Hive Queen

by Sinclair, Grayson

  After I sorted my stats, ten to Durability and ten to Battle Fatigue. I let the adrenaline wear out of me and let the chitin flow back under my skin. I laid my head on the rough wood, in desperate need of a nap.

  “That was some fight. I know its impolite, but I have to know. What’s your class?”

  I looked up and blinked my weary eyes at Maus, who’d taken a seat next to me on the table.

  “I’m too tired to deal with your bullshit. Just tell me what you want and get the fuck out of my sight.”

  “I’m here to offer you a friendly hand,” he said, putting a smile on his face.

  “I’m fine. I don’t need your help,” I said, waving him off. “Why the hell do you keep showing up, anyway?”

  Maus shrugged, glancing up at the guards, who weren’t paying any attention. He held out a cup of water for me. “Because you’re the most capable person in this damn place, and I’ve been stuck in here for too long. I want to escape, but I can’t do it alone.”

  “Why me?” I asked, draining the cup.

  “Us players need to stick together.”

  I snorted and sat up, leaning back on the rickety chair. I was too worn out to have the strength to force him away. Maus sat up and shifted chairs coming to sit by me and leaned his head in close. With another quick look around, he held out his hand. In his palm were a few scraps of dried meat. it was just a handful, but to my eyes it was a feast, and I greedily snapped them up.

  It wasn’t much, but it eased the worst of the hunger and breathed a meager amount of life into my limbs.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. “I still don’t see how I can help you. No one escapes Tombsgard. It’s impossible.”

  “Normally you’d be correct, but I have firsthand knowledge that it might be possible. I just need a partner, someone I can trust.”

  I wiped at the corners of my mouth to make sure I didn’t have any residual crumbs or bits of food around my lips or in my beard. “And what makes you think you can trust me, or that I can trust you?”

  He pointed at me, a smile framed his lips. “Because you haven’t taken the easy way out. You could let any one of these men kill you and respawn, but like me, you’ve stuck it out. That means that whatever’s waiting beyond these walls is more important than you nearly starving to death.”

  He had a point, but he knew that. I paused over his words, not trusting him exactly, but he was the only one in the entire prison that wasn’t trying to kill me.

  “And if he tries, we eat him.”

  Exactly.

  I was a little worried with how in tune me and the Aspect had been the last week or so, but in a place like Tombsgard, its brutality was exactly what I needed.

  “All right, Maus. We have a temporary alliance, but cross me, and you know exactly what I’ll do to you.”

  “That I do, and I’ll thank you to leave my giblets where they’re at. We’re a team from now until we get clear of this hellhole.”

  “What happens after we get clear?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “Poor choice of words. We have a cease-fire. Don’t attack me, I won’t attack you, and we can part ways as uneasy allies.”

  “I think I can work with that. So what’s this plan of yours?”

  Chapter 21 - Home Again

  Eris

  As the first day of our return trip came to a close, I tried once more and failed to understand what Evelyn had told me. I sighed. She barely explained anything, just told me it had to do with those strange crystals. I’d tried to bring it up with her again, earlier, but she reacted badly.

  I rubbed my neck, hoping her fingers wouldn’t leave bruise marks from how hard she’d grabbed me. I never thought she’d actually threaten me, let alone look at me so callously.

  “I like you, little queen. But you weren’t meant to have that knowledge, and I will kill you if you even think about telling anyone. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, and her grip on my neck eased. “What about Sam?”

  She shook her head. “Especially him. He’ll learn about them in time, but it’s not the right time.”

  Then she let me go with a piercing glare that commanded me to heed her words.

  I shivered at the thought, at her words when she told me she’d kill me.

  She’d do it without hesitation.

  I glanced over to her as she rode next to Adam; they were engrossed in a conversation, and as Adam’s eyes flicked to mine every so often, I could guess the topic of conversation.

  A nudge interrupted my thoughts. Kenna leaned over Cinder and poked me with her finger. It pushed into my thigh in lazy rhythm. “Lost in thought?”

