"Dada said I have to take care of you." The boy slid his cold little hand into Rhianni's grip.
She understood how he felt.
The Black Pit had crept close enough to be seen from the plateau on the west side of the settlement. When she visited the edge of the pit mere weeks ago, it had been kilometers away. Now, it crept closer, fast enough for the movement to be seen.
In the starlit night, the crawling black cloud of poison glowed like phosphorescent corruption. Rhianni swallowed down nausea that had nothing to do with her battered insides.
Not that they hurt anymore.
Shadows had surrounded them from the moment they left the healer's cabin. Starfire walked beside her, taking away her pain, her weakness, filling her with energy that put blue sparks at her fingertips.
A long train of Shadows, their eyes sparkling blue in the darkness, stretched down the slope behind her. They focused on Starfire, just as Rhianni sensed Starfire focused on her.
She had held the bow that shot the arrows, in her dream.
"Who's that, Mama?" Danil whispered, jarring her from her spinning thoughts. He yanked on her sleeve and pointed.
Below the plateau, a person walked straight toward the edge of the glowing blackness.
"Go back and get all the grownups." Rhianni dropped to one knee and forced herself to smile for the boy. "This is very important, Danil. I'm depending on you. That person is in trouble and you have to get help. I'm going to try to warn her. Understand?"
He nodded. She kissed him, hugged him and gave him a little shove back down the path off the plateau. The wall of Shadows split apart to let him through. Two separated from the mass to escort the running child.
"Okay," she whispered, though she knew she didn't have to speak for Starfire to understand. "Now what do I do?"
A bright flash lit up the plaza, casting black shadows against bleached-white buildings. Petroc ducked, covering his head with his arms. Nothing followed the flash. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and looked for Gan. His friend knelt, rubbing his eyes with his fists. Petroc opened his mouth to ask if Gan was all right. He stopped, mouth hanging open, as he felt the vibrations begin.
Soft and distant at first, only a tingling in the foundations of the building, the pulsations grew stronger, then audible. A soft thrumming, it turned into a rumbling that made the windows dance in their frames. A new light touched the stormy night sky, with a bluish cast. Petroc stumbled to the doorway to look out.
What had the Council kept hidden, for a last resort effort?
"Rhianni, darling, how nice of you to join me," Mistress Shoreel called from the darkness.
A chill gripped Rhianni. How could her grandmother know it was her? They were still separated by the dying, poisoned trees, and she walked in shadows, no moonlight or starlight to betray her features or her movements.
Unless there was more to being a Talroqi host than simply being a living husk?
"Are you pregnant too, Grandmother? Or do women your age serve another function?" A quiet portion of her mind was pleased at the steadiness of her voice. Not bad for someone who had nearly died yesterday.
"So you finally figured it out. Poor Rhianni, kept so busy with silly little errands, she didn't have time to think." Mistress Shoreel had that same tinkling laugh Janese used--so uncharacteristic for them both.
It had never come from them, but from the Talroqi living inside them. Rhianni felt her gorge rising.
"You wanted me at the Black Pit all along, didn't you?"
"The Black Pit? Is that what those pitiful children and their nasty doggies call it? How amusing." The woman sighed dramatically. Her moonlit features grew clearer as she drew nearer. "You're smart, Rhianni. That's important for a queen's host. We'll need everything you know about the Rovers. But there's still time before we deal with that problem."
"How long did my grandmother suffer before you destroyed her mind?" She refused to respond to what she had just heard. Rhianni could guess all too clearly what the creature inside her grandmother had meant.
"I didn't suffer at all, darling. I'm still here. I like my little friend, to keep me company, never alone. She understands me. Nobody understood me until she came along." Mistress Shoreel rubbed her hands over her distended belly. "I can almost understand why Janese was so jealous. We still needed her to carry, but she had no more eggs left in her ovaries. We needed a fresh nursery. When she realized you would carry the new queen, the stupid girl decided to fight and got the queen killed."
"But not the only queen Talroqi?" Rhianni guessed. How long could she keep this creature distracted, talking, until help arrived?
