by Eden Wolfe
So few men. There used to be so many here, this was their den. How quickly the population of them has dwindled.
She was in no rush. Eventually, she would find her way to Roman, if he didn't come down to meet her first. But he wouldn't. He would wait for her arrival. He was probably preparing for a variety of scenarios.
I don't need Ariane's permission to check in on the Tower's work. I'm not her prisoner. I will just check in on certain programs. My attention on them alone will spark Roman into closer management.
Maeva smiled to herself.
Let that daughter of mine chastise as she wishes. It's time she treated her Queen Mother with greater respect. My role here is not yet finished.
She arrived on the fourteenth floor and immediately felt someone's throbbing neck. The pulse accelerated. The floor had sixteen offices on one side and a series of labs on the other. And someone was in a panic over Maeva's arrival, more than she should be.
"Hush, it's Maeva!" she heard one of the lab techs whisper, but she was not the one Maeva sought out. As on the other floors, those who had been at their desks, heads down, with magnifying glasses or turning pages of reports, all stood on seeing her. She felt the normal scurry of rushing blood at the sight of her as she walked through the rows of glass offices, looking into each one, occasionally taking a step inside and inspecting, though not for anything in particular.
But this one woman was different. She still felt it, the shallow quick breathing, the tension. Out of place.
She is more nervous than can be explained by simple surprise.
Her dress stroking her legs as she walked was the only sound on the floor.
The heartbeat of the woman in her ears grew.
I am nearly upon her. Who are you? What have you done to inspire such anxiety?
She looked from face to face, but so far each was as expected.
The heartbeat grew louder still.
I'm coming, whoever you are, I'm coming. And we're going to find out what this is all about.
She approached an office with a slight woman inside. At first glance, she was like the others, perhaps a little less muscular, a little shorter, a little smaller in the hips.
Designed for research. So what has you this panicked?
Maeva entered the office and looked the woman in the eye. The woman kept her spine erect, her eyes on Maeva, but not in opposition.
You mask it well to the common eye. But my eye isn't common, woman.
Maeva came to the desk and picked up a report. The incubation program. She rustled through the papers, all the while the woman's heartbeat pumped and her blood rushed like a waterfall. Maeva saw her identification and gave a small knowing smile to the woman.
Seems I remember something of you. And it seems you have been taking liberties where you should not. We just have to find out what they are.
Maeva inhaled deeply, turned, and left the office, hearing the woman's inner workings tumble over themselves with a rush Maeva knew to be relief.
Enjoy it while you can, Sara of the seventh line. Things are about to get much worse for you than you expect.
She continued her observations of the Tower, but she put her original plan to one side. She'd thought she was coming to assert herself, to lay the groundwork for a plan that Ariane would later execute. Instead, she came to unearth a traitor working at the very heart of the program they'd all come to count upon - and which was failing.
Could she be responsible for the problems we've seen? Could this be why my demands for incubation have gone awry? Fourteenth floor, she very well could have planted something in the genes that would be responsible for the madness we've seen in the incubates' behavior. Yes, she very well could be. Perhaps it wasn't at all that they rushed to scale. Perhaps it was doomed from the start by a Willing Woman hardliner right within their midst.
Arriving on the nineteenth floor, Maeva headed straight to Roman's office. The administrative management in the other offices could do nothing for her now.
Roman was waiting for her. "Maeva."
"Call the Primary Overseer."
"Uma?"
"Call her now."
Roman stuck his head out the door and called to one of the admins. He rubbed his hands together. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Of course you weren't, I didn't tell you I was coming."
"To what do we owe - "
"Seems you've been running a lax operation, Roman."
"What?"
"How closely have you been monitoring the staff?"
"We do all the regular checks, per protocol - "
"And are you satisfied with what you've found?"
"I'm not following you."
"Roman?" Uma knocked on the door.
"Come in. Your timing is impeccable, Uma. I was just telling Roman about how you've allowed yourself to slip."
Uma snapped her head at Roman, who shrugged.
"Your ignorance is yet another sign of your incompetence." Maeva walked to Roman, bringing her nose almost to touch his. "How could you allow a traitor to be working on the incubation program?"
Roman recoiled, his shoulders pulling in, "A traitor?"
"How could you allow this to happen? How could you! I placed all my faith in you, right from the beginning. It wasn't just about the promotion. It was about something far greater than that. This program - you hated it from the outset, didn't you?”
"No, never - "
"You paid it such little mind that now there is a woman, smack in the center of it all, who has been sabotaging it right under your nose." She swung to Uma, "What kind of affair are you running here, Uma? Where is your loyalty? Perhaps that's the question I should be asking."
Uma recoiled. "Madam, I have always invested everything - "
Don't start with your meager defenses. Explain how there is one among you, one you have assigned, who has been allowed to play with our future like it's a child's game? I can't tell you if it's the genes or something else in the sequence. I have no idea what it is, but I can tell you that the moment I saw her it was written plain as day on her face. Reeked of betrayal. That rank, sweet stench. And you couldn't see it among your own direct reporting staff? This is more than shame, Uma."
