Tavi continued slowly forward. Each hive occupied a circle of croach perhaps five feet across, and he could see the glowing substance inside the waxy covering flowing up into the hive-nourishment for the infant Vord within. Tavi counted the hives nearby, and did some math in his head. Presuming this queen had only been busy creating more of her kind here since the Vord had broken out a few days ago, it meant that she could create hundreds of Vord every day-perhaps more. What’s more, they could come forth with a great deal less fuss and bother than their Aleran counterparts-and fully armed and ready for battle, to boot.
Bloody crows. No wonder the Vord had wiped out the Canim. His imagination painted him landscapes of conquered territories, glowing with croach and covered in hives that spawned fresh nightmares by the thousands. Once these… hatcheries were planted and maturing, fresh Vord would emerge by the company, ready to replace those that had been slain by the Canim. Once they were given a chance to establish themselves, it would be all but impossible to be rid of them.
He suddenly found the silence of the croach-covered pine forest oppressive and heavy-far too much so.
What mother, Tavi thought, ever left her children unguarded if there was any choice in the matter?
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the croach itself stirred, and half a dozen of the Cane-form Vord rose silently around him, huge and menacing. Eight feet tall, and lean like the Canim, the Vord’s arms were tipped with long, vicious talons, and their beaklike muzzles were serrated and terrifying.
“You are right, of course,” said a quiet, alien voice from somewhere nearby-the Vord queen, Tavi was certain. “I would not leave my children unprotected.” A dark shape, eyes glowing with a green-white light of their own, appeared behind the hulking shapes of the Cane-form Vord. Tavi thought he saw a faint glitter of light on sharp white teeth. “Kill him.”
CHAPTER 34
At one time, Tavi would have been terrified by his situation. He was completely surrounded, outnumbered by implacable foes, and cut off from any of his support. Oh, certainly, Max and Kitai and the Canim were only a hundred yards away-but that was far enough to prevent them from intervening over the next several seconds, which were quite possibly all he had. He would have been helpless to prevent his fate from being decided by someone else.
Tavi still found the situation terrifying; but he wasn’t nearly so helpless anymore.
He called upon the furies of the wind, borrowing of their speed, and time slowed as the nearest Cane-form Vord lunged for him. He drew his sword from his side and turned to meet it, focusing on the steel as he went, upon the furies in the blade, and its edge cut through the Vord’s armored forearm as smoothly as if passing through water.
He ducked the Vord’s second set of talons, took that arm as well, then drew up power from the earth to deliver a hard kick in one of the creature’s heavy thighs. The blow flung it back from Tavi to land several feet away, thrashing at the croach and ripping through its surface to the glowing green “blood” that ran through it.
By then, a second Vord had closed in on him, and its talons slammed into the armor over his spine. The Aleran steel resisted the creature’s claws, though the blow drove Tavi several steps forward, into a third Vord. His sword cut through the creature’s thighs, and he drove his shoulder into its belly, knocking it to the ground as well. Then Tavi dropped straight down to his heels, spinning as he went, and his blade lashed out in an arc less than six inches from the ground, literally cutting the Vord behind him off at the ankles. It fell, shrieking and gushing green-brown blood like the others.
He’d killed three Vord in the time it would have taken to count them out loud, something he’d never have been able to do even a couple of years before-but that wasn’t what made him dangerous in that situation.
“Wait!” Tavi shouted toward the Vord queen, still lurking behind the rank of Cane-form Vord. “You have a more profitable and efficient alternative!”
Another of the warrior Vord came at him, and Tavi struck away its hand with his sword in a shower of blue-and-scarlet sparks. The clawed hand whirled through the air and landed on the ground near the Vord queen’s feet.
“How many more warriors do you want to lose?” Tavi called, slipping aside from the next blow. “It costs you nothing to hear me out!”
The attacking Cane-form Vord suddenly slowed, then halted in place.
The Vord queen spoke again. Her voice was eerie, multilayered, as if coming from several throats simultaneously. The creature herself was-rather obviously-feminine in shape, though Tavi could see nothing of her but an outline against the glowing green of the large hive behind her-and glowing green eyes that matched it. “It is unlikely that you are here to assist us. It is more likely that you are engaged in deception.”
“Against a being who can read minds?” Tavi asked. He kept his eyes on the Vord that had suddenly ceased its attack. It was well within range to strike again. “That would seem to be an irrational act.”
A figure covered in a dark, hooded cloak appeared from behind one of the nearby warriors. She walked a few steps toward Tavi, the cloak swaying, revealing rigid-looking, green-white flesh each time she took a step forward. The queen was considerably shorter than Tavi. Within the darkness of the hood, twin candles of green light burned with faintly luminescent fire. “Indeed,” the queen murmured. “Though desperation can sometimes drive non-Vord intelligences to acts beyond reason.”
Tavi felt himself baring his teeth in a smile. “It would be simple for you to determine if such desperation drove me. You just have to come closer.”
The Vord queen was silent for a moment, her eyes narrowed to slits of green fire, but she did not move. “How did you approach so closely without being detected, creature?”
Tavi smiled at her and said nothing.
The Vord queen looked past him and made sniffing sounds. “More of the local apex predators are nearby. Though I was told the Narashan strain had been eliminated.”
Tavi, stretching his watercrafting senses to the utmost, felt it then-a quiver of… not fear, precisely, but something akin to it, if infinitely more ordered-apprehension, perhaps. “Told? By whom? Who would withhold that kind of information from you? And why would such information be withheld?”
The queen stared at him, eerily motionless.
“It is possible that an opportunity for mutual gain through cooperation exists,” Tavi said. “If you are willing to listen to me, perhaps we can work together to accomplish a shared goal.”
The queen’s voice dropped to a buzzing whisper, her voice like locust wings. “What goal?”
“The removal of a mutual enemy.”
The queen stared at him for a moment more. Then she turned and began walking toward the hive. The warriors on either side of her took a step back, making way for Tavi.
The queen looked over her shoulder, and said, “Come this way.”
The Vord queen entered the hive through a wide, unsettlingly organic-looking doorway. It reminded Tavi, somehow, of the nostril of some great beast. Vord in various forms crouched upon the hive, silent shadows against the glowing green wax. Wax spiders sat everywhere, blending into the background, and Tavi was certain that there were more in evidence than he could see.
Tavi found his feet dragging as he approached the entrance to the hive.