The Queen Revealed (33 page)

Chapter Fifty

“The Fire is Deep Within”

Adele fought as hard as she could to get off the ground. Natalie was lying on a stone table just in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the enormous mass coming down from the ceiling, but she wouldn’t let herself look at it. Instead, she glared at Rainere, as he fell to his knees in the dirt, two guards pinning his arms to his back. She would have to wait all night for him to shake them off, though. He was beholden to this monster Spider and wouldn’t do a goddamn thing to protect himself. If she was going to get Natalie out of this Hell, she would have to do it herself.

Adele surprised her guards by lurching to her feet as they were watching their Empress and managed to get two steps closer to Natalie before they stopped her again. Adele cast a desperate eye over her daughter and watched for some sign of life. When she saw Natalie’s eyelids flutter, she almost cried out with relief. Rainere hadn’t lied about the Sleeping Curse, at least.

Adele tried to turn and see her men, but they were all on their knees, swords on the ground, with their arms held painfully behind their backs. QG Bear had managed to wrestle his way out of the guards’ grip, but now he had four of them holding him low to the ground. Captain Lucky had chopped the arm off another before they had taken his sword and he was covered in the black blood of the Spider guard who lay on the ground. The guards holding Adele suddenly jerked her hard, pulling her to her feet and face to face with a walking nightmare.

The Spider Empress was truly a monster. Her great black body loomed massively in the dimly lit chamber and the legs that stretched out from her body were muscular and covered in long black hairs. But it was her face, with its gaping maw and heavy white fangs that directed all of Adele’s attention. There were two soft, tubular feelers that uncurled from behind the fangs and scented the air, moving as if of their own accord. Adele was speechless with horror. She could feel her bowels churn and her bladder beg for release, but a whimper near the door snapped her head around.

QG Pepper was pale and close to passing out as his eyes rolled back in his head and he vomited on the dirt in front of him. For some strange reason his show of naked fear helped to galvanize Adele’s trembling bravery.

This was just like the Holy Caves in Sandar. Except this time the monster was seven-foot-tall and had her daughter held hostage.

Adele thought furiously. This was a hideous dark monster before her, a monster who had lived for a thousand years and had only ever dealt with one Human being, Rainere. That told Adele something, it told her that the Empress was frightened of something… something that she needed a Prophecy to solve. If Adele took away the Prophecy, then the Empress would have nothing.

The Empress gasped and croaked in a confusing babble that Adele had no hope of understanding, but she needed to communicate with the monster somehow. Adele noticed lurid pink stripes had been messily painted on the first few legs of the Empress, and that yellow paint dotted the white of her fangs. Was this hideous creature actually - vain?

What was it that Rainere had said? The Empress had wanted the Hidden Child for herself to walk in the light of day. Had Adele been supposed to protect the Spiders from the Wizards of the Golden Palace? If that was so, then the Empress expected to have a relationship with her of some sort.

Adele’s thoughts spun wildly and morphed into a clear plan only when the music began again. The music was beautiful and reminded Adele of the ballets of Earth—if Tchaikovsky was played at double time by ten different orchestras. She felt her blood sing in time to the vigorous beat and had no more time to wonder at it. She reached into herself and grabbed at her Magic that was still vibrating with the strength attacking Rainere had given her. It jumped at her touch, and held firm.

Adele drew herself up to her full height and shouted over the wheezing noises of the monster Empress. “Just who do you think you are? I am here to meet the Empress of the Spider People. Go now and fetch your mistress for me!”

The Empress broke off and trained her thousand eyes directly on Adele. “I am the great Empress Ka-kik, Mother to the Spider People and Leader of Those Who Live in the Shadows.” The Empress spoke slowly this time and her accent clicked and jumped over the syllables of the Human language, as if her mouth wasn’t made to make such sounds.

Adele assumed, what she hoped was a sufficiently arrogant expression. “I have come for my daughter,” she said, enunciating each word clearly.

