A Tiara of Emerald Thorns

by R Cavanaugh

  “Perhaps,” Igneous said, “but how would she know that Jonathan would be better to serve than me on her first day here?”

  He continued to look in her eyes. He could tell that she was starting to get nervous now. It was as if she knew what her mistake had been even before he said it.

  “You weren’t even here long enough to hear the rumors and gossip about me or my brother.” He paused once more to take a few steps closer to her and stare into those brown eyes now streaked with terror. “So the question became, what kind of spy were you? And while all I had were suspicions, I knew I was right.”

  He was once again standing inches away from her and held her gaze unwaveringly.

  “I was paying very close attention to you, sweetheart, and just waiting for you to mess up.”

  He turned his back to her and returned to facing the glass and listened to the mounting silence behind him. The tension, he could tell, was growing, along with the suspense.

  “You were careful though,” he said thoughtfully and looked through the glass at the enclosure.

  “I couldn’t even begin to find a way of catching you.” Here he paused, and his smile reflected in the glass; he continued, “Until today. Just think, you almost informed on me and got away with it.”

  He turned and faced the now-white form that was Rachel MacNeil. She clearly knew that something awful was coming her way.

  “Almost,” he said again, and he turned back toward the glass. While staring through the glass, he fingered for Exotius to move near the door to the enclosure.

  She began to fight once more, but Exotius was going to have none of it. He had taken care of her worthless brother and had no quarrels with taking care of her. He reached the door and was about to open it when Igneous held up a hand and shook his head.

  “Not yet.”

  “Oh, changing your mind, are you?” Rachel said coldly.

  He couldn’t help but smile and give her credit for being as she was with him. Not many men would be this way with him, let alone a woman.

  “Rachel,” he said and watched as the trees just in range of the glass shook very slightly, “tell me. What do you know about trasicores?”

  “Not much…what does it matter?”

  “Well, I’ve spent many years studying them. Learning what they like and don’t like as far as habitat. How big the males will get compared to the females.” He paused and looked at her, “What they prefer for food and at what times of day.”

  His eyes narrowed as he stared through the glass and smiled as he saw the trees shake a second time.

  “I’ve even learned the answers to the age-old questions and superstitions passed down to us as a people.”

  “Yay, and what are those?” she said snobbishly.

  “I’ve learned that females must mate with a human male in order to produce a fertile egg. That no other animal can be used as a substitute.”

  Pausing, he turned away from the glass and started toward her while pulling out his dagger once more. With a swift movement that would be missed if one had blinked, he made a thin cut the length of her tattoo. He squeezed her arm and watched as it began to bleed.

  “I have learned that the females will be more likely to attack a human female than a male, and vice versa.” He watched her and could see his inference of what was to come start to take effect. She knew what was coming.

  “Do you know much about Earth’s black widow spider?”

  “Say what?” She looked at him as if he were nuts.

  “Earth has a spider called the black widow, and it is quite deadly,” he said as he walked slowly back to his position by the glass. “The female has a tendency to eat her mate after performing a reproductive action.”

  He saw Rachel out of the corner of his eye and could tell that she was revolted. But it wasn’t just her. Most of the men behind him didn’t find the concept too appealing either.

  “Like the spider,” Igneous continued, unfazed by the concept they were discussing, “I’ve observed that females will more likely than not eat their partner after mating, but that males have a tendency to keep their human host for future use.”

  Here again he looked at the woman Exotius was preparing to throw into the enclosure to allow her to learn firsthand about the creatures they were discussing.

  “That is, unless they were a complete failure as a host or if the creature gets really hungry.”

  He walked over to her for what he expected to be the last time and stood before her.

  “I would have warned you not to go up against me,” he said, looking into her eyes and smiling, “but I would think that a warning wouldn’t be necessary.”

  Still smiling, he patted her cheek before finding his place before the glass for the last time. He saw what he had been waiting for. A ten-foot male trasicore walked into view and spied the egg. Quickly it scooped it up with its tongue and hid it away on the inside in what Igneous could only assume was a special pocket somewhere in its tongue.

  Turning his head, he nodded at Exotius, who in turn nodded at the two guards posted near the door. The guards opened the door, and Exotius pushed Rachel in. Another guard who had found her cat, Damien, sent it in after her. Then they locked the door. Rachel must have ordered her cat to get out of the way of the creature, because those watching couldn’t see him.

  “As you can see, males have a sense of smell that is far better than that of the females.” He was saying this all while the trasicore wrapped a tentacle around Rachel’s left leg and pulled her near him.

  They all watched as its tongue wrapped around her waist and went up her skirt. With them all standing behind him, it was almost like Igneous was giving a lesson to a group of individuals that had come from far and wide to hear it.

  “Males insert the egg inside the woman very carefully with their tongues and will make sure that they are properly placed.”

