*This is not how the story goes,* Bell said, in spite of himself.
Salt did not pause, weaving image on image, shaping Dawn’s bower again. *This is how I saw it on the hive of Queen Fireheart, a thousand years ago.*
*He dishonors our queen,* Bell said, to Blaze, who shook his head.
*Go on.*
Salt bowed. “So Rapid began to whisper among the blades of Dawn, saying that Dusk coveted her sister’s hive and her sister’s hunting grounds, which were safer than those of Dusk. And as he had hoped, the lords of the zenana came to Dawn and begged her not to trust her sister, but to postpone the meeting for a safer day. Even the hive’s clevermen joined the plea. But Dawn refused them, saying she knew her sister and trusted her, and that all would be well. Her only concession was that she would leave the hive out of range, and meet Dusk at a world where they both culled, and that Dusk would do the same.
“Rapid knew he had only one chance left, and when Dawn went aboard the cruiser that would take her to the meeting, he went with her as consort-to-be. And as consort-to-be, he poisoned the ship, and forced it down on another world entirely. Dawn trusted him — how could she not, her chosen consort? And the other blades trusted him as well.”
Salt could feel the tension rising, and shaped his images accordingly. Rapid had been a blade of Night, formed according to that canon, but now he gave the face a subtle push, making it more modern, so that it began to resemble Bell.
“And so he planned his final act: he would kill the others, for fear they might suspect, and he would cloud Dawn’s mind so that she did not remember what he had done, or if he could not hold her thoughts, then he would kill her, too.”
In his illusion, Rapid leaped to attack three other blades, who fell back, taken by surprise. They fought hard, but one by one Rapid overcame them, and stood panting over their bodies, his coat cut to ribbons and his skin ashen with hunger. Salt saw Bell snarl silently, but the blade mastered himself. It would only take one thing more, Salt thought, his hands trembling now with the strain of holding all the threads.
“But this,” the Young Queen said, her voice clear and calm, “this — story — is very like what has happened here. Too like to be coincidence.”
“I will let Bell answer that,” Salt said, and Bell leaped for him, feeding hand extended. Salt ducked to the side, and tripped over one of the branches gathered for the fire. He fell in a heap, hunching his body to protect himself. Bell’s hand caught his shoulder, claws tearing at the fabric of his coat. He felt the kiss of Bell’s handmouth, the tug of life drawn from his body, and then Everlasting and Forge had wrestled him away. Salt tottered to his feet, aware of the Lanteans’ weapons covering them from beyond the fire.
*So,* Blaze said, his own feeding hand flexing. *You admit your guilt.*
*I do not!* Bell glared at him, pinned between Everlasting and Forge. *He has insulted me — he accuses me of harming our queen! Of course I lost my temper. But this, this tale of his — there’s no truth in it, none at all.*
*But there is.*
Salt’s breath caught in his throat. Moonwhite emerged from the shelter, reaching out to take Blaze’s arm to steady herself. She looked worn, and clearly needed to feed properly, but she was well and whole.
*Clever Salt,* she said. *You’ve guessed most of it. He has been holding me unconscious since we came to this camp.*
Blaze snarled at that, and made an abortive lunge in Bell’s direction, but Moonwhite held him back.
“I don’t want to intrude,” Sheppard called, “but would you guys like to explain what’s going on here?”
“I think there is much explaining to do,” Salt said.
Forge shifted his grip on Bell’s arm and shoulder so that he could set the claws of his feeding hand more firmly into Bell’s skin. Bell snarled, but did not struggle: Forge had his hand planted solidly above Bell’s spine, and Everlasting’s feeding hand was pressed close to the blade’s heart. Moonwhite leaned on Blaze’s arm, her teeth bared in killing fury.
*You,* she said, eyes fixed on Bell. *You betrayed me.*
Forge heard the snap of the Lanteans’ weapons, but did not dare look sideways to see them leveled. If they fired, Everlasting and Bell were both between him and the bullets, but he did not think they would be enough protection to spare his life.
