Empire Builder 2

by Dante King

  Vinata on the other hand looked a little uneasy.

  “You don’t think it was right, Vinata?” Ben asked.

  The brown-skinned dryad shook her head, making her bright green curls flutter. “I think it was the right thing to do, Ben. It’s just that the mention of withering unsettles me.”

  Of course, being a dryad, the thought of decay would bother her especially.

  “Are you worried about someone using such a power on the forest?” Ben asked.

  “That’s the first thing I think of when I hear of such a spell,” Vinata explained. “But you used it for a good cause. I just hope no one uses it for a bad one.”

  “So do I,” Ben agreed.

  “Thank you, Ben,” Imogen spoke up. She looked into his eyes, a note of fear still present in her expression. “Thank you for keeping us safe. I still wish Uzax were dead, not just maimed.”

  These women certainly were more comfortable with ruthlessness than Ben had expected. It pleased him to know that he had such strong-willed women in his ranks. He was going to need as many tough men and women as he could muster.

  “I won’t let him do you any harm, I promise,” Ben said.

  Imogen nodded. “I believe you. But I would feel a lot safer if every bounty hunter were dead.”

  “What about Lexi?” Ben asked.

  “You didn’t torture her, did you?” Melody asked. It was clear by the tone of her voice that she had far more sympathy and concern for Lexi than Uzax.

  “No, certainly not,” Ben said. “I did question her, but I still can’t work out whose side she is on.”

  “She’s a bounty hunter,” Lulu offered. “You can’t go trusting her too quickly.”

  “I won’t do anything rash,” Ben said. “But I won’t treat her unfairly either. She didn’t seem like she served the Realm willingly. Her story was complicated, however.”

  “That’s what I was thinking too,” Melody said. “Many beastkin have been forced to do evil things to their own people in order to survive. They always figure that someone else will do it if they don’t, and much more unkindly.”

  “But you never did such things, did you, Melody?” Vinata asked.

  “I was very fortunate,” Melody said. “Being a noble daughter, I was given as a student to Archmage Kamila. If the Realm knew what the Archmage was up to, they would have had her executed for treason long ago.”

  “Let’s hope it stays that way a bit longer,” Ben said. “For the Archmage’s sake, and for ours. It would be invaluable to have such a highly positioned traitor on the inside to help us.”

  “That is her hope, I know,” Melody said. “She has long cherished the dream of meeting you.”

  “I hope we can arrange that soon enough,” Ben said. “In the meantime, I have many other tasks I need to accomplish. Uzax spoke of an outpost not far from here, where we might be able to recover treasure, null locks, and slaves.”

  “I wouldn’t trust the word of the Pyromancer too much. He’s probably just trying to save his own skin,” Lulu said. “I think you ought to torture him a little more to see if he’s hiding anything else. He has two hands, after all.” Her eyes flashed with excitement.

  “Alright, easy,” Ben said. “But I agree about the saving-his-skin part. I left him with the withered hand to remind him of what I’ll do if I find that he’s lying. If he fails to talk again, I’ll go back for the other. And maybe his feet, while I’m at it.”

  Lulu laughed, more mirth in her voice than Ben was totally comfortable with.

  “Lexi, on the other hand,” Ben continued, “may be useful to us in other ways. She knows the hunters here better than we do. I might end up letting her out if she shows good faith.”

  Melody’s eyes brightened at this prospect. “My sense is that she deserves this kindness.”

  “I thought so too,” Ben said. “But don’t worry, I won’t do it without first ensuring that she will be loyal.” He forestalled any objections Lulu might have.

  The undine wasn’t as hellbent on torturing any available prisoner as it might have seemed, however.

  “It’s true that you will need to show mercy to some prisoners sooner or later,” she explained. “Tortured prisoners eventually break and become totally useless.”

  “Even with Healing Touch?” Ben asked.

  Lulu nodded. “There is only so much the mind can take. And healing the mind will eventually corrupt it. Uzax will reach a point where he is too broken to say anything coherent.”