Roman stepped forward, "Maeva, please, who are you talking about? Let us deal with this as we must, and have no doubt, we will. Immediately."
"No Roman, this is out of your court now and squarely in mine. Call the Guard and have her arrest Sara of the seventh line immediately. I want her dragged to the fortress before I even have time to advise the Commandante of what you've been permitting between these walls. Sabotage. Betrayal. Roman, you might have ruined everything. I just hope we can salvage what's left of the incubate program before all of Lower Earth finds itself at the mercy of the enemy. Go! Call the Guard! And consider yourselves fortunate I'm not having you arrested alongside her. I truly believe you were reckless enough to deserve it, being blind to her treachery."
Electricity wove through Maeva's body as she marched out of the office and ran down the back stairwell of the Tower. She did not want to see anyone, not now. Life was coursing through her veins and she remembered all she had been born for, her great mission, her reason for being. All she had sacrificed, and now she had a chance to salvage it from the wreck yet again.
She would take it to Ariane, certainly. But not before she'd had Irene wrench the truth from the traitor.
27
Irene
Irene marched through the fortress, the recent notice crumpled in her hand. She stopped and uncurled it again, disbelieving the ink before her.
"Stay-Within Order - Immediate effect: On Royal command, all ethnic Ganese are required to stay within the negotiated boundaries of Gana until further notice. The Free Route is hereby closed, the pathways off-limits for any travel, whether logistical or political in nature. The first checkpoint shall be overseen by the Queen's Guard and the Ganese currently in place are to return to Gana boundaries. Geb hereby assigns a representative for
ongoing management, communications, and negotiations, and shall remain in the checkpoint, thus requiring lodgings and sustenance to be provided by Gana. This order remains in place until Royal command releases it. To be distributed to all ethnic Ganese."
Irene clenched the notice in her fist, her nails cutting into the flesh of her palms.
This is going too far. I have always been supportive over the years, but now, to close down the Free Route? There is no justification for it. I cannot sit by and let them cut Gana out.
She went through the East Wing, Main Fortress, and South Wing, opening each door, finding meetings underway or empty spaces, but Maeva was nowhere to be found.
She has no reason to be elsewhere, Ariane has not given her permission for any further expeditions. Where is she?
The fire burned hotter in her. While she knew she had to approach the situation with political acumen, the affront was more than she could bear.
It felt personal.
This young Queen who thinks she can undo generations of negotiations. Her arrogance reeks like rotten flesh. That she demands my complete loyalty while offering nothing in return. There is no love from her. Even Maeva, for all her faults, her violent temper, and mercurial nature, even she knew the importance of relationships. Now it is Maeva who must teach her Daughter Queen a lesson about how to inspire loyalty in her people.
Close the Free Route and she invites every offense Gana might muster.
"Maeva!"
Irene saw the Queen Mother entering the Fortress.
"Irene. I need you. In the underground chambers. Now."
"No, it is me who needs you. I need you to explain this ludicrous order!"
"Not now, Irene." Maeva clenched her teeth, "You come down to the chambers with me, this instant."
Irene wouldn't move, not until she had some kind of answer. This was her time to make demands, not take them.
"These restrictions will have consequences, Maeva, don't you see that? The relationship is managed right now, but it's tenuous. Leadon is an unknown quantity. We cannot be confident in how she will respond. She could react in ways that jeopardize all we worked so hard, all these many years to build." She held up the order, "For what? For a Queen whose own paranoia creates her enemies in the outer counties? You saw it, you know what I'm talking about Maeva."
Maeva stepped close to Irene, both were breathing heavily, Irene felt the emotion rolling off Maeva, strong enough to meet her own, but she would not lose her ground. She lifted her chin and looked down at Maeva, "You must explain this."
Maeva's eyes alit, wild and wide. "We have problems far greater than this right now, Irene."
"Greater than a civil war?"
"You exaggerate." Maeva's teeth clenched, "So a few priestesses won't be able to come to Geb for a while, they hardly traveled anyway, this will be no loss to them, the condition is temporary while their new Chief settles down."
"That is not the point! The Free Route has been the basis of the relationship with Geb from the first settlers. What's being asked here - not asked, ordered - is to violate the very premise of how our peoples came to live in mutual prosperity."
"Mutual prosperity?"
"The Route is necessary for impregnation, for trade, for ceremonial relations - "
"Irene. Shut up. Listen to me. Events are overtaking us. We cannot stand here a moment longer. Your concerns for your people have been noted. But now you must rise into your role as Commandante, because all that we have been working towards for the past five years is about to come to nothing because of the traitor planted deep in Central Tower. And she's being brought here right now. I don't know what she's done, but I know that she's done it. And if she is the one responsible for the failings of the incubation program, for the program I set in place myself, then we have far greater issues than excursions by the Ganese to the capital. We're talking sabotage of the genes of what is now a generation of fourteen thousand. Fourteen thousand possible deviants, possible betrayers, and possible ruin of all we planned - they were to be our army, Irene. Do I have to remind you of this? The army you so desired, the thousands needed to prepare for the colonization that still will come, will one day come and within their generation. Irene, this is it! This traitor might be at the center of its demise, and you - you - must pull it out of her. So do not stand here for another second with that piece of paper in the air when I am about to deliver to you the woman who might be the undoing of everything!"
