The Hive Queen by Robin Kirk

Author:Robin Kirk [Robin Kirk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robin Kirk
Published: 2022-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

18

Babe

Decan brings Thorn to the wagon. My brother’s white hair hangs in rolls thick as fingers to the small of his back. His hands are tightly bound.

“Free my brother,” I tell Decan. I recognize this type of male: he needs to be commanded.

But Thorn isn’t so easily led. Once his hands are free, he turns his back on me to return to our brothers. I see where the speluk handler’s whip sliced his tunic and the skin beneath with his whip.

I don’t have time to explain. I run in front of him and force him to stop. “If we cure their leader, we can save our brothers, all of them. I need your help, dear brother. Listen to me.” Listen to me.

I’d rather listen to one of those speluk creatures. You left us. You left us for…

He’s too furious to speak. He hasn’t learned the shape I made for Odide’s name, so he makes a horizontal V over his eyes. Creature. The word Odide hated. That creature, he repeats.

I fell under her power, yes. She conjured me. I admit it. I failed my brothers. But I escaped, I tracked you. I shape my hands into the word trust, palms crossed at the base of the neck. Now, I will save your lives. You must trust me.

My brother claps his hands sharply: Stop. He won’t meet my eyes. Beside that man, you rode a fine horse, the man who killed Tanoak and with his own hands carved off his hair. Then he fed him to… those creatures.

To him, Odide and the speluks are the same: creatures. When we fought the Legion, we saw warriors die, some because of battle dogs. But the dogs never conjured us. They didn’t eat the dead.

I had to. There was no other way.

Better that murderer die in pain and fear, Thorn says viciously. Like my brother. He snaps his fingers before and after the shape word, putting the emphasis on my, as if Tanoak were his alone. My (snap) brother (snap).

If Cranox dies, so will you. And so will Willow and Fig and all of the rest of our brothers, I say, echoing his snaps with my own. You’ll never betray them, as I did. I know this. You are a better brother. I am the betrayer. But have the sense to help me save them now.

From Cranox’s wagon wafts a putrid smell. Thorn knows the smell better than me: the smell of dying. Thorn’s eyes find mine as he matches the sound to what I’ve been telling him. They’ll let us go if I save him?

“They’ll spare us. But if he dies…” The Hundred-Hundred will demand someone, anyone, to punish. We will be first to make a meal for the speluks.

Thorn’s lips press together. I need my kit.

Miraculously, Decan stored Thorn’s kit in the cook wagon. Decan brings it, then tries to climb into the wagon behind Thorn.

I bar the way. “My brother needs space. Quiet. Bring us clean water and rags. Make sure no one disturbs us.

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