“Why thank you, sir,” Catheline said, sensing his involuntary lust. “I was beginning to think such things beneath you.”
She turned back to the city as a large explosion blossomed above the wall. From the scale of the blast Sirus assumed the fire had reached the garrison’s arsenal. “I had them burn Feros before we left,” Catheline continued, the explosion fading into a cascade of debris. “He hates cities, you see? The very notion of human civilisation is offensive to him. I expect this is a sight to which we’ll become quite accustomed before we’re done.”
“What happens then?” Sirus asked. He was aware this might be dangerous, the Spoiled did not question their great White god after all. But he coloured his mind with what he hoped was a sufficient level of simple curiosity to conceal any sense of concern for the fate of the human world.
“The world will be his, and we will be his grateful servants,” Catheline replied, apparently failing to detect any artifice. “For He has blessed us, has He not? The ability to seamlessly share thoughts and experience. Think of a whole world where lies have been banished, where every mind is united in a common purpose. This will be the last war in human history. I have a yen to be a mother when this is all over. My child will be heir to a new world of eternal peace.” She glanced over her perfect shoulder at him. “You fathered a child, did you not?”
Katrya’s face when he shot her . . . Can we not love too? He drowned the memories in a deluge of fear and grief, but not before Catheline sensed his guilt.
“We can’t keep them all alive, General,” she said, a frown of sincere sympathy creasing her brow. “More’s the pity. I’m sorry for your woman, and the child, but soldiers die in war. Come the morning we’ll have thousands of freshly converted young women in our ranks. Choose one, if you wish.”
“No thank you.”
Catheline’s sympathy turned to amusement and she moved to him, reaching out to take his hand, perfect unblemished fingers tracing over the callused, scaled flesh. “Still carrying a torch for your fallen lover?” she asked. “Or do I flatter myself that you worry over making me jealous?”
Nothing, he thought, his mind sliding over hers like a hand pushing at smooth, cold glass. No clue as to her true intentions. What she really is.
“What I am?” she asked with a laugh provoking the shocked realisation that he had failed to shield his thoughts. “Oh, don’t fret,” she added, squeezing his hand as the fear flooded in. “It’s refreshing to find a genuinely curious mind amongst this lot.” She moved closer, her perfume rendered near intoxicating by his enhanced senses. “I am the final word in his blessing of this world,” she murmured, lips close to his. “He needed me, you see? Not all of me, since He got a good deal from the other bitch before she died. But, great as his mind is, it lacks . . .”
She let out an involuntary shout, her breath hot on Sirus’s face as she convulsed and collapsed at his feet. Sirus started to crouch at her side but froze as another far more powerful will invaded his mind. A low, rattling growl came from above and Sirus looked up to find the White’s huge head poised above them, thin tendrils of smoke leaking from both nostrils. Its gaze flicked over Sirus before locking onto Catheline. She let out a strangled scream, jerking on the deck as spittle drooled from her lips.
Punishment, Sirus thought.
A series of thuds drew his gaze to the surrounding deck and he saw the juvenile Whites had come to watch the spectacle, wings flapping in excitement, tails and necks coiling as they hissed and squawked. Sirus found he had no need to draw on his reserves of fear to mask his thoughts, the fist of terror that gripped him now was completely authentic, though he did find room amongst it all for a singular insight. Your god does not love you back, he decided as Catheline’s choking shudders subsided into a gibbering tremble.
The White’s growl trailed off and it grunted out a gust of smoke before launching itself into the air, the wind generated by its wings strong enough to force Sirus to his knees. He watched it ascend into the night air, ivory scales painted pink by the light of the burning city. It levelled out and angled its massive body towards Melkorin, its juvenile brood clustering around it, screaming in excited hunger. It had been the same after Feros. After the fall came the feast, and there were many children in this city.
He lowered his gaze to Catheline, seeing that her tremors had stopped and she now lay in an exhausted stupor. He also saw that she had contrived to besmirch her silk gown with a copious amount of urine. He wondered if the White would care if he killed her now.
Sirus crouched and gathered Catheline into his arms, lifting her easily. He stood watching the White dive down into the burning city, its dreadful brood following close behind, before lowering his gaze to the dark waters below. Throw the mad bitch over the side. The world will thank you for it.
Catheline let out a soft, fearful whimper, her fluttering eyelids telling of a mind beset by nightmares. She shifted in his arms, moving her head closer to his chest in an instinctive quest for comfort. Sirus turned and carried her towards the nearest hatch, making for her cabin and sending a command to the crew to bring her some clean clothes.
CHAPTER 15
Lizanne
“I didn’t like the way that woman looked at me.”
Lizanne glanced up at Tekela from the contract that cemented her employment in the Varestian Defence Conglomerate. She had read it several times during the return journey, finding to her annoyance that Ethilda Okanas had crafted something it would be very hard to extricate herself from later, at least legally. “You shouldn’t,” she muttered in agreement before glancing out the window. They had left Iskamir behind a day ago and were nearing the southern extremity of the Sabiras Archipelago, beyond which lay the hopefully secure anchorage of Viemen’s Island.
“I won’t have to see her again, will I?” Tekela asked. “Or that son of hers. He was almost as horrid.”
Lizanne began to snap at her, irritation at the cleverness of the Okanas clan leading her to scold this girl for her weakness. An entire world of horrid people awaits you, she had been about to say. Harden your sensibilities and keep a loaded revolver handy. Instead she took a breath and recalled all the many trials Tekela had endured, concluding she was already as hardened as Lizanne wished her to be. So she said, “I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to ensure you don’t find yourself in their company again.”
They had resisted lighting the blood-burner for the return trip, Lizanne deciding the burst of speed would be best saved for emergencies. The flight was therefore long and somewhat tedious, passed in resentful scrutiny of the contract she had been obliged to sign interspersed with fitful dozing. Her sleep had been interrupted several times by the buffeting the aerostat received from the winds at this more southerly latitude. Hours of fighting to keep the machine on course left Tekela increasingly fatigued as the journey wore on. Lizanne wanted to take over for a time but lacked the required familiarity with the controls. Besides which, manoeuvring herself into the pilot’s seat in the cramped confines of the gondola seemed next to impossible.
“When we’re back on the ship,” she told Tekela as the first of the outlying Sabiras Isles drifted by below, “your first task will be teaching me how to fly this thing.”
The fleet came into view some two hours later, the many ships clustered in a tight arc around the speck of rock Lizanne’s map confirmed as Vieman’s Island. Daylight was fading fast and Lizanne feared night would fall before they could settle onto the fore-deck of the Viable Opportunity. Fortunately, Captain Trumane evidently saw the danger and ordered all lights lit, including the frigate’s powerful search-light, which was lowered to illuminate the front of the ship. Tekela was obliged to navigate a stiff cross-wind to complete the approach, her hands dancing from lever to lever as she gave voice to some choice curses in Varsal Lizanne would never have suspected her of knowing.