  “Just have a lot on my mind,” I replied.

  “Ah, well, get out of your head and talk to me for a while. Gil’s still a little sleepy from the health potion. I’m bored.”

  I laughed, and it felt good. She was right. I needed to get out of my head. I couldn’t do anything about what Evelyn told me, and it wasn’t like it changed anything. She was still Evelyn—she just wasn’t what I originally thought she was.

  “I miss the spiderlings,” I said, my voice low.

  “Surprisingly, so do I. But you saw how happy they were to see their mother. They’re back where they belong.”

  “Yeah. Izella and her bondmate were very nice. They promised I could see Tegen and Cheira whenever I came back.”

  “See, told you it would all work out.” She poked me again.

  I swatted her fingers away playfully, and we both chuckled. “Did you at least have fun?”

  “Uh, sort of.” She smiled as she leaned down to run her hands over Cinder’s flank. “While you were recovering, I talked with a few of the Arachne, managed to snag a new poison, but I didn’t like all the eyes on me.”

  “What do you mean?” I cocked my head to the side.

  “We had at least three Arachne guards on us at all times. They were skilled, used the trees and shadows well, but they couldn’t hide from me. Hive Queen or not, they’d have tried to kill us all if Reina had given the order.”

  “And they’d have died very painful deaths,” Evelyn said, turning back to look at us as we rode.

  Our eyes met, and I hastily looked away.

  Adam sighed and reached over and flicked his sister on the head. “She won’t say it, so I’ll say it for her. She’s sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.”

  “No, I’m not. I meant every word, but do chin up, little queen. It’s in the past.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Makenna asked, glancing between us.

  “None of your concern, Red. Let’s get moving, I want camp set up before nightfall.”

  We rode in silence while the sunlight faded below the horizon. After another few minutes we stopped and set up camp.

  I went and set up my tent with Kenna while Gil worked on dinner. It was nothing but trail rations and dried meat, but after many hours of riding, I didn’t care. It was delicious.

  When dinner was over, Gill and Makenna volunteered for first watch while I turned in to get some sleep. I crawled into my tent, but as I lay back on my pillow, the emptiness kept me awake. It was the first time I’d slept alone since being freed from my prison, and I couldn’t stand it.

  Though the trees rustled, and the nocturnal animals chittered away happily, I couldn’t help but feel completely alone. I tossed and turned for a few minutes before I sighed and got up out of my tent.

  I peered out of the tent where Gil and Makenna were chatting happily close to each other next to the fire. “Hey, Gil,” I called out.

  He turned at my voice and smiled. “Whatcha need, Eris?”

  “I’m sorry to ask, but would it be okay if Kenna slept with me tonight?”

  He laughed, his baritone voice rumbling to echo through the forest. “Can’t sleep without someone next to you, I get it. But who’re you missing more, Duran or the kids?”

  “Both,” I answered honestly.

  Gil thumbed over to Makenna. “She’d poison me i
n my sleep if I spoke for her, ask her—“

  She smacked Gil playfully on the arm. “Only when you deserve it, you big lughead,” she replied, leaning over to kiss him deeply. “Love you.”

  “Love you more.”

  She hopped up from the log and skipped over to me. I went back inside, and she followed. I lay back down as Makenna stripped to her nightclothes and removed the hair ties from her pigtails. She shook her crimson hair out and lay down next to me. “Holy hell, you’re like a furnace, Eris!”

  “Is that a good or bad thing?”

  “Well, it means I won’t get cold during the night, and I thought Gil ran hot. You must have fire in your blood.” She threw off the blanket and snuggled up next to me. “Though it’s kinda nice. Gil snores in his sleep, makes it hard to sleep next to him sometimes.”

  “You’re good together, though.”

  Kenna blushed furiously and couldn’t hide the grin that bloomed on her face. “He’s something special, but you know what that’s like, don’t you?”

  I smiled at the thought of Sam, but it fell when what I’d been trying to forget came to mind. “He’s not doing well. He’s weak, cold and hungry. And so very angry. I’m terrified for him, but I’m also terrified of what’s going to happen when we see each other again.”