  Vinata and Imogen had faint smiles on their faces hearing this, though their faces expressed more relief than satisfaction, unlike Lulu’s. Ben was pleased that Lulu offered a slight counterpoint to the other women. It would be good to have varying opinions when he needed to make serious decisions.

  “You know this how?” Ben asked, unsure whether he really wanted the answer or not. Maybe Lulu would end up being more knowledge about torture than he’d expected.

  “We undines are no strangers to interrogation,” Lulu shrugged nonchalantly. “We do what is necessary to keep the rivers safe.”

  That sounded like the opposite of safe to Ben, but he knew it all depended on one’s point of view. He had a feeling that he was going to have to get used to viewing morals in a more relative sense like that in this world.

  Ben made a mental note to ask Lulu about her background in “interrogation” some other time. But before they could discuss the fate of the prisoners any further, a crack came from the corner of the room, behind the nymphs. The women all turned sharply.

  Lulu squealed with delight. “The eggs! They’re hatching.”

  Ben couldn’t see past the four women and his two cat children. He gave Nipper a playful shove and stepped in beside him so that he could see as well. Ben wondered what would have caused the eggs to start hatching now. Perhaps draining Uzax had given him more power, which was affecting the eggs in here.

  Or maybe it was simply the right amount of time. It was strange that they would all hatch in unison, however.

  The three frontmost eggs were the ones hatching. They were the first eggs the nymphs had produced in this room after the tower had been built. Ben got as close as he could while still giving the eggs space, and watched them begin to open.

  Vinata’s egg, the one closest to Ben, was the furthest along. Its leafy patterned green shell had a big crack that was quickly widening. Brown claw-like fingers protruded through the gap, forcing the shell apart.

  Everyone held their breath, even the cat children. The only sound was the crackling of breaking eggshells. Small pieces of the shells chipped and broke off, dropping onto the ground like little leaves. Ben’s heart stirred as he watched the eggs break open.

  The long brown fingers pushed the halves of the shell further apart, with trembling movements, until at last the pieces broke and clattered to the ground, leaving Vinata’s first child standing on unsteady legs, looking up at them all.

  The child stood nearly a foot and a half tall. A shaggy head of green leaves covered its upper half. Ben crouched to get a closer look at it. Its body was brown, resembling a tree trunk, but supple enough to move.

  The child looked at him with big soft green eyes. It reached out with one of its arms, a leafy twig, and touched Ben’s cheek. Ben took the child’s hand in his own. As he regarded the child more closely, he could make out the grooves of the bark on its skin. He traced the bark with his finger, and it felt just as rough and solid as he expected.

  Vinata crouched beside him and caressed the child’s face. “She’s a walking tree.”

  “Our child is an Ent?” Ben echoed with surprise. He’d just sired Treebeard? “I suppose that is what an Ent is, a walking tree,” Ben said.

  Vinata frowned at him. “Our child is no Ent. She’s a sapling.”

  “Makes sense,” Ben said with a shrug. It didn’t make much sense, but it wasn’t going to get any clearer by quibbling over what the child was called. And it wasn’t exactly the right time to explain to Vinata the
lore of some story from a world that she’d never go to.

  Speaking of what to call the child, she needed a name. “I’ll call her Sap,” Ben declared.

  “Sap,” Vinata echoed, trying the name out. “I like that name.”

  “Bloody walking trees,” Melody muttered.

  Ben remembered Melody’s reaction to seeing Ents on the TV back in his world. He laughed. “Try and be nice, Melody. Vinata hasn’t said anything mean about your meat-eating children.”

  Melody humphed, crossing her arms under her breasts.

  The child walked forward. The sight of the myriad roots at the base of her trunk waving up and down and propelling her body forward astonished Ben. She didn’t walk that quickly, but her movement was graceful and steady, as if she was gliding along the ground.

  Sap bumped into Ben’s leg and looked up at him with big, innocent eyes. He tussled her head of leafy hair, and the child smiled, clearly appreciating the affection. Ben could only imagine what Sap would look like all grown up, a massive, powerful tree-being. But that would come in time.

