This surprised me. I knew how bad it had felt to lose Ray. I didn’t want anyone else to suffer that. Now, her loyalty had probably saved my life and the lives of my friends. I could never have known how far the consequences of that one choice would go.
“But what is a swab?” I asked.
Iva touched my shoulder softly. “It’s the Origin word for ‘queen.’ It’s not something you can become, only something that you are. When the scientists discovered you were a Bearer, they also feared you were something more. Your eyes also gave it away.”
“My eyes?”
“Yes,” she pointed at them. “You have only two irises. Emerald and you are the only two I’ve ever seen to have that. And your thoughts,” she tapped my temples, “were another sign.”
“What about my thoughts?”
“Have you ever wondered why you can’t hide them from others?”
“All the time. It’s so annoying.”
Iva laughed. “It’s actually not such a curse. Swabs have a greater effect upon the connection. They must if they are to rule over other scarb. It’s how you can command armies and address all of your subjects at once. You emit a stronger frequency than any other scarb.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be bad, too? Couldn’t other queens hear my thoughts?”
She shook her head. “No. That’s one of the greatest strengths of being a swab. Only your loyal subjects will be able to hear your thoughts openly. You will have to focus your thoughts at another queen if you want to speak with her specifically. That’s what Emerald had to do with you.” She motioned to the place outside my cell where the scene had played out.
I shifted my legs under me. “I still don’t see why it’s so great for everyone to be able to hear what I’m thinking.”
“I understand it can seem like an invasion of your privacy, but it’s actually a great gift to your loyal scarb. It keeps complete candidness between you and them. There is no secret you can keep from them. They will know your every thought, every desire of your heart. This is how scarb can choose to give their allegiance to a queen. Swab might be able to deceive each other, but they can never deceive their subjects. It’s kind of like a system of checks and balances to even out the power between swab and other scarb.”
It was making better sense to me now. At least I understood why I couldn’t keep my thoughts from others. I was still a freak, but not purely stupid.
This made me think of something else. “But Saki and Jack could hear my thoughts, and they’re not here now. They’re not loyal to me.”
“All scarb will be able to hear both yours and Emerald’s thoughts while you reside in the same colony. That’s how they will choose to pledge fealty to you or her.”
I still didn’t like the idea of everyone hearing my thoughts, but I understood why this would benefit the scarb. How much better would politicians be able to lead if everyone heard their real thoughts, the real intent behind their words? People would be able to choose those with similar motives and desires to theirs. Trust would be absolute. I just hoped that when the time came, more would choose me than Emerald. I couldn’t do this alone. I needed their help. But Emerald had a lot more experience with this, and that worried me.
Iva waited until I had finished thinking it through, then continued. “Emerald may be one of the oldest queens, but she doesn’t have the heart you do. That’s all that will matter.”Her words were full of confidence. “Emerald didn’t want you to know you were a swab. She wanted to force you to be subservient to harness your reproductive powers for her colony, as you are the only swab known to be able to reproduce. But she underestimated you. You proved not to be a weak queen like she had hoped. Now you’ve challenged Emerald as only another queen can. A division has already begun. Only time will prove who the more powerful of you two is.”
I thought about this. “So I have to kill her?”
Iva nodded once. “Yes. A colony can only be loyal to one queen.”
“Do I have to fight her? Can’t I just run away?”
“Not if you want to get your brother back.”
I could see that she was right. Running away wouldn’t get rescue Nathan. “What do we do now?”
Iva dipped her head. “You’re the queen it’s your decision.”
“What would you do, if you were the swab?”
Her face was hard. “I would strike her fast and first, before she has time to gather her forces. She’s expecting a large addition to her army from her sister’s colony in two days. We want to act before they arrive. You’ll find the scarb easier to sway in smaller numbers and in situations where Emerald seems weak. If you can come off the stronger challenger, you’ll win.”
I bit my lip. “Right.”I took a moment to think. “I want to see what everyone else thinks,” I decided. I wasn’t about to be a dictator. I needed help.
“Very well,” Iva said as we stood. “But understand that I know Emerald very well. Her heart is cold and calculating. She won’t wait long to get her revenge on you.”
“How much time do we have?” I asked.
“I would say there’s less than thirty minutes before Emerald has a force together to come down here and destroy us.”
Thirty minutes.
I stepped out of the cell and back into the dungeon’s hallway where the others had waited patiently. All their eyes were on me.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” I started. “Emerald will be upon us shortly. I have to get my brother back. What ideas do you have?”
Bram stepped forward, his large red wings unfurled. “You are nothing but a threat to the queen now. She won’t spare you, regardless of any usefulness she originally saw in you. Nothing’s more dangerous to her than a challenging queen.” He looked around the small, dark dungeon. “There’s only eleven of us. The queen commands several thousand. It won’t be easy to sway them.”
I chewed on my cheek, then answered. “I don’t want to sway the colony. I’m not trying to start a revolution; I don’t even want to be queen. I just want to get my brother back.”
