Metal groaned as the bars—enforced with Araneidae silk—bent in her hands.
“He threw me to them. I was old and feeble, sick and dying. Instead of caring for me, he let me pay the price for his future happiness.” Yellow tears sprang to her eyes. “They made me this way, turned me into this…thing.” Her voice dripped with ice. “He made me a monster. But I am a monster who will survive the changes coming to this pathetic world. If you join with me, you can be spared.”
The one thing scarier than Lailah making conversation was Lailah making recruiting offers.
“Join you?” The idea boggled my mind. “Become like you?”
“This existence is a gift.” She reached behind her to trace a wing with her fingertip. “It took me a while to understand that, but Idra opened my eyes. She showed me the strength of this new form, all its possibilities.” She curled her finger, and Braden went meekly to her. “Males are chains around our ankles, anchoring us to the ground when we were born to fly, born to rule this miserable world.”
“Braden.” I reached helplessly for him. “Don’t go to her.”
“He can’t help it, can he?” she baby-talked him. “He has to do whatever I say.” She grasped his collar. “You could wield this power.” She cradled his jaw. “The power of life and death.” Wrenching his head to the left, she snapped his neck. “Death is easier.” She let his body drop, dusting her hands.
Fury curved my fingers around my wheels. “Why kill him?”
“I kill because I am bored, because I am hungry, because I can.” She snapped her fingers. “I tire of this game. I have done as the monarch asked of me, and I am ready to return to my covey with or without you, Zuri.” Her fingers snapped again. “Be a dear and open the door, Henri.” When he held his ground, glaring at her, she screamed, “Open the door or so help me, I will kill her. Do it. Now.”
“Don’t listen to her.” I shoved Fynn away from me. “Think about what you’re doing.”
“I am,” Henri managed through clenched teeth. Defeat bowed his shoulders as he opened her cage.
Lailah tapped the end of his nose. “Males. So predictable.”
“Why invite me to join you?” I stalled for time, hoping inspiration would strike, but without Henri or the key, I was trapped. We all were. He was the only means of escaping the bastille or the laboratory.
“I won’t bore us both by listing your attributes, but you are an ideal candidate.” A fond sigh. “We work very well together, you and I. You played your role up until this point to perfection.”
“My role,” I said, temper flaring as I began to grasp what she meant. “You planned this.”
Her eyes glittered. “Did you really think you could have captured me otherwise?”
“How did you know I would bring you to Erania?” Even I hadn’t expected to come here.
“Simple. When Kaidi arrived in Titania with Mimetidae warriors at her back, I knew an alliance had been forged. When I overheard what she planned—to study me—a prime opportunity presented itself, and I allowed you to catch me.”
I snorted. “You were too busy eating your son’s face to notice.”
“Perhaps,” she said softly, as if the memory was a fond one.
While she reflected, I asked, “Why did you burn Titania?”
There was no obvious answer as to why the city itself had to be so thoroughly destroyed. Kaidi had talked of nothing else until her curiosity was burned into my brain.
“It seems wasteful, doesn’t it?” Lailah hummed to herself. “Our monarch is not what I am or was. She was never Araneaean. Love is a concept she doesn’t understand, and she never will. I tried to explain to her once why I loved a place as much as I had ever loved a person. She dismissed me as being sentimental for my mortal life. My attachment to my son, she understood. She herself is fond of her created daughters, in her way, and that is why Idra assigned value to Hishima’s life.”
“She ruined the city to…what?” I couldn’t grasp what she meant. “Teach you a lesson?”
“With my gift, I could have saved Titania. I could have restored the city to its former glory, but Idra saw my devotion to Titania as a weakness, as a sickness of the mind in need of purging. She set my city ablaze, then she watched it burn to cinders before finding me in the caverns to inform me of what she had done for my benefit. She was generous, she said, in sparing the people’s lives.”
“How did she think that would help further her agenda against the Araneidae?” I asked.