  Unlike the female trasicore, the male that was holding the woman in front of it had turned away from the viewing area halfway through the process and now held its back to the group. Igneous felt in some ways that he was being robbed of the sight of seeing her scream her head off.

  The rest of the men in the room shifted uncomfortably, with the exception of Exotius. He, like the king, continued to stare unperturbedly and was unmoved by what was happening.

  “It is at this point that having two sets of armlike appendages comes in handy, because he will use one tentacle to hold the woman and the other to keep the egg in place. This leaves the other two appendages free to catch other food.”

  Igneous paused and waited for the beast to put the woman on its backside and wasn’t disappointed. She was now being held against its back, and he continued his lecture.

  “The tentacle will keep the egg in place for the duration of the incubation process.”

  As they all watched what was happening, he heard one man in the back being sick at the sight of it. They all watched as the creature, with the woman in tow, left the viewable area and disappeared from sight.

  With the show over, Igneous turned around and faced the men in the room.

  “It will take up to fifteen days for the young trasicore to hatch, at which point the male will feel it and pull it out. If the male should wait too long to do so, however, he could kill the female host when pulling it out because the young trasicore will be too large. Once it is out, and should the host survive, the male will stick its tongue down the host’s throat and drain three-quarters of the host’s stomach acid. This is used to feed the young trasicore its first meal. After which the young creature will leave, for fear of being eaten, and will live off of smaller animals until fully grown.”

  Here he watched as the men in the room were speechless. He knew that all the men in the room now knew one of the penalties for treason and would never commit it themselves. Nor would they allow any woman they cared about to c
ommit it either.

  “If the incubation is successful, the trasicore will more likely than not keep the host for the next mating season,” Igneous said and smiled.

  He then turned around and started through the group of men and toward the direction of the staircase. He didn’t even stop until he reached the archway that was at the end of the room. He turned around and motioned for Exotius and his brother to follow him. It took them mere minutes to catch up and wait for him to continue. He looked at the others and simply said,

  “Dismissed.” And he smiled as he passed through the archway and left the room.

  Chapter 26

  The Battle Plan

  Heartington Castle

  Igneous had just left the viewing room of the trasicore breeding center and was walking down the narrow hall that led to the stairway. He took a sharp right and started up the stairs. All the while he was thinking about what he was going to do now that one of his biggest secrets had been discovered.

  Once he had reached the door, he waited as Exotius went over to the doors and placed his sword in a notch right in the middle of the top of the archway. The door opened, and they walked through it and into the stable.

  As the door closed behind them, Igneous had reappeared in the courtyard and was now taking long strides across it, with Exotius and his brother, Jonathan, in tow. Jonathan, needless to say, was angry with him for disposing of his next plaything and, to top it off, was struggling to keep up.

  “Igneous,” he called after him as he was about to reach the door.

  “Igneous, I want to talk to you,” he said with anger lacing his words.

  Stopping just short of the door, he turned quickly, smiled, and said,

  “So talk.”

  “You had no right to dispose of her,” Jonathan said. Daggers filled his eyes, and he was doubtlessly using them to carve Igneous into small pieces. “She was mine, and I was to punish her as I saw fit. Those were the rules that we set long ago.”

  “The rules have changed,” Igneous said shortly, turned, and opened the door in a swift motion. He entered the very hallway that the maid must have traveled just moments before. Striding down it, he took no notice of Jonathan’s repeated efforts to catch him.

  He took a left at the end of the hallway and continued at a breakneck pace until, with a final turn to the right, they were in the entrance hall. That is when Jonathan made a bold move and grabbed Igneous by his upper right arm and turned him around to face him.

  “You can’t just change the rules of the game without consulting the other players,” Jonathan breathed. His nose flared like a dragon’s would before it breathed fire.

  “I didn’t realize that you had decided to play.” Igneous grinned and watched with extreme pleasure as his brother released his arm. He then walked over to the wall with a huge painted depiction of himself and Jonathan.

  “You told me we were equals when this all started.” Jonathan breathed softly, “Well, so far as I can tell, we’re not. We never have been, and I think you believe that you own this world entirely, and that would include me.”

  “Go on,” Igneous said, a dangerous look in his eyes, and his mouth curled slightly.

  “Well you don’t, Igneous, and I’m not going to be ordered around anymore. If you want me to do something, you best ask, because I’m about to walk out that door.” Jonathan’s face was dark and cold. “Don’t forget that when we left Tungsten, we were running from two brothers that would be more than happy to have me tell them where you are.”

  “All of this because of one maid,” Igneous said, walking over to a pillar and placing his hand on it.

  “She was mine!”

  “No!” Igneous shouted back, “She belonged to me. I just let you borrow her for a time. She was my subject!”

  “You had passed her up; therefore she was mine!” Jonathan retorted, his voice rising, “You can’t just change the game when you feel like it!”