“Bram has a valid point, my queen. The situation is dangerous. Emerald will undoubtedly have taken your brother to her private chambers at the top of the colony, the most heavily guarded place here. You must pass through a maze of twisting tunnels and passageways just to find it. Luckily, you have several here—like me—who know the way. But a handful of us won’t stand a chance against the hordes of loyalists she keeps there. We must increase our numbers if we are to succeed. Gaining the loyalty of the colony is the only way.”
Her words sunk deep into me. I slowly looked at the others, the five scarb guards that had joined me, Iva, Gray, Derrick, Jorge, and Travis. Ten scarb who now looked to me as their queen, whether I liked it or not.
Derrick’s low but gentle voice came into my mind. “It doesn’t matter about you being queen,” he said. “What matters is getting your brother back.”
He was right. There was no other way. “Fine. How do we get more to join us?”
“Loyalty can only be gained or lost in battle,” Iva reminded me. “We need to get out of this dungeon before she pins us down here, or we won’t stand a chance.”
“Where should we go?”
Everyone was quiet a long minute. “We could just march right up to her chambers,” Gray suggested. “See how many you can win for our side.”
Bram shook his head. “The guards there will be her most loyal subjects. It will be hardest to convince them. Not all are like Iva and the others here,” he motioned to the five guards that had committed mutiny. “Most have been brain-washed by Emerald.”
“Any other suggestions, then?” I asked, hoping someone could just give me the answer. No one spoke. The situation seemed impossible. How were we going to turn several thousand scarb against the queen they adored? I had my little handful of followers, sure, but it was insanity to think we could do this alone. Time was running out. I felt each second fleeing hopelessly by. But
then I got an idea. I looked each of my followers in the eye.
“Let’s go to the atrium.” My eyes shot over to Gray. “It’s time to get us some fliers.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Traitor
My little group didn’t question my decision to go to the atrium. “It’s a long way to the top, my queen,” Iva mentioned as she tightened the straps of her boots. “We’ll encounter many scarb still before we reach it. Most won’t be happy about us challenging Emerald. May I suggest I lead the way with Bram, while the others form a circle around you for protection?”
I wasn’t worried about my own protection. All I cared about was getting Nathan back. I’d drag the entire colony by the tendrils if I had to. “Fine,” I said and the scarb formed a tight circle around me immediately. Derrick was at my right. Gray, Travis and Jorge were at my left. Iva took the front with Bram, her red hair gleaming like wet blood in the low light of the lanterns.
“Are you ready, my lady?” she asked, giving her wings a solid flap as if she were already anticipating battle.
Am I really doing the right thing? The strongest and most versatile scarb in the colony were clearly the fliers. If I could win a good number of them, I figured that helped our chances more than anything. But, it was a long way up. I hope I’m not sending us on a suicide mission. “Yes,” I took a deep breath and let resolution settle into my chest. “Let’s do this.”
Iva nodded and disappeared into the blackness of the passageway before us. Derrick grabbed one of the yellow lanterns to guide our steps. It cast eerie shadows against the ceiling and walls, like a demon’s hands reaching out to ensnare us. For several long minutes, there was nothing but the sound of our steps on the cold stone floor, the shuffle of our clothing against our skin, and the occasional drip of water. We reached the long, curving rock stairway that would take us out of the dungeon and onto the subterranean level.
“There are guards at the top entrance,” Iva said back to us. I tapped into the connection in my chest to the other scarb. Sure enough, about sixty scarb had been placed at the dungeon’s only entrance and exit.
Sixty to eleven? That didn’t seem like great odds. I was right, I’ve sent us all to our deaths.
“Don’t be so sure,” Iva responded. “We are skilled fighters, but your ability to sway the scarb will be our most valuable asset. When we get to the top, I won’t hesitate to kill any scarb who tries to kill you, but you need not concern yourself with fighting. Try to reach out to them with your mind. Help them see why you deserve their loyalty.”
Their loyalty. Okay. I still didn’t feel like I deserved anyone’s loyalty. I was just a young, inexperienced girl who barely knew what I was doing. I wasn’t ready to command armies or lead colonies. But I have to get my brother, I reminded myself. I wouldn’t want to follow a queen who didn’t even believe in herself.
“Don’t waste your time trying to hide anything from them,” Derrick said beside me. “You can’t. Trying to will only make you look weak. Let them see your vulnerability. It comes because of how much you love your brother. That compassion is what will win them.”His hand found mine as we quickly ascended up the steps, and he gave it a quick squeeze then dropped it. His touch sent a shock of energy through my arm.
“One more turn,” Iva announced as we made one last round of the staircase.
“This is it,” I breathed, trying to focus on my mind. The scarb around me flexed their knuckles and joints, readying their barbs.
“Let’s get Nate back,” Gray said resolutely. “I trust you, Cat. You can do this.”
“Yes, you can do this,” Derrick agreed, popping the joints in his neck, making the black tips of his ears extend even further and more dagger-like out of his head.
The door in front of us was closed. Iva turned back to me. “Focus on your connection to the scarb on the other side of this doorway. They will feel your command as soon as the fighting begins, so we don’t want to waste a second.”I closed my eyes a moment and felt the connection to each of those sixty guards. I also noticed that the connection I had to my followers appeared gold in my mind, but my connection to Emerald’s guards was green. Interesting.
