Hatchling

by Chris Fox

  The deity glared at Vee for a moment, until Vee glanced away. Only then did she turn to me.

  “Nara,” she said, then cocked her head as if considering. “Just Nara.” She adjusted the leather tie on her ponytail. “I bought us time, but I’ve seen feral arachnidrakes before. They’ll swarm again soon enough, and we need to be gone when they get here.”

  “You’ve seen them before?” I raised an eyebrow. I’d read extensively on everything from Shayan to Virkonan lore. No one mentioned anything like this.

  “I’ve seen many things you wouldn’t believe.” She replaced her helmet with a hiss. “So what’s this about someone telling you to expect me? I’m working alone.”

  “Ahh…also a long story I guess. We were attacked by a white Wyrm.” I peered cautiously out from the cargo hold again, but the eyes in the corridors were gone. “The drakes drove her off, or maybe your arrival did. It would be just like her to try to claim credit for you. So, if she didn’t send you, how did you know we were in trouble? And you’re here to help, right? I have a feeling that if you aren’t we’re not going to be more than a light snack for you.”

  Nara gave a girlish laugh, and shook her helmeted head. “It’s amusing to see what people believe about demons. You’re supposed to be educated right? An archeologist?”

  “That’s right.” Wow, that came out more defensively than I’d intended.

  “Demons,” Vee interrupted, her expression thunderous, “are well documented. You bring war and destruction, and corruption. The void can’t be trusted. Almost every evil god this sector has ever seen came from the void.”

  “Oh, you aren’t wrong about that,” Nara agreed as she retrieved her spellrifle from the void pocket. The pocket snapped soundlessly shut as if it had never existed.

  I so needed to learn that spell.

  Nara’s faceplate went transparent and she met Vee’s glare, kilo for kilo. “Nefarius was a terrible goddess, and so was Talifax. I had a hand in putting both down. Xal, on the other hand, was a craftsman and an empire builder. But the void doesn’t have a monopoly on corrupt gods. Are you familiar with Krox the deceiver? Don’t even get me started on Nebiat.”

  “I’ve heard of Krox, but not Nebiat.” Unless new gods had been recorded since I’d graduated last semester, which seemed unlikely, then this Nara had been to places and seen things I could only guess at. Who knew how ancient she was. I turned to Vee, then directed the question to Kurz. “Will you please keep an eye on your sister, and make sure she doesn’t do anything…rash?”

  Kurz paused for a long time, then offered a slight nod. “Of course, Captain. Though I do not think she will do anything now that it is clear we’re dealing with an ally.”

  “So, Nara,” I said in an attempt to steer the conversation. “If you weren’t sent to help us, what brings you here? I mean, not that I want to look a gift goddess in the mouth, but it seems like an awful coincidence that you arrived precisely when we did.”

  I climbed out the Remora’s door, and back into the Flame’s massive cargo bay. Nara followed, then Rava and Briff, my dad, and much later Kurz and Vee. She kept as much distance between her and Nara as possible, and wore a perpetual scowl that did nothing to undermine my attraction.

  “That’s a delicate question, Jerek.” Nara leaned her rifle on her shoulder, then massaged her own neck with her tail. “I was sent to meet with the new captain of the Word of Xal. Xal thought his creation lost, and wants to make contact with the current…inhabitants.”

  “Inhabitants,” I countered, “not owners. Are you here to take the ship from us?” I was going to have to give it up anyway, but there was no reason she needed to know that. Though, given what I’d already seen her do, she might already know. She’d clearly researched my past.

  “Depths, no.” Nara offered another good natured laugh, the kind that made me want to trust her. “We’re kind of after the opposite. Other gods are going to come and take the ship, and you’re going to need help defending it. We can provide that help, because we have a vested interest in keeping it out of the hands of—”

  A hot orange light flared into existence a meter above the deck. I spun to find a literal fire woman. One of the legendary Shayan Ifrit, comprised of flame and magma, with a sea of tiny glowing tendrils of flame for hair. She was beautiful and alien…and looking at Nara like she knew her.