  “The game,” Igneous said in his most dangerous voice, “can always change.”

  Jonathan looked as though he was about to retaliate when he saw Exotius shift slightly. He saw his arms uncross, and he now had one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

  “And if you can’t change with it,” Igneous said, casting a short glance at Exotius, “then you may very likely be eliminated from it.”

  “You can threaten me with him all you want,” Jonathan said, the fire still in his eyes, “but I know that the people he pissed off are now on this planet, too, and that if I wanted to, I could find them.”

  “If you know what’s good for you, Jonathan—” Exotius started to threaten Jonathan, but Igneous headed him off.

  “If you know what’s good for you, Exotius,” Igneous said, his voice calm but his eyes blazing, “you will careful about what you say next.”

  Jonathan opened his mouth to say something, but Igneous shot him a dark look, and that left Jonathan silent, and he leaned against the wall, pretending his hands were more interesting. He seemed to have yielded in their fight, but Igneous knew that their fighting with each other was far from over. It seemed that Jonathan had rediscovered his spine.

  “Well, now that all that has been settled,” Igneous said, looking at the two fuming men, “it is time to lay out our plans for retaking this planet from her rabble.”

  With these words Igneous led the men back to his private library. The library was fairly large and had a great window and window seat that spanned the entire length of the room and faced the north. There was also a fairly large table where papers and maps were still lying from their last stint in here.

  He walked over to the table and brushed all but the map of the castle and city aside.

  “Now is the time,” he said, and as he did so, once-invisible markings appeared upon the map’s surface.

  It showed groupings of soldiers that were located at every exit, entrance, and possible weak point of the city, with an army located at the front of the city’s walls. And since he had them available, there were trasicores that where placed at the front gates.

  “This is your plan, sire?” Exotius said, placing his hand on the edge of the map, and his eyes were filled with an inhuman hunger.

  “Yes, but that is not the half of it.” He smiled, “You will be leading the battle yourself this time.”

  He waved his hand across the map once more, and it showed the front gates opening and men that had once been hidden from view emerged and joined the others.

  “You will have an army mightier than our last, and victory will be assured,” Igneous said, his eyes afire. “Destroy all.”

  However, he seemed to pause for a moment, deep in thought. It was as if he was having second thoughts about something.

  “What is it, sire?” Exotius asked. He was following the king’s every movement.

  “Destroy all except the girl,” he whispered, still deep in thought. “She is mine to deal with as I please.”

  “But of course,” Exotius said without a hint of jealousy that many had come to expect from him when it came to a massacre. For Exotius never liked to be denied the pleasure of taking certain things.

  “Go now,” Igneous said, not looking at Exotius but keeping his eyes on the map. One arm was across his chest, his other in an upright position, his hand on his chin. “Ready your army and set this plan into action.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  With that Exotius left the room, only to have his presence replaced by Constance, who had meandered into the room and was now standing beside Jonathan.

  “So, oh Wise One,” Jonathan said coldly, “what are your plans for me?”

  Constance flicked her tail and held her amber eyes upon his form.

  “You will remain here with me,” Igneous said without a question in his voice or removing his gaze from the map.

  “Why? Are you afr
aid I might switch sides mid-fight?” Jonathan said, an evil grin spreading across his face. It seemed to even reflect that they were related in some way.

  “No,” Igneous said, looking up from the map and into his brother’s eyes. Then he walked past Constance and over to a book shelf, where books not of this world lay unopened for many years.

  “Then why?”

  “Because when it comes to fighting,” Igneous said calmly and turned to look at him, “you are second only to me.”

  Jonathan smiled evilly and leaned against the table, his hands on it.

  “That’s true,” he said arrogantly.

  “That being the case,” Igneous said, now heading to the door, “why would I want you anywhere else?”

  And with these words he left the room, leaving Jonathan alone with Constance.

  “So the man wants me to help defeat the enemy standing beside him,” Jonathan said, his arms crossed across his chest. He looked down at Constance and snorted.

  “Well, he is like that,” she said, flicking her tail again. “He only notices your inner talents when it is most convenient for him.”

  “This isn’t our world to keep, is it?”

  “No,” she whispered, “I don’t think it is.”

  “We will end up going back, won’t we?”

  “You might.” She paused and nodded toward the door that Igneous had just left through. “But I suspect he has only one more race to run, and he will be finished.”

  “What of Exotius?”

  “What of him?”

  “Do you think he will survive this coming fight?”

  Here Jonathan stood up, walked over to the same shelf his brother had, and picked up a book from that very shelf.

  “One can only hope that those two will get Exotius if we are to succeed in our next move.”

  “Do you think that those two want him badly enough to go after him and blow their cover?” Jonathan asked, looking up from the book and at her.

  “They might.”

  “The question is,” Jonathan paused and looked at Constance with inquiring eyes. “Will the brothers take us back?”