weeping turned to gentle snores, as in
her weakened condition she still mostly slept. I lay her back
against her pillows and rose, checking my weapons and hefting my
saddle bag onto my shoulder. A good strong horse waited for me
below on the street.

I patted Hector and said, “Take care of
her.”

I looked down at my mother and smiled.

“I have no choice,” I whispered to her
sleeping form. “If I don’t stop Frane, she will kill everyone on
Mars.”

M
y horse proved
sturdy and able. Soon we had left the dust bowl of Opportunity
behind and climbed a series of hills into blessed fresh air. It was
a relief to breathe freely again. Even my mount noticed this
change, and snorted with pleasure.

The highlands before me were nearly
featureless, scant grasslands pocked with sand oasis and dunes. It
was a bleak crossing we made. That night the stars rose in a black
velvet sky, and I was glad for their company. I thought of
Copernicus and also of my husband, and wished them well.

The next day was much like the first. I
passed the town of Spirit, skirting south of it, and it did indeed
look as bleak as Anna had described. But on the morning of my third
day something began to grow on the horizon that broke the static
landscape. It was a jagged line that only grew above the horizon as
I traveled toward it, and by noon I was sure that it was the Old
Ruins, the oxygenation station.

I knew I would not make it by nightfall, so I
made camp as the sun set. I resolved to set off at dawn, but the
buildings were beset by weird flickering lights and far off, faint
noises, and something deep within me told me not to wait. With only
the stars and the quick-passing moon Phobos to accompany me I rode
towards my destination. The silhouette of the buildings was huge
before me, and a mile out I tied my horse and patted his flanks and
made off on foot.

The gates here were as rusted and unused as
the station I had visited. But this was on a monstrous scale. The
main building loomed before me like a behemoth, and when I entered
the yawning opening of its portal I felt as if I had been eaten.
The flickering lights were gone, and I was assaulted by darkness
within. Each footfall made an echo that might as well have been a
thunderclap. If Frane was here she was aware of my entry.

I passed an empty wagon, and two dead
soldiers without a visible mark on their bodies.

And then I saw Frane. High up on a catwalk
she perched like a vulture, staring balefully down at me. A bolt of
fear went through me. She had dyed her face and limbs deep crimson,
and looked like a demon from the depths of the underworld. Sudden
light flared, and she smiled viciously.

A gust of wind flew off the desert and the
huge doors behind me swung closed with a huge clang.

“It ends here, Frane,” I shouted, my words
echoing in the huge empty space.

“Indeed,” she said. “It ends for all of us,
Queen.” She spit the last word down at me with such spite that I
winced.

I edged my way toward the ladder leading to
the catwalk, and she followed me eagerly with her eyes.

She drew something from her tunic and threw
it down at me. I jumped back but when it struck the floor nothing
happened. I saw that it was a timepiece.

“Look at it,” Frane ordered.

With the toe of my boot I turned the face of
the miniature clock toward me.

“When the hands meet, this place, and
eventually Mars, will be no more.”

In less than ten minutes time these things
would happen.

I kicked the timepiece aside and began to
climb the ladder leading up to her. Already she was drawing her
sword from its scabbard.

When I reached the top she was waiting for me
twenty feet away.

“It will give me great pleasure to kill you
before we all die,” she said.

I drew my own blade and advanced on her.

“Prepare to die, Queen,” she said. “Just as
Haydn and Sebastian before you died.”

“Where have you put the charges, Frane?” I
asked.

She smiled madly. “Your king is minding them,
of course!”

She extended her tongue and licked at a spot
around her lips, removing a spot of the red color. Then she drew
her tongue over her crimson forearm, making a streak. “This is pure
mocra,” she said, licking again. “It is all I have left, but it
will be enough.”

“What do you mean, my king–“

She cackled, a strangled sound, and indicated
a spot below and to her right with the tip of her sword. I looked
down to see my husband, bound and gagged, staring up at me,
surrounded by the explosives she had taken from the caravan.

“Darwin!” I shouted, but at that moment
Frane, shrieking “Die!” attacked me, slashing her sword down in a
vicious arc. I blocked her, and she drove at me again and again,
pushing me along the catwalk which now swayed with our efforts.

She was insanely strong, and I felt myself
losing to her. I was forced back, until she had me against a
stanchion, and then crouching with it at my back. She rained blow
after blow which I was barely able to parry. The fire in her eyes
was madness itself.

“Die! Die!” she screamed, driving me down to
the floor of the catwalk.

With a last gasping effort I thrust my blade
up at her, and somehow found her breast.

Reeling backwards, she screamed in pain.

Fighting for breath, I pushed myself up and
advanced.

A blot of blood appeared on her red tunic,
and she looked down at it in wonder.

“The kit has claws,” she said.

She leaped at me, finding strength, and we
battled once more.

Again she drove me back, but this time I gave
as well as I received, and drove her back.

Once more I cut her, below her arm.

Her crimson features blossomed in rage, and
she brought her blade down, driving me once again to the floor of
the catwalk, which swayed like a kit’s swing.

She stumbled for a fraction of a second, and
with all of my strength I drove my blade up into her breast,
deeper.

She gasped and dropped her sword, which slid
from the catwalk and fell, rattling on the floor below us.

