"Save your breath," Immu said in her whispery voice. "Did you think we’d be stupid enough not to deal with them?"
She clapped her hands: a sharp smack with an after-clatter of claws clicking against each other. It was obviously a signal of some kind; I looked around quickly, wondering if I would be attacked by robots or nanites. But the attack was not aimed at me… and by all evidence, the attack had taken place some minutes earlier, so quietly I had not noticed it.
Four stringy blobs rolled in through the door. They looked like human-sized versions of baby Starbiter — gray threads sunk into damp goop that glistened wetly in the dim light. In this case, however, the goop was not white but murkily clear… making it possible to see dark silhouettes embedded in the heart of the blobs. I had no trouble identifying the silhouettes by their shape and size. Lajoolie. Sergeant Aarhus. Uclod. The last blob had no figure visible inside, but I did not doubt it contained Nimbus and his child.
Somehow my friends had been taken by surprise. They had been encased in guck, caught like mosquitoes landing on pine gum. If they were trying to struggle free, I could not see any evidence of it — they seemed frozen in place, helplessly stuck as the blobs rolled across the floor and stopped in a ragged line behind Immu’s back.
"You see?" Immu said. "You’re all alone." She glanced toward Festina. My friend had toppled onto her knees and was doubled over now, her head almost touching the floor. Her whole face was approaching the port-wine color of the birthmark on her cheek.
"I won’t let your precious friend die," Immu told me in a raspy smirk. "I’d never do anything so non-sentient. But I’ll let her pass out before I call off the nanites in her throat. And," Immu continued, raising the sharp end of her tail above Festina’s head, "once she’s unconscious, I won’t have trouble cutting off her ears… lopping a few fingers… scooping out an eye… unless you put Esticus down. As long as I don’t actually kill this human, the League of Peoples won’t stop me."
"Then the League will not stop me," I said, "from ripping off parts of Esticus… which I shall certainly do if you hurt Festina." I gave the Shaddill in my arms another fierce shake.
"Not so fast," Immu snapped. "You don’t know a thing about our anatomy. You don’t know what’s safe to rip off and what could be lethal. For all you know, Esticus might the from losing a single claw."
"I do not believe he could be so frail."
"But you don’t know," Immu replied. "As for me, I’m thoroughly familiar with Homo sapiens physiology." She swung her tail idly toward Festina; my friend grabbed at it weakly but missed. "I know what will and won’t cause fatal bleeding," Immu continued. "I know which human body parts are expendable. But if you so much as break one of Esticus’s bones without knowing what you’re doing,that’s callous disregard for the possibility you might do lethal damage. Not a sentient attitude, Oar — the League will kill you on the spot."
"For breaking a finger? When you are threatening to pluck out Festina’s eye?"
"I’m threatening to do something I know won’t kill her. You, on the other hand, would be taking a blind risk with someone else’s life. That is definitely non-sentient. Let my mate go before you get hurt."
Esticus whispered, "Yes, please, yes, please, yes, please…"
I stared at the whimpering beetle as he dangled in front of me… and suddenly I became furious. For five thousand years, these cowardly creatures had not hesitated to violate entire cultures, to kidnap and imprison individuals who interfered with their plans, to coerce whole species into insipid decadence, and to give people Tired Brains — yet Immu dared suggest I should be executed if I snapped off somebody’s claw? My best friend was choking in front of me. My other friends were enveloped in gooey string, and who knew how well they could breathe inside those cocoons? The Shaddills wished to jelly me against my will, rather than take the slightest personal risk in pursuit of transcendence; yet I was the wicked one who might be punished?
Enough of this nonsense. I would command the Shaddill to remove the nanites from Festina’s windpipe, to release my friends and leave us alone… or else I would grab Esticus’s trembling mandibles and rip them right off his face. It was ridiculous for Immu to claim she could hurt my friends with impunity, but the League would not permit me to hit back.
Slowly, I lowered Esticus until his feet touched the ground. Perhaps Immu thought I was preparing to let her husband go… but in my mind’s eye, I pictured punching the little brown Shaddill in the nose, smashing the mandibles all around his muzzle, hearing the crack of bones as they shattered under my fist.
And yet… and yet…
How did I know I would not kill the hateful fur-beetle? Perhaps smashing his mandibles would do lethal damage. And for all that I was blazing with righteous indignation, I did not wish to murder shaky wee Esticus. The League would then murder me… and I did not care to die so stupidly.
Was there anything I could do to vent my wrath, yet not kill a weak Shaddill one?
Yes.
Changing my grip on Esticus’s wrists, I whirled him around by the arms and slung him into the fountain.
Splash
I did not throw the furry alien, but swung him like an ax: holding his arms and sweeping him across the pool’s surface so that he scooped up a great sloosh of honey that flew in a frothy tsunami. It was fortunate I did not get any splashes on me… but I was wearing my Explorer jacket, and the few drops of spatter that came my way hit fabric instead of skin.
Neither Immu nor Esticus fared so luckily. I had aimed the husband perfectly at the wife — the thick wave of crimson scooped up by Esticus hit Immu full in the face, drenching her head and all down her front. She squealed in terror and jumped backward, trying to wipe honey from her fur; she squealed again when she realized she now had the liquid on her hands. Her eyes bulged horrified as she stared at her fingers… for as she watched, one of her claws melted into soft purple and fell plop to the floor.
Esticus was no better. From the waist down, he was soaked in honey; and his pelt had begun to bubble, sloughing off fur as each little hair dissolved into goo. The skin underneath was already turning puffy. I let him fall to the floor and leapt back to make sure I did not get the honey on me. He staggered to his feet almost immediately… but the dirt where he had landed was covered with a glossy slick of purple and the part of his body that had touched the ground looked like its hair and skin had been shaved off clean.
Howling, "Help me!" he turned to Immu; but his wife was in no condition to help anyone. Her entire head was turning purple — all but those bulging eyes, because she had blinked them shut just before the Blood Honey struck her. Now her eyelids were gone, turned into goo that slid off her eyeballs and slurped into the general morass of her face. Her cheeks dripped onto her chest; her forehead was slumping into a great overhanging brow that would soon flop down and cover those raw exposed eyes.
A raspy laugh gurgled in her throat. "All right," she whispered to Esticus, "I’ll help you."
She reached toward him and gave his hand a squeeze. Though her head had turned to slime, her arms and legs were still mostly intact; she let go of Esticus’s hand, scooped him off the floor, and held him to her disintegrating chest. The motion shook dollops of jelly loose from Esticus’s legs, laying bare the bone underneath. Then Immu flexed her powerful haunches for one last great leap.
Husband and wife plunged together into the pool.
The Cost Of Salvation
The Shaddill’s jump did not take me completely by surprise — I had enough time to hurl myself backward out of range of their splash. Festina was far enough removed too, and protected by her uniform; patches of the gray cloth looked wet and glossy, but no splashing honey landed on her exposed head or hands.