"Of course not. We're not lost by any stretch of the imagination." Mistress Shoreel chuckled. "You're actually lucky. This larval queen isn't as big as the first few generations were. It's like having sex when she crawls up inside you, instead of like giving birth. Poor Janese didn't like that part of it. We had to tie her down. We were afraid she'd quite gone insane before the queen was even half inside her. And the screams!" She tsked and shook her head. "But it was over soon enough and she was delighted with the honor given her. We can't use sedatives, you know. It interferes permanently with the bond between queen and host." She laughed, her voice rippling with poison. "Oh, the look on your face!"
Trying to steady her sense of the world under her feet, Rhianni reached with her mind for the presence of the Shadows.
They weren't there. Not three or four meters back in the darkness. Not in the blue haze she had sensed at the corners of her consciousness for hours now. Not anywhere.
Four bright spots of light descended into the plaza in front of The Hall. As they grew closer to the ground, Petroc made out shapes. Definitely aircraft of some kind. Big, sleek, and thirty years more modern than anything the colony had. Much bigger than shuttles.
"Oh, Roc..." Gan leaned against the doorframe. He took a deep breath and seemed to wobble for a moment, before he gave him a grin that started weak. "Those are ambi-atmospheric craft. They can go from deep space to planetside without pause. More weapons than Enforcer shuttles. Faster. Expensive."
Petroc waited and watched, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best. He tried to fathom the size and capabilities of even one, let alone all four craft together. The hatch slid open in the closest shuttle. Men in form-fitting, dull black uniforms began to stream out.
"Rovers," Gan said. "That's what I call perfect timing."
Petroc nodded as the troops disembarked. "We should go out and meet them," he said, when the Rovers moved out through the plaza. A man in a uniform picked out with red and silver led the way. After a few steps, he made out the man's features. If Rhianni hadn't said her father was dead, Petroc would have sworn Colonel Joras Day had come back to Mallachrom.
General Choran Day was Colonel Day's brother.
Petroc and Gan moved slowly, letting the Rovers come to them. He had no idea what he would say, or what the Rover leader would say to him. The man made him feel inadequate. Muscles rippled under his uniform. His stride spoke his command of the situation. His eyes matched the silver streaking his jet-black hair, and they sparked with a mixture of anger and concern as he strode across the plaza to the doors of The Hall.
"Sir." Gan abruptly snapped to attention.
"I assume you're part of Captain Day's forces," Day said, his voice mild despite the sternness in his eyes. He looked over Gan before turning to Petroc. His eyes narrowed a moment, then he nodded. "I hope you're Petroc Ash."
"Yes, sir, I am." Petroc's stomach went cold and heavy.
"Captain Day sent a visual. Since she hasn't come running to meet me, I assume she's working elsewhere--or injured."
"She's alive, but weak after a murder attempt. Shatter pellets." He waited, but the man only nodded. Petroc knew the situation was improving, but he could not be sure by how much.
Day looked around the plaza. Most of his Rovers had vanished into the darkness. Silence surrounded The Hall. Petroc imagined the peace spreading lik
e a drug that killed an enemy virus as it moved through the body.
"I hereby take control of this planet's government. Mallachrom is now under military rule."
"You're welcome to it," Petroc muttered.
Day stared at him a moment, then a grin caught one corner of his mouth and he burst out in a roar of laughter. "Jor told me about you. Said you were more than a match for his little girl. I hope you've kept her from getting too arrogant." The General held out his hand and Petroc shook it, feeling a little dazed.
Blue filled his vision and his legs started to fold. He clutched at Day's arm as the Merger enclosed his mind. Petroc stood at the edge of the Pit, looking through Rhianni's eyes. He saw through the eyes of thousands of Shadows. He saw through the eyes of the Taken who responded to Danil's alarm. Gan shouted his name somewhere far away.
"Rhianni!" he roared, and turned to run, as if he could cross half the continent in a few steps. "The Pit's ready to blow!"
"The Black Pit?" General Day grabbed hold of Petroc's shoulder and yanked him around to face him. "That air sample Rhianni sent had mutated Talroqi DNA."