“Idra was of the opinion that if Hishima lost his precious clan home, he would become more eager to rally our clan and lead an attack on the Araneidae to seize their nest as his own. And if I no longer feared what might happen to my city, I would become a better ambassador for the Necrita.”
“She ruined your city, so you killed her champion.” Revenge I could understand. That part was easy.
“Yes.” She studied her claws. “It was shortsighted of me, I know.”
Shortsighted. That was one word for it. “You aren’t…sorry…for killing your only child?”
“I regret the necessity of his death.” She clacked her fingertips together. “My son had grown to fear that which he helped create. Oh, he visited me most days. He fed me well, kept me in fine clothes, left me pretty guards to entertain me. I could have forgiven him the rest, if his obsession with Kaidi hadn’t cost me my city. That I could not forgive. When I saw she had come in search of me with a new male, one she had an obvious attachment to, I knew Hishima’s hopes to wed her were as the ashes of my city. His death served a greater purpose. It convinced you of my insanity.”
If this conversation was meant to convince me of her sanity, Lailah had a ways left to go.
I speculated, “That’s when you decided to use me to hitch a ride to Erania.”
“Cathis lacks the resources to accomplish what Kaidi had in mind. With Titania destroyed, it was a safe bet to assume Paladin Vaughn would assess the situation and determine the best place to keep me hidden was below the earth in his brother’s new clan home. It accomplished two feats. It kept his clan out of harm’s way and gave his sister-in-law that which she desired, a source, an origin, for the plague.”
“I understand why he sent you.” He was protecting his clan. “Why did you want to come?”
“The Araneidae must fall.” She tapped a fingernail against her bottom lip. “Think of it. When their clan is destroyed, so will their allies be. There will be chaos as trade routes close and alliances collapse. They are the linchpin. Remove them, and the other Araneaean clans will wobble. One shove from the right hand, our hand, and they will collapse. That is when we will strike.”
“Even after all Idra did to you,” I said, “to your city, your people, you continue to serve her.”
Lailah swept her hair atop her head and turned so that I saw a pair of metallic wasps set into the skin of her nape. “I am Necrita.” She continued turning until we faced one another again. “In this life, Idra is Mother and I am her first daughter. I am but one rebellious youth to the eternal mother.”
In a blink, her situation became clear to me. “You have no choice.”
“There is always a choice.” She flitted close to me. “I made mine. For your service to me, I will let you make the decision I was never given.” She stroked my cheek with a claw. “Will you become one of us, a harbinger of the new age of the Second World, or…” the razor edge bit into my skin, slicing my throat, “…will you die underground without the sun kissing your face one last time?”
I barely dared to move my lips. “You realize that isn’t much of a choice?”
“You are splitting hairs with an ax.” Lailah reached behind her and, with a pained gasp, she held out her bloody hand to me. “You would be my first spawn, and I have always wanted a daughter.”
On her palm perched one of the metallic insects I had seen burrowed into her skin.
I forced out the words. “If I say yes?”
“Then I mark you with my sigil
and bring you before Idra so she can witness your conversion.” She brushed her fingers through my choppy hair. “That was the purpose of the pitcher, after all, to allow you to ingest as much of my venom as possible in preparation for what comes next. Fynn was such a darling for lacing the rim each night. Thanks to him, your body is primed for transformation.”
Great, well, that explained my reaction to her song. It was a trial run. One I must have passed.
While she fussed over my appearance, I sneaked a glimpse of a hazy-eyed Henri. “What then?”
“Do you think I came here for the scenery?” She laughed. “I came to seize the nest in the name of our monarch. All that remains to be seen is whether you accept my offer…or you die.” Her head tilted to one side. “Don’t think too hard, dear. There are but two ways out of this room, and you will survive only one of them. I do hate to pressure you for your answer, but my army grows restless, and the effect of my song is temporary on the living, even those I’ve marked. Unless…” She ran her fingers down Henri’s side. “Did you mean for me to kill him?”