I opened my eyes. “I’m ready.”
Iva let out a piercing shriek as she lunged back onto one leg, kicking the door with her other. It swung open with a loud crack. Bright lights in the subterranean level hit us. In a flash, Iva and Bram were through the door. The sounds of scarb clashing filled the space. I was swept up the steps by my circle of protectors, who hissed and jabbed at the swarm of guards who met us. I felt like the bulls-eye on a target. The guards, thick all around us, were clearly bent on getting to me. Derrick’s back crashed into me as he took a sharp kick from a goliath-sized scarb. The impact jolted me, and I lost hold on the connection.
“Focus, Cat,” Iva called. She was up in the air six feet or so now, swinging a guard by his feet. She launched him into the swarm, knocking down two more.
But I felt like a pebble lost in an ocean storm. My friends were being torn apart all around me. I put my hands on my knees and breathed. Focus. I forced myself to block out the chaotic clamor around me. Only I can save them. I drew my consciousness back to the connection, to the tight mass of scarb presences around me. There were a few less than before, only fifty-four of the guards and only nine of us. We’d lost one of the soldiers. My heart burned with pain for his loss. I didn’t even know him personally, but he’d given his loyalty to me and had ultimately given his life for me.
I turned to the other nine fighting desperately around me. No one else. No one else is going to die.
I tightened my mental grip on the connection to the scarb closing in on us. “Stop!” I yelled with my mind. “You will not harm us.”About half of the guard stilled, listening to my words. “We don’t want to harm you, only to right a terrible wrong done by Emerald.” I let an image of Emerald taking Nathan flash in my mind, as well as the sharpness of my pain at his loss. I knew the guards would feel this. “I’m not asking that you join us. Your loyalty is yours to give as you want.” Three-fourths of the guards were watching now, their eyes on me. I felt a strength and warmth filling my body, coursing through my veins. My clenched fists showed their barbs. “But you will let us pass in peace, or you will fall.” Something sharp and tingly passed through my skin from my heart out to my limbs. The finger I now pointed out at them was glowing golden, just like the night at the Rand when Derrick and I had danced.
I kept my hold on the connection, challenging each scarb on the opposite end of it. I felt their consciousnesses like the feelers of antennae, searching my mind, examining my thoughts, the very essence of my soul. Although exposed and vulnerable, I felt strong. I had nothing to hide. I held no dark motive, no plan for power or destruction, only restoration of what was good and right.
Slowly, like twinkling Christmas lights, the consciousness of the guard began to shift, dozens of green changing to gold. The change rippled across all the scarb in the space until only a handful of Emerald loyalists remained. These green connections, obviously seeing their outnumbered situation, quickly began moving out of the swarm and away towards the upper levels, like oil fleeing water.
“Stop them!” Derrick yelled.
Fifteen left to pursue them. “We’ll make sure they don’t reach Emerald,” they called back to me, like soldiers reporting to the commanding general.
That left thirty-one now with me in the halls of the subterranean level.
“That’s how we do it, Cat!” Gray swung a high-five at me. “Nice work.”
“You’ve tripled our numbers,” Derrick said, looking around approvingly.
I wanted to celebrate the victory as well, but I turned to Iva. “How many did you say were in the colony?”
“About seven-thousand,” she answered, wiping clear blood off her arm.
“Seven-thousand?”My heart sank. “Great.” I was pleased with how our encounter had gone, but it had been exhausting.
How was I supposed to convince thousands when I barely had the strength to convince a few dozen?
“To the atrium, then?” Iva asked, bringing my thoughts back to the present.
“To the atrium,” I affirmed.
Iva led our small band up the hall. We passed the dining room and storage facility where Derrick had worked in the shipping yard. I could sense the presence of several hundred scarb milling about in the levels above used primarily as dormitories, but none of them seemed organized to fight us. To them, it was just another day.
Sure enough, as we entered the luscious living area, we found a few dozen scarb going about their morning business. When they saw us, their mouths dropped. Some were wide-eye with obvious fear and quickly darted behind closed doors or into shadows at the corners of the halls.
A little bewildered, I tried to reach out my consciousness to a scarb woman hunched into a ball beside the water fountain to understand why she and the others were acting like this.
“Please leave me,” she told me sharply. “I don’t want any trouble. Please just let me get on with my business.”
Huh. Her colony is facing a division between two queens and all she wants to do is be left alone?
“Don’t be surprised by her reaction,” Iva’s voice came into my mind. “You’ll find many scarb will be this way. Not all are warriors, or even foot soldiers. Most just want a simple life doing simple things: growing herbs, cleaning floors, making food. A colony like Emerald’s allows them the security to do just that. They don’t want to get political.”
That bothered me. “Won’t they have to?” I asked. “Won’t Emerald make them fight for their freedoms?”
“No,” Iva answered as we passed the hunched woman at the fountain. “These scarb will hide out, then let others do the fighting and re-emerge when things are stable again.”
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