“You want to tell us what’s going on?” Sheppard called.
“Besides the obvious?” That was Salt, swaying from the attack and the broken story.
“It would be well if you spoke so that we all can hear,” the Young Queen said.
Moonwhite did not look at her, gave no sign that she had heard, but spoke aloud, still staring at Bell. “I would have elevated to you to the zenana — would have allowed you to sire a son — and this is how you thank me! It was you who poisoned the ship, and you who infected us all, you who told me there was an iratus nest in the hills.” Her eyes narrowed. “It was you who planned everything.”
Blaze gave her a wary look. “Everything?”
“That is why you asked about Edge’s zenana,” Salt said, and sounded as though the words were startled from him.
“Just so.” Moonwhite flexed her feeding hand. “As I said, I planned to allow him to sire a son — we had discussed it, both he and I, and I had also spoken to my Consort. There were anomalies when I calculated the genetics of our potential offspring — anomalies which Bell himself created. And thus I took him with me when I went to consult my sister, and left myself open to his treachery. To lift your hand against a queen!”
“You are not my queen.” Bell flung himself forward, and Forge hauled him back, feeling blood against his palms as his claws bit deep. “You were never my queen.”
“I took you in! I favored you.” Moowhite snarled. “Worthless, faithless scum.”
“My queen is Death,” Bell answered. “And I will never serve another.”
“Death is dead,” Moonwhite said.
“If he’s Death’s man, he’s planned this a long time,” Forge said. “The blood fever — the Lanteans said it had been altered, but I could seen no purpose in making it more virulent, except to kill. And that was always Death’s way. She ruined everything she could not hold.”
“Liar and fool.” Bell lunged again, and Everlasting dragged him back, handmouth against his skin so that he froze, hissing furiously.
“Let me get this straight,” Sheppard said. “This guy caused your ship to crash? And then — tried to kill you?”
Moonwhite gave him a long stare, as though she was seeing him clearly for the first time. “You are — the Consort of Atlantis?”
McKay made an odd sound that might have been laughter. The Young Queen said, “He is.”
Moonwhite lifted her head, and Blaze said quickly, *We are in their debt. They brought us here, helped us to search.*
*Why?* Moonwhite did not take her eyes from the Young Queen. It was the look of a queen preparing to attack a rival, and Forge flinched.
*I believe to preserve their alliance with Alabaster,* Blaze said, and Moonwhite relaxed slightly.
*Very well.* She said aloud, “He sickened me and my men, and brought down our ship. While we were weakened, he clouded our minds — and that is on me, that I did not see it — and then told us of the iratus nest where I might be healed, since nothing he had done seemed to slow the fever. So we climbed up to the nest, and there, finally, his hand slipped, and I realized that he was pushing me to take this action. I broke his hold, and he and my loyal men fought —” Her face twisted, anger and grief. “While I was too weak to aid them. He beat them down, and flung me into the nest. The queen seized me, and I knew no more. Since he lives, I assume he fed on any survivors, the faithless coward.”
“But it wasn’t enough to heal him completely,” Everlasting said. “We found him still unconscious, and you in the iratus queen’s grasp.”
“Death is dead,” Moonwhite said again. “And you are mad.”
“He is forsworn,” Blaze said.
<
br /> “And he has failed,” Everlasting said. “Your queen lives, our alliance is unbroken, our friendship with Alabaster remains untarnished — we have met the Lanteans and found them to be true to their word, whatever other disagreements we have with them. Nothing he worked for has succeeded.”
“Death is dead,” Salt said. “And everything she worked for overthrown.”
Bell twisted in their hands again. “She was the greatest queen of our day or any, and you are nothing but shadows. You have given us to the kine, and we shall fade to nothing.”
“You will not be here to see it,” Moonwhite said, with a grim smile. “He has tried to kill a queen, murdered his fellow blades, destroyed a ship of my following. Can anyone speak for him?”
“Not I,” Everlasting said, and Forge echoed him. Salt shook his head in silence.
Blaze said, “There is none who can.”
