“You can be replaced,” she said at last.
“No, I can’t,” Hisshah said.
The great goddess stiffened and her eyes rolled back in her head, foam formed at the corners of her mouth and her body bucked three times. Then she slid bonelessly from her throne to lie on the burned spot where so many others had died.
Hisshah licked her lips and brought her breathing back under control. She’d felt a wave of heat just as she struck and knew she’d survived only by dint of the unexpectedness of her attack.
She mounted the dais and sat on her mother’s throne.
She smiled at the stunned courtiers.
“Remove that,” she said to the guards, gesturing at her mother’s body. “But save the gems, I’ll be wanting those.”The guards looked from her to Thress and she felt a flash of anger.
“It is by no means settled that you should take the great goddess’s place,” the captain said. “I demand that you rise from her throne!”
He grabbed her arm and yanked. Hisshah made his legs fail him and he almost dragged her from the throne as he fell. She put her foot on his chest and kicked him over backward. He drew a dagger as he fell and would have thrown it but she struck again, leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
“Stop her!” he shouted. “Strike her down; she can’t get all of us.”
“Oh, yes I can,” Hisshah assured them, though she wasn’t sure herself. “I’m keeping the captain alive because I have a score to settle with him. But any of you who wish to die on his behalf I’m willing to oblige.”
She met the eyes of those she thought might rebel and saw them acknowledge the truth of what she was saying. She looked at the captain’s second.
“What is your name?” she asked, though she knew. She knew everyone in the compound.
“Sheth…great goddess.”
Hisshah smiled at him. “You are now captain of my guard. Have Thress taken to the prison.”
Once again she indicated her mother’s body. “Have that removed.”
“Can’t you see what she’s doing?” Thress screamed. “She’s a murderer, she must be stopped!”
Well, so was my mother, Hisshah thought. Many times over. She killed my father and countless others, often for nothing more than her own amusement. Where was your outrage then, my little captive captain? She considered taking his voice, but no, she wanted him to have a voice. Soon she would hear him in full cry.
“Captain Sheth?” she prompted.
The new-made captain gestured to the guards and they began hauling the two bodies away.
“You will regret this!” Thress warned them. “She’ll kill you all!”
Once the still shouting former captain was gone Hisshah turned to her court.
“I am prepared to accept your oaths of fealty now,” she said kindly.
The scent of fear was dense and sharp, and her nostrils flared. This wasn’t as spectacular as burning, but in its way…
Better, she thought, and smiled.
One of the nobles stumbled as he came forward to grovel and swear.
Much, much better.
Tral hurried up to Ranowr where he was practicing strokes with Krar.
“I just saw them drag the body of the great goddess from the hall,” he gasped. “It was really her, the body was glittering with jewels and the guards were dragging it by the feet and they were dragging Captain Thress out, too.”
Ranowr stared at him, his breath frozen. This was it. This was what they’d been waiting for.
“Set everyone to gathering the food and the wagons,” he said to Krar.
To Tral he said: “Inform the females and then meet me at the prison with two Mrem and a handcart. Bring your medical kit.”
Then he headed for the guards.
“The young goddess needs you in the great hall,” he told them. “Something terrible has happened. I think Captain Thress has struck down the great goddess.”
Saksh, the head of Hissah’s guard stared at him for a moment, then slapped him.
“How dare you say such a thing?” He pulled out his whip. “I’ll have your back in shreds for that!”
Just then a guard came running up to them.
“The great goddess is dead!” he gasped. “Captain Thress is fallen!”
Saksh stared at him, then at Ranowr. “You and your fellows go back to your dormitory and stay there!” he ordered and ran off with the other guards trailing him.
Ranowr then nodded at Krar who began rallying the other Mrem and then headed for the prison at a run.
“The young goddess has commanded all the guards to report to the great hall,” he told the guard at the prison gate.
The guard looked uncertain, but he’d been given orders by this Mrem before. He immediately turned the problem over to his superior.
“We’ve just been given charge of Captain Thress,” that one said. “Why would she order us to abandon him?”
“Because he’s safely locked up and she needs your support?” Ranowr suggested.
The guard weighed that in his mind and decided that it made sense; everyone knew rewards and punishments flew full and wild during a change of power. He blew a whistle and the other guards came running.
“Fall in,” he ordered and they marched off.
Ranowr watched them go in disbelief. This is going almost too well, he thought and headed into the prison. As he rushed down the corridor he heard Thress’s voice from behind a door. Pausing to glance through the grill he saw the captain lying motionless on the dirt floor.
Seeing him, Thress narrowed his eyes. “You! Her pet! Come to gloat, have you?”
“No, Captain,” Ranowr said. “I have neither the time nor the interest.” And he was gone.
He removed the bar from the door of the Mrem’s cell and entered. Canar Trowr lay panting on dirty straw, no longer chained. Chains were no longer needed. His feet were a bloody mess as were his hands. As was most of him. Ranowr’s heart went cold. If they were too late it was all for nothing. Tentatively he reached out and touched him.
Instantly the prisoner sprang alert, only to sink back again.
“Who are you?” he asked in a voice that grated.
“Ranowr. I’ve come to get you out.”
Canar Trowr laughed weakly. “Surely you could have waited a bit longer?”
“Not if we want to get out of here. Can you walk at all?”
“No. But I will anyway. Help me up.”
He did so. There wasn’t a place he could touch that wasn’t wounded, but aside from a few groans the prisoner kept his pain to himself. Then, when he was upright and leaning heavily on Ranowr they stumbled awkwardly from the cell.
Once outside Tral and the others were there to meet them with a handcart. They stared at the prisoner; the two helpers in amazement to see a stranger Mrem, Tral in horror at his wounds.
“Take him,” Ranowr said, “hide him. As soon as you’re ready head for the gates. That’s where I’m going now.”
“That is what the new great goddess has commanded,” Ranowr said for the third time.
“But it makes no sense!” The guard said.
“Still, those were her orders. Perhaps it’s a loyalty test,” Ranowr suggested, hoping that would move the stubborn fool.
The guard looked over the Mrem’s shoulder and blinked. Ranowr followed his gaze. The first wagons were coming in sight and the gate remained closed. He’d been telling the guard that the Mrem were all to gather at the great bundor herd until Hisshah called them back, but the guard persisted in resisting.
Ranowr turned back to him, his face and manner calm. Everything about him proclaiming, “I am following orders. What about you?”
At the wagons’ inexorable approach the guard’s resistance crumbled and he shouted to his fellows to open the gates.
Watching them go through Ranowr saw Prenna sitting in one of the wagons. She met his eyes and raised a hand shyly. He smiled and gave the barest nod and ruffle of whiskers, then she was gone.
Now his people were on their way, he had one last thing to do. Towards the end of the slow-moving column he found Tral.