She staggered back, clutching at her breast,
and I followed her, jabbing again and again, finding flesh.

She dropped to the floor of the catwalk, and
lay back, gasping.

“Come close,” she begged, her voice a dying
rasp.

When I took a step toward her she drew a
dagger and sought to cut me with it, howling.

I moved aside, avoiding the thrust.

Then, suddenly, she dropped the blade and lay
back, gasping.

I thrust my sword four times into her horrid,
twitching body.

“This is for my grandmother, Haydn of Mars!
And this for my father, and this for my mother! And this is for
Mars, who you would have destroyed!”

Finally her eyes clouded and then went blank,
and she laid still and dead.

Mars, the universe, and my life were free of
her.

Quickly, I climbed down the catwalk. The
timepiece indicated there were two minutes to spare. I went to my
husband, cutting him free, and between us we disarmed the
explosives.

And then, panting, barely able to catch my
breath, I sat down and wept. I wept copiously for all the felines
who had died at the hands of the butcher Frane. I wept for my
father and grandmother. I wept for all the wars and the years of
hardship and pain my planet had endured.

My husband came, and held me.

“It’s over,” he said, soothing. “After all
these years, it’s all over.”

And then, finally, I wept in joy for
Mars.

A
ll of Mars
celebrated.

When we returned to Bradbury, it was in
triumph. My mother, well now and attended to by her new lady in
waiting Anna, was a new woman, and treated with the respect due
her. Darwin and I were paraded like celebrities, to the point where
I withdrew out of embarrassment. And still we had to appear at our
window twice a day to greet the throngs who continued to come to
the temporary capital, for if we did not, we were told, there was
danger that the crowds would tear the building down in their
joy.

Newton, with Copernicus at his side, was not
without a permanent smile on his face these days. He went on
endlessly about the things he had already learned from Stella, and
the things to come. He had already announced his retirement from
the Science Guild, putting Copernicus in his place, so that he
could devote his remaining years to the new knowledge from the Old
Ones.

And Wells would be rebuilt, on the ruins of
the old city. It would be an even grander capital than it had been,
with a new Hall of Assembly and a new palace.

“It’s just as well,” I told Darwin, during
one of our infrequent quiet moments together, “because we’ll need
all the space we can get.”

“What do you mean?” he said, charmingly dense
to my meaning.

I patted my not yet swelling belly.

“You’re with kit?” he shouted, a smile
splitting his face.

I nodded. “Just.” And then I laughed as he
threw himself around the room, cartwheeling and whooping for joy,
like a kit himself.

And all was happiness, until, a few
days later, I learned of his plans.

“W
hat is this
foolishness?” I screamed, storming into a meeting of Newton,
Copernicus and Darwin. They looked up from their table as if they
had been caught stealing.

“Your majesty—” Copernicus began meekly, but
I silenced him with a glare, which I then turned on my husband.

“When were you going to tell me of this?” I
demanded.

“Soon...” he said meekly.

I turned my ire on Newton. “And you condoned
this?”

“It was my idea, actually,” he said evenly. A
ghost of a smile played over his lips.

“I forbid it!” I screamed, and stormed
out.

D
arwin waited an
appropriate number of minutes, then came into my chamber and stood
before me.

“We’re going,” he said simply.

Newton was at the door, still smiling.
“There’s no real danger involved, your majesty,” he said. “Stella
has been in touch with Earth directly. There aren’t many left on
Earth, most of them left long ago for the stars, and it would be a
shame not to take the opportunity. They are fascinated by what has
happened here, and extended the invitation. The space ship is well
equipped and the trip will only take a matter of months.”

“We have to do it,” Darwin said.

“Let someone else go!”

“Clara,” he said, taking my paw, “I would
regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t go.”

“Copernicus and Darwin will be safe,” Newton
said. “I would go myself but I want to devote my remaining time to
Stella and her wonders.”

“If that’s the way things are,” I said,
conceding, “I have only one condition.”

I
t was the most
beautiful day I could ever recall, with Sol a perfect gold coin in
a crystal clear, bright sky. Which was odd, because our destination
was in darkness, visible now only from the other side of the
planet, hanging like a blue jewel in perpetual night.

Newton was already gone, back to Stella at
the North Pole, with whom he had formed an attachment that was at
least affection and seemed even more. He had already assured us
that by the time we returned the new city of Wells would be nearly
finished. In the meantime, Bradbury would continue as the temporary
capital, with my mother as Chancellor. She would have the
assistance of fat Warton as Protector of the Government, under my
appointment. He had proved so able as War Minister that it seemed a
shame to not put his talents to work elsewhere. He would be a good
Protector, and had the vote of the Senate and Assembly behind
him.

Mars was at peace, the first it had known in
generations, and the people had settled into it with relish.
Whatever dregs Frane had commanded had melted into the hills and
tunnels, never to be seen again. Without the head, the body of the
snake quickly died.

The gypsies, under their leader Miklos, who
would also accompany us, had been, by fiat, granted clan status. No
longer would they walk in the shadows of Mars. This made Miklos
quite nervous, of course, which was delightful to see. But not too
nervous, after the ceremonial tapping with swords, to lift Darwin
up by the scruff of the neck and pronounce, “Little fish! I am one
of you now!”