  Kenna froze, her eyes widened. “Something happened didn’t it? Between you and Evelyn?”

  I shook my head.

  “So with Reina.”

  The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I held my mouth closed and looked away from her waiting gaze.

  She pouted. “Don’t stop at the good part. what’d you do? Never mind, I can guess. Did you?”

  “Yes.”

  There was no way for me to hold them back, the word came spilling out along with too many tears. “Sam’s so angry.” I sobbed. “What if he hates me?”

  Kenna came over and wrapped her arms around me, her warm cheek pressed against mine as her hands came up and brushed my hair. “It’ll be okay. I don’t think he can hate you.” She pulled back and wiped away the tears that fell to my chin. “Just be honest with him. Make him understand, and if he rejects you after that, then you know you did everything you could.”

  She held her hands up quickly. “But he won’t reject you. I can almost guarantee it. He cares too much about you to hate you.”

  “I’m worried about him.”

  “It’ll be okay, Eris. He’ll be fine. Duran is reckless, rough around the edges, and a truly terrible guild leader, but he’s the second toughest bastard I’ve ever met, and if I’m guessing things went wrong, and you said he’s cold and hungry, then he’s in Tombsgard. A nasty prison, but if anyone can thrive in such conditions, it’ll be him. Don’t give up hope, and have faith in him. He’ll return to you.”

  “Thanks, Kenna.”

  She leaned over and placed a kiss on my hair. “It’ll all work out, trust me.”

  With that my eyelids grew heavy, and I drifted off to sleep listening to Makenna’s deep breathing.

  In the morning, Gil woke us up by barging into the tent.

  “Sorry for the rude awakening, but Duran just called.”

  I was awake in an instant. “What’d he say?”

  “He was only able to talk for a second. He said he’d be fine and not to call in the calvary. Said he has a way to escape.”

  “Escape Tombsgard?” Makenna said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “It’s possible, but I don’t know how Duran could pull it off. He’s not exactly the slip in and out unnoticed kind of guy.”

  “He’ll do it. I know he will,” I said.

  Gil nodded and gave me a reassuring smile. “I’m gonna go let the twins know while you two get dressed. We hit the road in twenty.”

  After we got dressed and had a very light breakfast, we set off towards Castle Gloom-Harbor.

  We spent most of the week on the road back to the castle. It was mostly a quiet trip back, broken by only a few random monster attacks. When we crossed back into the Salted Mire, we accidentally stirred up a nest of over a dozen rougarou in the swamps.

  They rose up from the muck as twisted, mangled hybrids of wolves and dogs. Their matted fur was filled with mange and clung with mud and bits of swamp. The sudden appearance of them surprised us, but all of us leapt off our horses and into battle.

  I personally killed one of them with a lucky headshot when I drew my bow and loosed an arrow at one of the rampaging beasts as it came toward me. The others dispatched their foes quickly. I fired a few more times, but I missed more than I hit.

  It was quick, brutal, and over in a handful of minutes, leaving me with a sense of accomplishment that I’d helped—and a mess of muck and mud in my hair and over my clothes.

  “I need a bath,” I said to myself, but my words carried over the silence.

  “Truer words, sister,” Makenna said.

  After we cleaned ourselves off as best we could, we climbed back on our horses and continued out of the swamps. The scent of salt clung to my skin and the back of my tongue with every inhale, but there was nothing we could do about it but grin and bear it.

  By the time we made it back to the castle a few days later, all of us were exhausted from the trip, and when the heavy wooden gate shut behind us, we all heaved a sigh of relief.

  I led Lacuna to the stables and spent an hour or so brushing her down and praising her like Sam did. She was a wonderful horse, and I was thankful for her. I made sure she knew it too.

  When I was finished, I shot straight to the third floor and into our room.

  It was empty, vacant without Sam here next to me, but I ignored my rising dread and focused on getting myself clean.

  After a week of not having a proper bath, I was in desperate need of one.