Irene's heart was beating faster than she could control, her ears throbbed with the sound of it. Maeva's words penetrated her. Her whole spirit shifted; an answer, a possible answer at last to how things had turned so wrong.
The order fell from her hand, the paper floating to the ground.
"Where is she?" Irene whispered.
"The Guard is collecting her. You need to prepare the chamber."
Irene nodded. There would be time for the order later. Maeva was right, it paled beside the chance to finally uncover the truth behind the mess the incubation program had become.
The last time Irene had used the chamber had been four years earlier when they captured the last known Upper Earth scout. The woman had gone mad, eyes bulging as Irene thrust her face again and again into the bucket of water.
But she'd never cracked. They had no more intelligence than when they'd started. No news on Upper Earth's plans. No sense of when they were coming. Not even an idea of why they'd sent the women when it appeared they would never be going back to Upper Earth. The scouts had integrated wholly into Lower Earth's population, almost exclusively in the Dark Counties, but a few had migrated to Geb, playing at being the regular traders who came to the capital for simple business.
Irene looked at the chains mounted on the wall and vowed.
Never again. I am a warrior before I am a priestess. This is my gift. I will never again allow a prisoner to outmaneuver me.
She mentally prepared her list of tactics. A woman from Central Tower would have a very different constitution from a scout. Irene would have to read her movements, listen to what she didn't say.
She heard feet scuffling down the stone steps towards the chambers. The fortress clearly had been built at a time when they needed many prison cells. Irene had only ever used three of the thirty on the underground level. She heard the prisoner struggling, but without saying a word. Feet slipping and dragging, while heavier steps moved forward at a regular steady pace.
Two guards framed the woman, each dragging her by the arm. The prisoner didn't stand a chance against them.
This is the woman? This tiny sliver of a woman is the one who may have undone all our plans?
It hardly seemed possible, but Irene watched the woman's eyes. She watched as the woman scanned the room, taking in the dimension, the implements, evaluating Irene herself.
She is assessing every detail, eyes darting as information assesses the risk and measures the possible outcomes. I should not underestimate her. She is not made of the same mettle as a scout. She is made of something else entirely.
Irene opened the folder in her hands. "Sara of the seventh line. I see you have made several unexplained trips to Cork Town recently. We have much to discuss."
Irene walked past the woman and slammed the heavy wooden door to the chamber. Irene had selected the chamber in the center of the underground maze. No one would hear the woman's screams.
28
Leadon
Leadon moved in between the rows of warrior priestesses conducting the morning routine. Their bodies moved as a single unit, the flow between stretch, strengthen, and assault was near invisible.
Lea smiled.
As it should be. Their ability is evident; it's only a matter of increasing their skill.
Across the village, women conducted the exercises at sunrise. No one complained. The enclosure of Gana had ignited renewed discipline.
We had become strong as priestesses, but we are only half ourselves if we are not warriors.
"I believe we are
ready for a more challenging routine," Priyantha joined Leadon in her inspection. "They are excelling."
"I agree, on both points." Leadon looked at Priyantha, "Have you spoken with Yon?"
"She says the Westerners are feeling more integrated than ever."
Leadon closed her eyes and let out a long breath. "I cannot tell you how relieved I am to hear it."
"You should feel more than relieved," Priyantha stopped on the outskirts of the women's configuration, "You should feel proud. You made that happen."
"No, " Leadon continued walking. "I did not. I only saw the divide and knew it served neither East nor West for us to consider ourselves as one or the other. We are Ganese."
Priyantha smiled, "Exactly."
They continued the inspection, turning around the village square to where Anyook was leading the exercises. Anyook saw them coming and waved them over.
"Leadon, did Priyantha tell you?"
"That you're ready for the next level, she did, and I agree."
"Excellent. I've prepared sparring routines."
"Where do you see that fitting in with the other exercises?"
"After, definitely after. We can use the midday sun to increase intensity. Eventually, we can move to midnight assault practice."
"After this, we should attend to strategy, at a more universal level."
Leadon nodded, "Yes, we have to complete our designs. We can build upon those which we already have from the ancestors, but new threats call for new approaches."
"Agreed."
"Let's meet on that with the council in four days. That will give Anyook enough time to launch the new sparring training and we'll be able to identify the possible weaknesses we need to overcome."
"Four days is plenty," Anyook added. "We could do it in three."
"Fine, keep me informed."
Anyook nodded and then ran back to her station to lead through the next series of exercises. Leadon looked across the organized crowd.