  “—Out of the hands of gods like me,” the Ifrit growled. She fixed Nara with an imperious stare, one I was grateful not to be on the receiving end of. “You could have sent a missive. We could have worked together.”

  “We still can. I’m sorry I didn’t reach out, but I didn’t think I had time.” Nara removed her helmet, and offered a cautious smile. “It’s good to see you, Frit.”

  “An Ifrit, named Frit. A literal hot girl.” My father, who’d been quietly hovering behind me until now, snorted a laugh. “Now I have definitely seen it all. The sector is a very strange place. Very pleased to make your acquaintances. I don’t suppose you’re, ah, in the market…I’ve got loads of fire resistance so you don’t have to worry about—”

  “She’s taken.” Nara’s voice had gone suddenly cold, more in keeping with what one would expect from a demon. “And trust me when I say you don’t want to meet the hatchling she’s dating.”

  “Wyrm.” Frit swelled with pride. “Kaho has undergone his first molting. He’s a full Wyrm, and greatly respected on Nebiat.”

  “I hate that you named your planet that.” Nara rolled her eyes.

  It was like watching a pair of academy roommates who were catching up after several years apart. Except both were gods. I could feel the strength of them.

  “So,” I said, risking their wrath, “you said we should get out of here, right, Nara? Before the drakes come back? Maybe the two of you can tell us more about why you’re here…while we walk.”

  “We still need a replacement engine,” Vee pointed out as she jerked a thumb at the Remora’s battered form. The cruiser had fared better than expected, though she definitely needed time in a dry dock. Not to mention a new engine. And a new cargo bay bulkhead. “If your gods can help us find that I’ll put aside my aversion.”

  “Aversion?” Frit asked, a flaming eyebrow raising in a way that made me very uncomfortable. “Why don’t you tell me a little more about this aversion?”

  “What she means,” Kurz interceded as he stepped in front of his sister, “is that the Maker has specific edicts about dealing with creatures of the void. They aren’t without cause. Our planet was, quite literally, destroyed by a void goddess named Nefarius, many thousands of years ago. My sister’s concession is an honest one. You will receive no trouble from either of us.”

  Frit seemed like she might respond, but hesitated as something skittered in the corridor. Many somethings. The drakes were returning. From the echoes there had to be hundreds of them. Thousands.

  “Time to go,” I all but begged. “If either of you have a spell that will help we’d be grateful. If not, then my squad needs to hightail it up another corridor. Now.”

  7

  Taking my next step, the first step away from the Remora, was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. The Flame of Knowledge wasn’t like the Word of Xal, which had been uninhabited, so far as I could tell.

  This Great Ship had an entire developed culture old enough to have evolved their own language. Who knew how much of the ship was occupied? Or by what?

  I hurried through the ancient cargo bay, the ceiling disappearing into darkness broken by a few functional lights. My boots crunched oddly as I walked, like I was walking on gravel or sand.

  I glanced down to find the deck coated in a coagulated goo that had long since solidified. It reminded me of something an insect would excrete. Were the arachidrakes responsible?

  Or something worse.

  “Rava, Dad, take point,” I ordered as I ventured onto the stuff. It crunched underfoot, and oozed an odor that reminded me of rotten eggs. “Briff, bring up the rear. V
ee, Kurz, I want you with me.”

  Frit and Nara, our odd new benefactors, held back a ways. They conversed in low tones, and I couldn’t make out a word of it. Not one. I willed a bit of fire into the armor, and activated piercing eyes, a spell I’d learned at the academy, but never had much cause to use until now. It pierced illusions and exposed true natures.

  My eyes flared with heat, not enough to be painful, and then the HUD shimmered and showed a projection of an invisible field enveloping Frit and Nara. They’d erected a powerful ward…then cloaked that spell’s existence. And I hadn’t noticed so much as a single spell being cast.

  All sorts of data now scrolled down the screen next to each deity. Projected spells, masteries, vulnerabilities. The suit was building profiles now that I’d identified as the gods worthy of notice.