  The little sapling walked around Ben’s feet and encountered Nipper. Ben was slightly nervous. He didn’t want such a young child to come to any harm. But he trusted Nipper and knew he knew he could call the giant cat off if he became too aggressive.

  Sap reached out her leafy hand and grabbed at one of Nipper’s giant saberteeth. Nipper snapped his jaws, nipping at the little sapling. But Ben noticed he seemed careful not to actually bite her.

  The little tree ruffled her head of leaves, in a gesture that seemed to express indignation more than fright. She shuffled off and bumped into Pearl’s leg. Pearl mewed and bent down to look at the little tree. She picked Sap up in her paws and placed her on her shoulder.

  As Pearl got to her feet, Sap balanced effortlessly. She looked at Vinata’s crown of flowers still atop Pearl’s head. Her eyes widened, and she warmly embraced Pearl’s big head. Pearl purred and raised a paw to pet the little sapling.

  “They like each other,” Vinata exclaimed, joy in her voice. “Maybe I’ll be able to wean Pearl off meat after all.”

  Melody blanched at that suggestion, and Ben laughed.

  Seeing the two children being so affectionate toward each other seemed to soften Melody slightly. She too reached up and petted the little tree. Ben wondered if all his children would get along so well. After all, despite how different they were, the children all had the same father. Ben smiled at the idea of such a strange, unique family.

  A dull banging noise behind them drew Ben’s attention to the other eggs again. The blue scale covered egg from Lulu rocked back and forth. Cracks were appearing on the surface. An insistent thump came from inside the egg. Unlike Sap’s big arrival, whatever was in this egg seemed furiously determined to get out, ready to smash its way into the world.

  “It looks like the child is trying to bang its way out,” Ben commented. “He’s definitely got spirit.”

  “Fierce like a true undine,” Lulu said, with pride in her voice.

  “You see,” Vinata said. “My child was born before yours.”

  “They’re saving the best for last, no doubt,” Lulu retorted.

  The egg rocked back again, and then with a pop, a fragment of shell flew off the egg and smacked into Lulu’s knee. A blue head poked out of the shell.

  Webbed fingers scrabbled at the sides, the creature pulling itself out. As the child’s weight tipped forward, the whole egg rolled down. The creature fell out onto the floor with a wet plop.

  It had a long, thin blue body, like a lizard. Four stumpy limbs with webbed feet stuck out. It looked up at Lulu and Ben with round, azure eyes.

  Lulu stooped to pick the child up. The child stuck out its tongue and licked her hand.

  “He’s so big,” Lulu said as she held the lizard up to her face to get a closer look.

  He was already one foot in length. The child had just hatched, but Ben couldn’t help imagining what he would look like fully grown, massive and serpentine.

  “I guess ten days was enough to do a lot of growing,” Ben said. He held out his hands to take the child.

  Lulu passed him over.

  Ben looked into those big blue eyes. A thin pink tongue flicked in and out of the lizard’s wide mouth. The child seemed to have something of a smile on his face. At least, as far as a lizard could make a smile.

  “He reminds me of a salamander,” Ben said. “I think I’ll call him Mander. That’s easy to remember.”

  “Mander,” Lulu repeated. “I like that name.”

  Mander squirmed in Ben’s grasp. Ben set the child down on the ground, and the lizard flapped his way along at surprising speed. He came face to face with Nipper. Ben watched, eager to see how the two would get along.

  Nipper sniffed at the little blue creature and growled. Mander hissed back and without hesitating a moment, leaped forward and headbutted Nipper in the face. Ben couldn’t help laughing, but checked himself to make sure Nipper didn’t overreact in response and hurt the poor creature.

  Lulu gasped in surprise.

  Nipper snapped his fangs at the lizard, but Mander leaped right over the big cat’s jaws and onto his bony head. Nipper tried to peer upward and kept snapping, but eventually gave up and sat down to lick his paws. Mander seemed to be quite content perched on the cat’s head.

  And that was that. Ben nodded, pleased at how quickly they’d formed something of a bond. He allowed himself the mental image of Mander riding Nipper into battle, the two forming an unlikely, but powerful team.