"We just figured out they're using Human women to adapt themselves to Human-friendly worlds," Gan blurted. "Rhianni's near the Pit." He went white as he turned to stare at Petroc. "If it's moving--"
Blue wrapped around Petroc as he reached with everything he had for Rhianni. She was in danger. He roared with mind and soul for every member of the Merger and plunged into the blue fire. Now was the time. Mallachrom needed him. Rhianni needed him.
And he wasn't there.
"It won't hurt a bit," Mistress Shoreel said, advancing on Rhianni. "But my friends will persuade you to cooperate, if that's what it takes."
She gestured, and four shapes appeared out of the darkness. A few steps into the moonlight revealed them as slack-jawed, blank-eyed members of the Council, led by Dr. Carr. That explained much, Rhianni realized. Dr. Carr was a Talroqi host, exploring off-planet, probably contacting other hosts on other worlds, trying to gain government support to wipe out the Taken before they got strong enough to resist the Talroqi.
Mistress Shoreel peeled off her voluminous robes, leaving them in a trail like a snail's slime behind her.
A haze of blue built up in the back of Rhianni's mind, holding her still when every instinct shouted to flee. She thought she heard Petroc call her name. She couldn't move as her grandmother approached, naked in the moonlight. Her breasts were shriveled brown nubs. A long, vertical seam covered her swollen belly. It had ugly, brown-red edges pressed tight together, reminding her of swollen, sunburned, monstrous lips. Streaks of darkness like infected flesh stretched from the lips of the seam, wrapping around her body.
"It's easier if you come willingly." She ran her fingers along the seam up her stomach. "Take off your clothes, lie down and spread your legs. It'll all be over in a minute."
A green, glowing worm, like the things that had hung on the Talroqi queen Petroc had killed, emerged from the top of the seam and slithered down into Mistress Shoreel's waiting hands.
Rhianni went to her knees, fighting not to spew her supper broth. She closed her eyes, fighting for control. That thing wanted to crawl in where only Petroc belonged.
Petroc!
Mistress Shoreel stopped short, almost within arm's reach of Rhianni. The larval Talroqi curled up in her hand and a high-pitched keening sound escaped it. Rhianni stared, bemused, as her grandmother's throat worked with revulsion and the woman backed away from her.
"You're pregnant!" she finally spat. "How did that happen? We kept you too busy. We arrested that idiot Ash boy, to keep him from getting to you. How dare you go against all our plans?"
"Pregnancy makes it impossible for the Talroqi to take me over," Rhianni whispered. Petroc, do you hear that?
She didn't see her grandmother's fist until it was too late. With a cry, Rhianni went down, her cheek stinging from the blow.
Petroc, she'll try to kill our baby!
We're here. We're all here! Petroc shouted in her mind.
Rhianni felt his arms enclose her. She felt the impact of hundreds of minds, pressing up against hers. Forcing her forward. Rhianni leaped to her feet and blue fire danced on her fingertips, on the ends of her hair, in her eyes.
Mistress Shoreel screamed. The Talroqi larva in her hands shrieked. Rhianni smelled something foul burning.
She opened her eyes to blue light everywhere. The larval Talroqi hit the ground, trailing black smoke. Mistress Shoreel shrieked and toppled backwards. Black smoke erupted from her stomach as the seam split open.
"Anni," Petroc groaned, and wrapped his arms tight around her, holding her upright as power flowed through him, into her, connecting all the Shadows and Taken on the entire planet.
All the Taken of the Merger stepped out of blue streaks of light and formed a ring around them. Outside the ring, seemingly every Shadow on the planet formed a carpet of blue fire that stretched as far as the moonlight touched.
"Now," Rhianni cried, prompted by Starfire's touch in her mind. She closed her eyes, leaned into Petroc's embrace and opened herself to the Merger, the power of every Taken mind on the planet.
She saw the entire planet, and blue streaks of energy reaching from every Taken, converging on the Merger, converging on Petroc, and flowing into her.
Rhianni was not the bow--she was the arrow.
In her mind's eye, she flung all she knew, all her discipline, all her love for Mallachrom and its people and for Petroc, into the blackness boiling up from the Black Pit.