  “Did you do that all on your own?” I murmured, though there was no answer from the armor of course. Not unless I addressed the Guardian directly.

  A threat assessment sigil with the number 12 appeared next to Nara. A 34 appeared next to Frit. If that was relative strength, then I knew whose good side I was more worried about staying on. Thankfully both goddesses seemed friendly, though they were still locked in conversation.

  “Vee, Kurz,” I called in a low voice. Once I had their attention I dropped it even further. “How much do you know about either god? Or gods in general? What do we need to expect? Are we in danger?”

  “Extreme danger,” Vee shot back immediately as her gaze bored into Nara’s back. “They could probably end us with little trouble, but odds are high they wish to make pawns of us. They want something. I’d advise you to find out what it is.”

  “Kurz?” I asked quietly as I turned to the taller lurker. He still managed unassuming, though now that I knew the power that lay in the vials across his chest I would never underestimate him, or any other soulcatcher, again.

  “I concur with my sister.” He darted a glance back at the gods, then flicked his gaze back to me. “They are beyond dangerous. Their presence will not go undetected by the denizens of this ship. Anything powerful knows they are here. If they take offense we could get caught in their squabble. It does not end well for mortals who tarry around gods.”

  I nodded slowly and considered how to extricate ourselves. The gods could be reasoned with, it seemed. I’d start with that.

  “Follow Rava,” I ordered, and slowed my pace a bit. “I’ll speak to them, and see if I can learn why they’re here.”

  “Don’t you want me to watch your back?” Vee’s eyes narrowed to slits as she watched Nara. “I don’t trust her motives.”

  “My goal is learning those motives,” I pointed out, then offered a smile. “I’d like to do that without offending her. Let me see what I can learn. Keep an eye on me, but do it from twenty meters out.”

  Vee offered a grudging nod, then followed Kurz as he approached Rava and my father at the front of our little caravan. They lurked just outside the corridor leading deeper into the ship, and what little I could see had been coated with the same secretion, with the same rotten stench.

  I waited until Nara and Frit approached, then fell in beside them. After consideration I willed my helmet to slither off my face. I wanted them to be able to look me in the eye. The heat rolling off Frit would have caused me to take a step back had I not possessed fire magic myself. Hopefully she sensed that kinship.

  “Thank you for the rescue back there.” I smiled at Nara as the demon-goddess picked a path across the strange sediment. Only then did I notice that her feet never actually touched the deck. No wonder she was so silent. “Now that we’re clear we can talk. You said you were looking for the captain of the Word of Xal. That’s me. How can I help you?”

  Frit raised a flaming eyebrow and fixed Nara with a reproving glare. “Yes, Nara, how can he help you?”

  “The same way he can help you I imagine.” She removed her own helmet, and deposited it in her void pocket next to her rifle. “Aran is hoping to acquire the Word of Xal, though he’s not trying to displace the crew, or take it away from anyone. He wants an ally, if possible. Now that we know there is at least one other ship, the pantheon will scramble to acquire them. We want a seat at the table, at the very least.”

  I blinked a few times. We needed money. Badly. Nineteen billion credits badly. I licked my lips, and asked a question that made my heart thunder, and I did it like I was asking the weather, so they didn’t sense my desperation. “Were we willing to sell you a functional Great Ship like the Word of Xal, what kind of purchase price would you consider fair? We would conduct an auction, of course, but our leadership might be amicable to selling at least one ship. Perhaps all of them.”

  “Including the Word?” Nara asked, her eyes glittering like hard chips of obsidian. “Are you willing to forfeit your bond, and turn over that armor so we can assume control?”

  “Yes to the first,” I agreed, then shook my head. “No to the second. We have another set of Heka Aten spellarmor. If you need a set our minister would be willing to include it in the purchase price, I’m sure. We’d be looking for something in say, the twenty-five billion credit range. That would scale based on the vessel of course, and some could be, ah, much more expensive.”