The Empress was silent finally and her many eyes swiveled from Adele to Rainere and back again. “You are the Hidden Child of the Prophecy of the End of the World…”

“What? What are you saying? I can’t understand any of this,” Adele interrupted the Empress and cast a despairing look about the room, as if anybody else could get it. “Rainere, get off the dirt and come and translate for me.”

Rainere shook off his surprised guards and climbed to his feet, his expression was neutral, but his eyes showed confusion. “The Empress would like to know if you are the Hidden Child of the Prophecy,” Rainere translated politely, giving Adele a subservient bow.

“Oh, that,” Adele waved her hand as if to brush away such nonsense and gave a hollow laugh. “Oh, of course she would think that given the circumstances. Rainere tell her: I – am – not – the – Hidden – Child.” Adele shook her head to labor the point.

Rainere dutifully repeated Adele’s words. He had never seen the Empress so unsure of herself as she watched Adele.

“But the Wizards at the Golden Palace brought you to Unisia, did they not?” asked the Empress.

“Is she talking about the Wizards?” snapped Adele at Rainere. Rainere nodded and gave Adele a warning look that she ignored.

“The Wizards made a mistake. I am not their Hidden Child. I’m not even a St. Lucidis,” Adele flicked her dark braid over her shoulder. “I am Marchant.”

Adele tried to ignore the gasps of her men as they all watched her performance before the Empress. “But!” she raised her finger imperiously. “I
am
the Queen of all Unisia and you have stolen my daughter, Empress of the Shadows, and I have come to take her back.”

“You killed my favored son, Oki,” spluttered the Empress. “And for that I require vengeance.”

The Empress was plainly angry, but she still waited a moment for Rainere to translate her words to Adele despite everyone understanding them as the Empress spoke more and more clearly.

“What? The thing who invaded my bedroom in the night was your son!” Adele raised her voice and shook her finger at the Empress. “Perhaps you should have taught him better manners. He had no right to be in my private chambers!”

“My son,” wheezed the Empress, gnashing her great fangs. “He will be avenged!”

Adele felt herself losing ground as the monster shuddered and rose up on its back legs to hover over her.

“If it is revenge you require, you cannot have my child, but I will give you my Royal Escort in recompense,” said Adele quickly, as she pushed Rainere toward the Empress. She ignored his shocked glance. “I could never marry him. The union would never be allowed by those Wizards at the Golden Palace. Take him. He is yours.”

The Empress stretched even higher, resting only on her four back legs. Her shock at Adele was wearing off and she was now becoming irritated.

“He is mine anyway, little Queen. The boy Prince made a vow that binds his soul to my will. If he should forswear his promise to serve me then he shall become my slave in body, and soul.”

Adele frowned darkly. “But I have Marked him for my own. Look!” She snatched at Rainere’s shirt and pulled it up for all to see the silvery Mark tattooed to his side. Her Royal insignia was clear even in the dim light of the cavern.

“He is my property now,” she said as if that ended the subject. “But I will give him to you as a gesture of goodwill.”

“No!” The Empress shout was shrill and pierced Adelena’s eardrums painfully. “Enough of these games! The Prince said he would marry you and put himself on the Throne as King. He didn’t! Instead he brought me this little girl who wears the wedding band of his people, but she is not the Queen. Now you stand before me as the Queen, but claim you are not the Hidden Child. Who is to blame for all of this?”

“The Wizards are,” shouted Adele right back again. “I tricked the Wizards into making me the Queen and once again Marchant blood sits upon the throne of Unisia. I think the Marchant Prince here was too enamored with me to understand the truth though,” – she forced a laugh – “why would I marry a poor Marchant Prince when I have all of the powerful men in the Kingdom to choose from? But he is quite helpful with keeping my Magic strong, so I Marked him and wanted to keep him as an escort.”

A bustle of noise at the door interrupted them and Charlie was dragged kicking and flailing against his captors to fall at the feet of the Empress. Schiss was thrown down a moment later.