“No.” My vehemence startled her.
“No need to yell.” She rubbed her ears. “I am standing right here.”
Stall her, Zuri. There has to be a way out. “How long does the, um, transformation require?”
“I can’t say.” Her lips pursed. “I was Idra’s once she laid her hands on me. I was told by my sisters who have already spawned that some of their children’s conversions lasted for days while others held out mere hours. It is a difficult thing to estimate when so much depends on the will of the person and the power of their maker.” She patted my cheek fondly. “You may agree to accept my mark and then choose to fight your transformation. In fact, I might prefer it. Yes. I think that I would. Fight it. Your surrender will be made all the sweeter for it, and Idra will praise me when my feisty warrioress succumbs. It will speak highly of my strength, and therefore of hers.”
Being given the option to fight for my life was unexpected, but not unwelcomed. Perhaps she had meant what she said, in her way, that she wanted to give me more choice than she once had.
Days. I was stubborn and willful. How could I not be, raised female among a passel of brothers?
I glanced at Fynn, whose empty stare gutted me, to Henri’s furious scowl, and then to Braden’s corpse. There was only one choice if I wanted my brothers to survive, if I wanted to give Henri and Erania a chance to overcome the Necrita and thwart Idra. If I wanted all these things, I must pay the blood price for them. I did for my brothers—for Henri—what they would have done in my place.
Facing Lailah, I swallowed. “Do it. Make me yours.”
“My dear,” she said, holding the sigil near my ear, “I thought you would never ask.”
Chapter 12
Lailah blew her ripe breath across the metallic wasp sitting on her palm, and it shook out its wings. Its legs were crusted yellow with her blood. Its mandibles clacked while it studied me, tilting its head as though deciding on the precise spot where it ought to land and burrow in my flesh.
My heart banged against my ribs. I choked when I saw its feet tapping to the same rhythm.
“It won’t hurt,” Lailah assured me, “much.”
Nodding, I clutched the armrests of my chair and braced for what came next.
She huffed across the sigil’s back, and its wings snapped upright. When she pursed her lips, exhaling harder, the sigil twisted its wings, letting her fetid breeze carry it right to my shoulder.
My breath stuck in my throat. I couldn’t scream if I had wanted to, and who was left to hear me?
“That’s it,” Lailah coaxed. “There’s a good girl.”
Unsure if she meant me or the sigil, I gritted my teeth until my jaw popped as I waited. I was so tense, so tight, that when the prick of a stinger plunged in the hollow of my throat, I laughed. I shouldn’t have. The tiny prick lingered long enough for me to glimpse pity around Lailah’s eyes.
I raised a hand to my collarbone. “What’s wrong—?”
Fire spread through my throat to burn my tongue, which spewed a language unknown to me. While the words fell from my lips, Lailah began to sing. It was not her song for the risers, it was a lullaby, and even without understanding the words I knew it was a farewell to who I used to be, what I used to be, because the venom from the sigil’s sting blistered my core until the remnants burned to ash, and I was rebuilt in her image. Clawing at my throat, I gasped for air.
My awkward gulps were overshadowed by Lailah’s rising chorus. Her song wrapped around my chest and squeezed until my eyes fluttered closed. So this was death. I was perversely pleased to know I would not be her pawn after all, that my body had rejected the change she had instigated.
“Sweet girl, you aren’t dying,” Lailah said from inside my head.
Panicked, I swallowed air until the taste of her breath sat heavy in my mouth. “Please.”
“This is better than I dreamed it would be.” She clapped her hands. “Use your mind. Go on. Tell me anything. No. Don’t speak. Shut your mouth. Think. Use that brain of yours. Come on.”
I flung my thoughts toward the sound. “Kill me.”
“I have killed one child of mine.” She sighed. “I have no intentions of losing another.”
“I am not your child,” I spat at her.