“So,” Moonwhite said. “When you joined my hive, you placed your life in my hands. You pledged it to my service as a blade of Night and a man of my hive.” She flexed her feeding hand. “I require that life of you.”
*And more honor than you deserve,* Blaze said, *to die at her hand.*
*You are a shadow of a true queen,* Bell retorted, *and your turn will come.*
Moonwhite moved then, as quick as a striking snake, closing the distance between them in a single stride, her feeding hand fastening unerringly on Bell’s chest. He cried out in spite of himself, his head falling back as the life was ripped from him. Moonwhite snarled and pressed closer, draining him in great gulps.
“Hey, you can’t do that —” McKay began, and fell silent at the Young Queen’s glare.
Under the queen’s hand, Bell withered, his skin wrinkling, his hair thinning to nothing, his struggles fading. His eyes closed, and he fought to shape a snarl. *Fools.* It was the merest thread of thought, the last flicker of his life. *Death has a daughter.*
Moonwhite snarled again, but it was too late. Bell hung dead in Forge’s grasp, and Forge released him with a gasp of fear.
*That can’t be true.*
Everlasting let go as well, and the emptied husk slid to the ground at their feet. *He’s still trying to breed dissension between our hives. Surely.*
Blaze shook his head. *Can we afford to believe that?*
Moonwhite stared at the body, breathing hard, her teeth still bared, blood on her claws and on her handmouth. *Fool he named me, and fool I am. I should not have killed him so quickly.*
*He would not have said more than that,* Salt said. *Everlasting is right, he sought to cause trouble to the very end.*
*And you needed to feed,* Blaze said.
Moonwhite shook her head. *This was not wisely done.*
*But it is done,* Salt said, *and we must face the consequences.* He tipped his head ever so slightly toward the Lanteans, standing with weapons ready. *All of them.*
Moonwhite shook back her hair and turned to face the humans. Forge took a step sideways, ready to place himself between the queen and the Lantean weapons. She was not his queen, he thought, but he owed her that much — owed his own queen to protect her sister. The two Marines looked shaken, and Ronon’s lips were drawn back in a snarl that rivaled Moonwhite’s. Sheppard looked uneasy, and McKay was shaking his head. Only the Young Queen stood impassive, her expression unreadable.
“Was that really necessary?” McKay said, plaintively. “I mean, really?”
“His life was forfeit when he raised his hand against me,” Moonwhite answered.
A silence stretched between them broken only by the hiss and crackle of the fire. After a moment, Sheppard nodded reluctantly, and the Young Queen said, “We understand why you did it.”
“Yes.” Moonwhite hesitated then, and Blaze lifted his head in alarm.
*Surely there’s no need to tell them what he said —*
*Yes,* Everlasting said, in almost the same moment, *I agree.*
*Be silent.* Moonwhite stared at the Young Queen for another handful of heartbeats and then abruptly her frozen stance eased. “There is a thing you should know, and before you say it, I am aware that I acted precipitously. With his last breath, he claimed Queen Death had a daughter.”
Ronon said something under his breath that made the Marines exchange respectful glances, but the Young Queen gave a thoughtful nod, as though it did not surprise her.
“Oh, that’s just great,” McKay said, rolling his eyes. “That’s just what we need.”
“Is that possible?” Sheppard asked. “I mean — we’d have known if she was pregnant when she was killed, right? And if she’d had a kid before, wouldn’t somebody have mentioned it?”
“If she had had a daughter born before she tried to bend us all to her will, I would have expected her to speak of it, yes,” Moonwhite said. “It would have aided her cause. But if she conceived before the last battle, and placed the embryo in stasis in her hive — it’s possible.”
“Her hive was destroyed,” the Young Queen said.
Moonwhite shrugged. “In another of her ships, then. That’s not unknown. But I will agree it makes it less likely. And I will also agree that it is very possible that he lied. It would certainly suit him to leave us in fear.”
Sheppard and the Young Queen exchanged looks, and Sheppard said, “So why are you telling us this?”