  Another crack pulled their attention back to the last egg. The large hybrid egg from Vinata and Lulu wobbled. This was one of the tallest eggs, reaching almost to Ben’s waist.

  “This egg was also produced on the same day,” Ben said. “That must be why these three are hatching.”

  This egg had a deep purple hue, with celestial images of stars, planets, and moons etched onto its shell. The egg was splitting down the middle, just like Sap’s had. Fleshy, pink fingers poked their way through the gap.

  Ben wondered what sort of child he could expect this time, especially as a hybrid child of two nymphs. He said nothing, watching in rapt interest. His family was growing large that day, and he couldn’t wait to see the new addition.

  The shell creaked as it was forced apart. Finally, with a crack, two large fragments split off and clattered to the floor. A small child stepped out onto the floor carefully.

  “It’s a human,” Ben whispered. “Or at least it looks like one.”

  The child was certainly humanoid, but it had blue hair flowing down to its shoulders, and a natural skirt of leaves flowing out from its hips. Ben had never seen a baby born before in real life, but he was pretty sure they didn’t normally come out looking like that.

  He crouched down to get a better look, alongside Vinata and Lulu. The child’s eyes were blue and green, the two colors mixing together in her irises.

  Lulu gasped as she looked at the child. “She’s a lily.”

  “A what?” Ben asked.

  “She is one of the legendary water lilies. They are a race that once lived on the border of the lands between the undines and the dryads.”

  Vinata nodded. “We too have legends of such creatures, though even the oldest of our people has never seen one.”

  Ben held out a hand to the young child. He didn’t know quite how he felt having a human-looking child. Somehow it made fatherhood feel a whole lot more real. It was one thing to be the father of beasts, but a human-like being was entirely different.

  But he still felt tender pride swelling in him as the child took his hand and made a few unsteady, waddling steps toward her mothers.

  Lulu and Vinata both reached out toward the little girl at the same time, and then saw each other and held back, each waiting for the other.

  The little water lily held out a finger and pointed at the women. She gurgled happily at them. Vinata laughed and picked her up, sitting her on one knee, where Lulu c
ould see her as well.

  “What will you call this child?” Lulu asked Ben.

  “I think I’ll call her Lily,” Ben replied.

  Lulu frowned. “Doesn’t sound too imaginative.”

  “Lily is a name given to little girls in my world,” Ben explained. “I’ve always thought it was a nice name.”

  “It is a nice name,” Lulu said, appearing to toss the name around in her mind. “Lily it is, then.”

  After a moment, Lulu took Lily from Vinata and held her as well. Imogen came over to take a closer look at the child as well.

  “Do you want to say hello to Auntie Immy?” Lulu asked.

  Lily reached out a finger and touched Imogen on the nose. Imogen’s face softened, and she almost appeared to melt as warmth flooded her features. She took the child and embraced her tightly.

  Ben stood. Nipper rubbed up against his leg, Mander still perched on his head.

  Ben looked down at the big cat. “Three female children and four women, Nipper. “I’m afraid we males are well and truly outnumbered now.”

  Nipper growled softly, and Mander hissed, thumping one webbed foot on Nipper’s head.

  “I agree,” Ben said. “We’ll make up for numbers with strength.”

  Melody came to stand beside him on the other side. Ben pulled her close.

  “How do you feel, with three new children?” she asked him.

  Ben thought about that question for a moment. “To tell the truth, I feel very happy, seeing my family grow, but a little bit confused at the same time. Part of me had always known that I’d have a family someday. But never in a million years did I think it would look like this.”

  “Well,” Melody said. “I hope your family so far pleases you.”

  “It does,” Ben said, not needing a moment to think about it. “It does indeed.”

  But there was something else on Ben’s mind.

  Melody’s tail circled around his waist as she stood beside him. “What troubles you?”

  “It’s Lily,” Ben said, glancing over to the girl.

  “Does she not please you?” Melody asked.

  “Oh, she does. She’s beautiful, I couldn’t be prouder. But she looks so human.”