  I slid out of my last pair of semi-clean clothes and tossed them in the wicker basket by the door. The steam invited me to join it, so I lowered myself and proceeded to take a very long time bathing. When I was done, I just lay on my back and drifted, unsure of what I should do next.

  This is my home now, but why do I feel so much like an outsider without Sam by my side? Everyone here are my friends, part of my family now, and yet most of them are strangers to me.

  There was a knock on the door that interrupted my thoughts. “Eris?” a feminine voice called out, muffled by the closed door.

  “Come in.”

  The door opened, and Yumiko walked in, wearing a tight-fitting jade shirt and black pants. Her black hair fell freely past her pale skin and crimson eyes.

  I didn’t know why she was here, and it must’ve showed.

  “There’s a guild meeting in a few minutes about everything that’s happened. Figured you would want to be there,” she said, her voice quiet.

  “Thank you for letting me know. I’ll be there.”

  She nodded and was about to depart when I shouted, “Wait!”

  “What?”

  “Um, I wanted to apologize. When I first met you, I didn’t like you. Vampires and my kind have never gotten along since we have fundamentally different concepts on blood. Because of that, our kinds were always at odds with each other. And I carried that mistrust over to you. For that, I’m sorry.”

  Yumiko shrugged. “Hey, forgive and forget. I didn’t exactly choose to become a nocturnal, either. So I can’t exactly blame you for your prejudices.”

  “How did you─“

  She coughed. “The meeting is going to start soon. Wilson will have a stroke if we’re late,” she said quickly and left, shutting the door behind her.

  Guess we all have things we’d rather not talk about. I hurriedly climbed out of the water and got dressed. I chose a long-sleeved royal purple tunic and a pair of Sam’s black cotton trousers. They were several sizes too big, but I tied them tight with the drawstring. They were clean, but the dresser where they’d been kept had a soft lingering scent of Sam that clung to the wood and settled into his clothes.

  When I was dressed, I made my way down the stairs to the firs
t-floor guild hall. Very few of the others were inside when I entered; only Wilson, Levi, and Yumiko were present. They were making small talk when I entered, but it got quiet as the doors closed.

  “Is it okay if I sit in Sam’s chair?” I asked.

  Wilson inclined his hand and motioned at the chair beside him. I sat down and smiled at him, trying once again to get him to like me.

  “How have things been since we’ve been gone?”

  “Busy. To say the least. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

  After that he flicked his hand up and stared blankly ahead, using his interface. He promptly ignored me and left me to wait in silence till everyone else arrived. They trickled in at the pace of a melting glacier, and I drummed my fingers on the table while everyone filed in.

  The other members of the Gloom Knights took their seats, and Amber came in carrying a tray with ale and water. She sat a glass of water in front of me, and I took a polite sip while she served everyone before departing.

  “All right, first on the agenda is our newcomer,” Wilson said, whistling.

  At the shrill tone, the doors opened, and a man I hadn’t seen before came in. He was handsome, but his dark eyes told a different story. He looked worn down, jaded by life, and his dusk brown skin bore the scars to prove it.

  He wore a plain black shirt and pants that matched his tied back hair. The man came and stood along the wall by the table.

  “Most of you know him, but for those who’ve been gone, let me introduce Mika. An old friend of Duran’s.”

  The name tugged at me, and I remembered the conversation Sam and I had shared about his previous life. “Takamikazuchi, right?” I asked.

  Mika looked up, eyes lighting up in surprise. “Yes, that’s right. How’d you know?”

  “Sam—Duran told me. You were a member of the Swords of Legend with him.”

  He smiled. “You must be Eris. He spoke of you fondly.”

  Wilson cleared his throat. “Be as that may, let’s get to what you told me when you arrived.”

  “Right. I was hired to provide support for a retrieval job in Aldrust. I didn’t know what we’d be stealing or who I’d be working with until I got there. You can I imagine my surprise when I got there and saw Duran but was also told that our target was fucking Lachrymal’s Heart.