“Blood of my blood.” She lifted her hand, her fingers smeared with yellow blood, and licked each one clean. “You are as much my child now as Hishima ever was. Welcome to the family.”
“Get out of my head.” My skull ached as though my brain was simmering.
“Oh, fine. You can keep your privacy for now.” She took my arm. “I do admire your spirit.”
Her grip wheeled me forward. “What are you doing?”
“We have much to do, and that…” she gestured to my chair, “…will only be in the way.”
I shrugged from her grip. “Slaughtering a nest full of innocents must take so much time.”
“More than you realize,” she answered, not understanding I hadn’t meant it as conversation.
“You are insane.” At least the raving, ravenous version of Lailah had held grains of truth.
“Insane is a harsh word.” She clicked her nails in that way I hated. “Stop fighting me.”
“I thought you said you wanted me to fight.” She had given me permission to struggle.
“Fight the infection, not me.” She nudged the chair. “Stand up. Stop wasting my time.”
“My ankle is broken. You were there. You ought to remember when it happened.” I snorted. “I can’t walk on it yet. Whatever your plans, you’ll have to push me along for the ride, Mother.”
“You’re being ridiculous.” A well-aimed kick shattered the large rear wheel nearest to her.
“What are you—?” I watched as she circled the chair and lined up with the second big wheel. “Stop it.”
“Now.” She splintered that one and circled around to the front. “Stand.”
Life as I knew it was over. Why not humor her? What was the worst that could happen? If I never walked on my ankle again, so what? How long was never? Next to her, never was relative.
“Suit yourself.” I swung my leg from the brace onto the floor, swallowing a sizzling rush of pain that threatened to engulf my senses. The burn rushed through my blood and left me spluttering.
“I’m waiting.” She pantomimed a yawn.
Bracing on the armrests, I pushed from my seat. I stood, defiantly and unevenly, waiting for the ankle to buckle. Aside from the agony lodged in my throat, I felt fine. A little awkward from the treads making the difference in height between my feet even more pronounced, but I felt fine.
“How did you know my ankle was healed enough to support me?” I asked.
“It’s not.” She shrugged. “The infection will mend your bones sooner than they would have healed on their own, but it will take time. Until then, those pain receptors are being dampened.”
Movement caught the c
orner of my eye, and I thought for an instant Henri glanced at me.
It must have been from pain or wishful thinking. He hadn’t moved. Neither had Fynn.
Not since Lailah sang.
I jerked my chin in their direction. “What will you do with them?”
“Leave them here, I suppose.” Her wings rustled. “See how kind I am? I have not made you choose between your family and your…friend, is it? I will allow them to live. They are my gift to you.”
“Thank you.” Twisted as our situation was, I meant it. “Do you know if…? Are my brothers…?”
“Risers, as you call them, have contained them in the stables. That was some time ago, and they aren’t very dependable help, I’m afraid.” Lailah’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t hear any screams, did you? They usually scream.”
Tamping down the panic boiling in my gut, I said, “No. There was no screaming.”
“See? I’m sure they’re fine then.” Her fingers snagged while she pulled them through her hair. “Enough talk. It’s time we finished this. Come along. Everyone is waiting for us to arrive.”
Afraid to ask who everyone was, I followed her as she glided to the bastille’s hatch.
“Henri, dear,” she cooed at him, “would you mind opening these pesky doors for us?”
He lurched toward the door, each step making him grunt.
“Keep fighting my will,” she said, frowning, “and you’ll pull something.”
Out of options, I knew my best bet to spare as many lives as I could was to remove Lailah from the nest. That acceptance made it possible for me to nod at Henri and hope he grasped my meaning. I saw the moment he stopped fighting and caved to her influence. He opened the bastille, and then the laboratory door. He stood there, his palm against the metal, his body blocking our way.
“What have I done?” he asked in a small voice.
Araneae Nation: The Complete Collection Page 108