down. Hib & Nib & Pib dropped prostrate too, pressing their faces tight against the chipped-wood rug. For a second I was standing high above their heads…and I could feel an unfamiliar expression twisting up my face. I didn’t know how it looked, but it scared me. Something out of nowhere was making me act like a stranger.
I pushed and pushed, trying to shift my face, my arms, anything. Suddenly, everything holding me back let go and I was in control again, able to move my body however I wanted. I dropped to my knees and nearly blurted out, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… but I stopped myself in time. Warriors are quick to recognize signs of weakness; if I started apologizing, we might head back where we started, Zeeleepull going berserk and no way to avoid an all-out bonecrushing.
“Um, rise,” I said. Which didn’t sound very regal. I tried to remember how Queen Verity talked to her subjects when she held court. “Rise,” I said again with my deepest, most gracious voice. “Rise and let us converse.”
Counselor was the first to perk up. She’d only caught a slight whiff of the venom…not like Zeeleepull, who’d practically had his nose rubbed in it while I held his snout to my face. No wonder he was slow getting up off the floor. The workers, of course, were busy being cowed—opening one eyelid for a quick peek at me, then closing the eye fast if they saw I was looking their way. You can never tell with workers whether they’re really as intimidated as they seem, or if they’re just putting on a show of being menial. Maybe the workers don’t know either.
“Were you really the high queen’s blood-consort?” Counselor asked in a hushed voice.
“Yes. I really was.” For eight whole years, till Verity got killed and the war began…but I didn’t say that. I also didn’t mention she’d had six other consorts at the same time…”
“What are you doing here?” Counselor asked.
“I told you: my escape pod landed in your canal.”
“So you didn’t…seek us out?”
Counselor suddenly had a hopeful look on her face, enough to break my heart. I could imagine the kids on Celestia, cut off from their home for twenty years and looking to the sky every night, wondering if anyone would ever come to tell them, “We love you and want you back.” They’d have a terrible time if they actually did go back to Troyen—with their gutter-baby accents and their attachment to dreadful fake antiques—but they didn’t know they’d be out of place.
As out of place as they were now.
“Things are still bad back home,” I said. “When I left a week and a half ago, the war was as fierce as ever.” Not that I paid much attention to the fighting…but the other observers on the moonbase would have told me if the war had ended.
“Yet you recently had contact with…a royal person,” Counselor said. “The smell on your face is fresh.”
“Yes,” I nodded, “but that queen is dead now.” When I realized how bad that sounded, I quickly added, “Someone else killed her. It’s really complicated. A ship was trying to bring her here, but things went wrong.”
“So you’ve come in her stead?” Counselor asked, all shining eager. “To save us from the recruiters?”
“Um. Hmm.”
Counselor sounded so beamingly hopeful, I didn’t want to ask, “What recruiters?” That would dash her down hard, like I’d come all this way, then didn’t know the first thing about her troubles. From the sound of her voice, I could tell she wanted me to be a great savior, fallen out of the sky to rescue her hive from danger. So I didn’t open my mouth till I’d picked my words carefully. “Talk to me about these recruiters,” I said. ‘Tell me everything.”
And she did.
Counselor started with something I already knew: despite all those human settlers twenty years ago, Celestia still didn’t belong to the Technocracy. Then she told me a secret: over the past two decades, Celestia had become one of the
I pushed and pushed, trying to shift my face, my arms, anything. Suddenly, everything holding me back let go and I was in control again, able to move my body however I wanted. I dropped to my knees and nearly blurted out, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… but I stopped myself in time. Warriors are quick to recognize signs of weakness; if I started apologizing, we might head back where we started, Zeeleepull going berserk and no way to avoid an all-out bonecrushing.
“Um, rise,” I said. Which didn’t sound very regal. I tried to remember how Queen Verity talked to her subjects when she held court. “Rise,” I said again with my deepest, most gracious voice. “Rise and let us converse.”
Counselor was the first to perk up. She’d only caught a slight whiff of the venom…not like Zeeleepull, who’d practically had his nose rubbed in it while I held his snout to my face. No wonder he was slow getting up off the floor. The workers, of course, were busy being cowed—opening one eyelid for a quick peek at me, then closing the eye fast if they saw I was looking their way. You can never tell with workers whether they’re really as intimidated as they seem, or if they’re just putting on a show of being menial. Maybe the workers don’t know either.
“Were you really the high queen’s blood-consort?” Counselor asked in a hushed voice.
“Yes. I really was.” For eight whole years, till Verity got killed and the war began…but I didn’t say that. I also didn’t mention she’d had six other consorts at the same time…”
“What are you doing here?” Counselor asked.
“I told you: my escape pod landed in your canal.”
“So you didn’t…seek us out?”
Counselor suddenly had a hopeful look on her face, enough to break my heart. I could imagine the kids on Celestia, cut off from their home for twenty years and looking to the sky every night, wondering if anyone would ever come to tell them, “We love you and want you back.” They’d have a terrible time if they actually did go back to Troyen—with their gutter-baby accents and their attachment to dreadful fake antiques—but they didn’t know they’d be out of place.
As out of place as they were now.
“Things are still bad back home,” I said. “When I left a week and a half ago, the war was as fierce as ever.” Not that I paid much attention to the fighting…but the other observers on the moonbase would have told me if the war had ended.
“Yet you recently had contact with…a royal person,” Counselor said. “The smell on your face is fresh.”
“Yes,” I nodded, “but that queen is dead now.” When I realized how bad that sounded, I quickly added, “Someone else killed her. It’s really complicated. A ship was trying to bring her here, but things went wrong.”
“So you’ve come in her stead?” Counselor asked, all shining eager. “To save us from the recruiters?”
“Um. Hmm.”
Counselor sounded so beamingly hopeful, I didn’t want to ask, “What recruiters?” That would dash her down hard, like I’d come all this way, then didn’t know the first thing about her troubles. From the sound of her voice, I could tell she wanted me to be a great savior, fallen out of the sky to rescue her hive from danger. So I didn’t open my mouth till I’d picked my words carefully. “Talk to me about these recruiters,” I said. ‘Tell me everything.”
And she did.
Counselor started with something I already knew: despite all those human settlers twenty years ago, Celestia still didn’t belong to the Technocracy. Then she told me a secret: over the past two decades, Celestia had become one of the
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