Moonwhite spread her hands. “You saved my life. I am in your debt that far, whatever comes of this agreement.”
“Fair enough,” Sheppard said.
And that, Forge thought, was proof enough that they would eventually agree to the treaty. They had worked with the Lanteans, and been treated with honor — more than that, had treated them as equals, and there was no stepping back from that line. In the meantime… He caught Everlasting’s eye and together they dragged Bell’s body into the woods away from the fire.
In the morning, the Lantean jumper arrived as promised, and delivered them to the field by the Stargate where their scout was waiting. Blaze delivered Light Breaking’s people to their own waiting cruiser with promises of further contact soon, then set a course to rendezvous with Moonwhite’s hive. Once the cruise was safely underway, he made his way aft to the quarters given over to the queen, hesitating for an instant outside the door before he felt the familiar touch of her mind.
*Enter.*
The door slid back at her word, and Blaze came in. This was not a zenana, or even proper queen’s quarters; it was intended for a blade commanding, a single room with its bed inset into the curve of an inner wall that also hid the bathing chamber. Moonwhite was curled on a large armless chair, nestled comfortably in its thickly padded surface. She looked better than she had on the planet, though Blaze could feel her underlying hunger.
*We are on course for home,* he said. *We should be there in seven hours.*
*Good.* She shifted, gesturing with her off hand to indicate that he should take the space created, and Blaze perched carefully next to her. *It was well done,* she said, after a moment.
Blaze dipped his head. *Thank you. I feared —* And there he stopped, not wanting to admit all the things he’d suspected, everything that had crossed his mind since she had disappeared.
Moonwhite’s smile was wry. *I know.*
Greatly daring, he let himself lean against her shoulder, and was rewarded by a small sigh of contentment. Mist rose from the floor, soothing skin dried by altitude and sunlight, and he closed his eyes, smelling the sweet-sharp scent of her hair.
*We will have to accept this alliance,* she said. *I always knew we could not fight the Lanteans. Now — now I doubt we could avoid their notice.*
*I agree,* Blaze said. He wouldn’t like to go up against Atlantis’s consort even in a fair fight; the Lanteans’ technology negated the advantage the Wraith had always had, and their weapons might even tip the balance in the other direction. Better to make a deal than to risk open war.
*Will Light Breaking agree?*
*My impression is that she was already leaning that way,* Blaze
answered. *I don’t think this will change her mind.* He paused. *There is also the retrovirus to consider.*
Moonwhite curled her lip in a silent snarl. *Don’t remind me. Surely you see the problems as well as I.*
*I do. But I am beginning to think there may be advantages as well.*
*Perhaps,* Moonwhite said, and sighed. *Let’s leave that for another day.*
Blaze bowed his head. *As you wish.*
She settled herself more comfortably against his side, her head on his shoulder, her fingers brushing his wrist. After so long apart, after all his fears, he was hyperaware of that touch, of her exhaustion and her hunger and her indomitable spirit. If she had been lost… He suppressed that thought, unwilling to look at it now that it was safely in the past, and felt her smile.
*If I die, you should join Light Breaking.*
*I don’t want to.* He had spoken with more honesty than he had meant, and her fingers tightened, claws digging momentarily into his skin, silent reproof.
*You will at least settle my people there.*
*Yes.* He dipped his head again, grateful for so much grace, to be allowed to choose solitude however perverse that choice might be. *I will certainly do that.*
*My sister will keep them safe. As safe as possible, in any case. You are, of course, free to do as you wish once that’s done.*
*Thank you.*
It was very peaceful sitting there, the mist drifting gently toward them, and Blaze let his eyes close again. Soon they would be back on the hive, but for now he could take this time simply to be with his queen, relax and bask in her presence.
*When Bell held me unconscious,* she said slowly, and shook her head. *It was the oddest thing.*
*Oh?*
*I dreamed I could feel another queen, sometimes close, sometimes far, but striving, I thought, to help me. To free me. And her touch, her presence — I would swear it was Steelflower.*
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