Mistress Shoreel screamed one final time. The death shriek became the cry of the Talroqi in the Black Pit and the Talroqi hidden on a dozen different planets. Green fire of the hive mind, of all the Talroqi queens on all the worlds, combining all their power, flared up once, battling the overwhelming, cleansing blue fire. They threw all their power into the battle, and lost. The blue fire consumed them.
The smell of corruption scorched into ash filled the air, thick enough to smother everyone in the galaxy.
The blackness struggled against the spreading electric blue fire that burst from the center of Rhianni's heart. Then it shredded and popped, like a bubble of swamp gas. And vanished.
Blue fire covered the planet. It filled the galaxy. The universe.
Rhianni sank down into the rippling energy that threatened to inflame her beyond existence. Yet through it all she sensed Petroc's arms tight around her, and his heart wrapped around her soul.
Chapter 22
"When's Mama gonna wake up?" Danil asked with a bit of whine in his voice. That meant he had asked quite often.
"When she's feeling better," Petroc answered. His voice sounded close enough to be right next to her, Rhianni decided.
Where was she?
The question was like a switch, allowing her senses to work again. Rhianni felt soft, worn sheets under her fingers. A soft mattress under her back. Enough pillows under her head to tilt her at a higher angle than she liked.
That was a silly detail to concentrate on.
She smelled sweetsoul tea. And pocket flowers, strong enough for a whole meadow of them to be crammed into a small room. And fresh bread. And salt, like tears. And popperberries. Petroc had given Danil a popperberry jam sandwich.
Her mind touched Petroc's and she saw through his eyes. Danil stood in the doorway, pouting, his sandwich crushed in his little hands. Petroc was too tired to be strict. He wanted to spend the day curled up next to her, waiting for her to wake.
How long have I been asleep?
"Tell Uncle Burkan Mama's feeling better," Petroc said.
His jolt of relief spread adrenaline through his body, reaching into the link between their minds, waking her more. Rhianni wanted to laugh, but she wasn't awake enough yet.
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to dance. She wanted to make love to Petroc for the next week.
"But--" The little boy gulped, sounding suspiciously as if he would start crying.
"Go on! Now!
"
"Don't yell," Rhianni whispered. "He's just as worried as you are."
"Mama!" Danil shrieked, and took a running leap into the bed. Fortunately, he dropped his sandwich before he smashed it between them.
Rhianni couldn't do anything but laugh as Danil hugged her and smeared jammy kisses on her cheek. She snuggled down in the sheets and let Petroc shoo the boy out of the room.
"Shut the door!" Petroc called as Danil scurried out to spread the news that she was awake.
To Rhianni's surprise, Danil obeyed. She laughed as the door slammed shut. The laughter died in her throat as Petroc stretched out next to her, took her into his arms and held her tight enough to threaten her healed ribs.
"You can't get rid of me that easily," she whispered.
"Don't ever scare me like that again."
"Scare you? I had no idea what was going on." She breathed deeply of his clean, warm scent, glorying in the feel of his hard muscles pressed tight against the length of her body.
"Your uncle said you were free to leave the Rovers, once your mission was finished."
"Is it finished?"
"For you, it is. I used my authority as lieutenant governor to break you free."
"Lieutenant governor?" Rhianni stared at his grinning face. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Three days."
"Three--"
"You're a Taken, Rhianni. We go into healing trances. Nobody worries about it. You've been monitored by half the Taken on the planet while you were sleeping." He stroked a strand of hair out of her face. "There's a lot you need to learn about your own people, you know."
"I know. Lieutenant governor?"
"Well, let's see..." Petroc settled them a little more comfortably in the bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin, tucking pillows under her head again, while he pretended to think. "Burkan has been drafted as military governor of Mallachrom. I'm liaison to the Taken and to the Shadows, who certainly proved themselves the indigenous sentient species. So now Protection Order One comes into effect. No Human colonies on worlds where there is already an indigenous sentient species which could be adversely affected or changed in any way from the natural progression of growth." He grinned, as if the guiding law of colonization was nothing more than a joke.
Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire Page 24