Adele could feel the blood drain out of her cheeks. She had hoped that Charlie had managed to hide. “Ah, good, the tribute is here,” said Adele smoothly, borrowing Schiss’s word for Charlie. “See, Empress. I am not so rude as you might think. I brought a gift for you.”

The Empress’s feelers waved madly over Charlie’s head. “I smell Magic,” she snarled.

“Of course! The boy is just reeking with Magic,” replied Adele. “He has the purest blood I could find, after the Prince here, that is.”

“And now that we are speaking of blood again,” said the Empress and lurched toward Adele, unsteady on her back legs. Adele bit her lip to keep from yelping in fear. The undulating feelers were just inches from Adele’s face. Up close Adele could see that the white fangs glistened with slime. The Empress breathed out and a smell like warm sewerage enveloped Adele. “I will need to taste your blood to verify you are not lying to me, and we will burn it on the Sacred Fire to ignite the power.”

Adele was looking directly into the mouth of the Empress and saw the black tongue pulsating within. It was terrifying to think about being eaten by that mouth. She heard Rainere cough and shook off her fear. Two short men were approaching her, their heads were too big for their squat bodies, and their arms were very long, giving them a simian look, but the thing that drew Adele’s attention were the great machetes they each carried.

The music was building in Adele’s head. The swirling waltz had descended into the low notes of anticipation. Her blood ran cold, but she knew the time was coming when action would be needed. The end of this scene was drawing near.

“Go and get Natalie,” Adele muttered to Rainere and was relieved that he gave no sign of having heard, but simply melted away behind her.

Adele took a couple of steps back from the Empress and grabbed the arm of the still struggling Charlie and pulled him to her side, out of the grasp of his guards.

“Quiet down, boy,” she instructed him firmly. “The Empress would like to taste your blood. It is a great honor to be a tribute to such an Empress. You should be grateful your miserable Marchant life will be worth something. The time is almost upon you to give the Empress
your tribute
.”

Charlie stopped struggling, as the two Shamen shuffled to each side of Adele and him. Adele kept her arm firmly around Charlie’s shoulders. The boy was trembling so badly, that Adele feared he would collapse soon. He stood still as he held his arm out to the man-spider Shaman with the big knife, but gave a little sob of fear that vibrated through Adele’s ribcage. Adele held out her opposite wrist.

The slice on her wrist was slow, but not deep. She gritted her teeth and didn’t cry out as she watched with dreadful déjà vu as her blood dripped into a bowl. She heard Charlie whimper and squeezed his shoulder hard.

The first Shaman approached the Empress with the little bowl containing Charlie’s blood. Carefully he dripped the blood onto the Empress’s great black tongue as it appeared, quivering, to take the offering.

“He is Marchant it is true, but the strain is impure, though the Magic is strong. He is a very humble tribute,” said the Empress narrowing her hundreds of eyes at Adele and clicking her fangs together irritably.

“Get ready,” Adele muttered and felt Charlie flinch. “When her mouth opens again, do it.”

Slowly, the tongue extended a second time to receive Adele’s blood. Adele gripped Charlie tightly. She had no idea what the Empress would taste in her blood and they had to be prepared to act fast. But Charlie stared at the Empress with his mouth open and fear held him frozen.

The Empress smacked her jaws together with a resounding crack. “I taste St. Lucidis,” mused the Empress. “But something else, something darker than Marchant Blood, something far more… ancient.”

Suddenly her many eyes grew wide and the Empress shivered all over her great body. Droplets of venom sprayed out over Charlie and Adele. Charlie cried out, but Adele held him firm as he struggled to escape the acid shower.

The Chime Voices sang in time with the beat in her head. It was almost time.

“But no, you can’t be,” creaked the Empress and seemed to stagger in shock. “Abomination… you are an Abomination!”

The Empress fell to her eight legs and backed away from Adele. “Guards! Shaman! To me!”

All the Spider guards ran to the side of their Empress, leaving General Ohrig and the QGs to pick up their weapons. Adele saw her only chance as the Empress opened her mouth to shriek again.