  Both women nodded as if what I’d said was fair and reasonable. Frit spoke first. She licked flaming lips, perfectly shaped to mimic a Shayan. “That can be done, assuming payment can be made through a combination of scales and magical materials.”

  “Xal can offer much more of the latter,” Nara broke in. “Though if need be I imagine we could produce enough scales. We just finalized a trade deal with Virkon.”

  Mind. Blown. I was brokering a deal between gods.

  “It won’t be up to me, of course. The minister would be brokering the deal.” I wasn’t really sure where to take things, so I started up the corridor to buy myself time.

  “Of course,” the goddesses chorused as they followed me up the corridor. Depths, but this was surreal.

  Nara cleared her throat. “Would you mind if we took our leave and withdrew to pursue dealings with this minister?”

  “Thank depths. I mean, of course.” I offered a low bow. I have no idea why that felt right. Both women eyed me oddly. I straightened. “We should be fine, though we may need repairs for our ship.”

  “I don’t have any such expertise,” Frit said, then nodded at Nara. “She doesn’t either unless you learned it recently.”

  “She’s right. I don’t.” Nara pursed her lips and her eyes adopted a faraway look. “I think you’ll be fine for now. I will relay your need to the minister. I’d love to help, but both Frit and I need to be very careful here. Everything we do will be scryed and dissected by the Confederacy. Our goal is to avoid a sector-wide war. Direct interference in planetary matters between member factions is a clear violation of the treaty.”

  The message was clear. We were on our own.

  “Thank you again.” This time I nodded instead of bowing.

  Then, just like that, both women were gone. I could detect no spell use, nor did the armor seem to. Translocation had been described back in my magical theory class, but actually witnessing it…I suddenly felt even smaller than I had.

  We were alone on a hostile vessel, and I’d just sent away our best support. Now I needed to find a way to take this ship and keep my people alive in the process.

  “Hey, Jerek?” Rava called from up ahead. She’d knelt to inspect a fresh pool of white goo at the base of a wall where the corridor branched. “You need to see this.”

  I hurried to join her, and knelt beside the strange substance. I had no doubt I was looking at the secretions. A white drip broke the pool near the center, sending a ring of ripples outward.

  We all glanced upward, and what we saw will always live in my nightmares.

  The white substance dripped from webbing, thick webbing, that had cocooned a large figure. Too large for a human. Just large enough for an arachnidrake. Wings buzzed frantically in the cocoon
, but the struggles were already growing weaker.

  Thousands upon thousands of tiny black spiders scurried out of the cocoon, moving as one swarm, as if guided by an intelligence. They began to flow down the wall…in our direction.

  8

  I didn’t think. I acted. Both hands came up on instinct, and I poured all the fire and all the void into my palms that I could. The suit combined them somehow, into voidflame, the most destructive part of both elements.

  I was familiar with it, but normally casting voidflame required you to master the greater path of destruction, which I’d had exactly no time to study in the time since I’d gained void magic.

  My armor didn’t seem to care.

  A wave of dark flame disintegrated the swarm directly in front of me, and set the webbing aflame. The fire spread quickly, and the spiders skittered back from it.

  “Let’s move!” I roared, then sprinted up the opposite corridor.

  “Where does this lead?” Rava sprinted up, easily overtaking me with her cybered reflexes. Her rifle was cradled easily in both arms, ready to be used, though useless against the spiders.

  “Away from the spiders?” I kept running, but risked a glance behind me to make sure everyone was with me.

  Briff rumbled along in the rear, his tail swishing behind him as he lumbered up the corridor. There’s no way he’d have left anyone behind, and his silhouette comforted me.

  I don’t know how long we ran. Maybe ten minutes? I didn’t think to check my HUD before we’d started, but then I’d been a little busy. I finally halted, long after I could no longer hear the skittering, and began sucking in gigantic lungfuls of stale air. Air that bore an even thicker musk than that we’d detected in the cargo hold.

  “Oh, gods,” Vee panted as she spun in a slow circle. “We’re approaching some sort of nest. We must be. Look at the webbing. It’s thicker up along the ceiling.”