I stand up and put my hands on my hips. “Navigation, set a course for theMerxast. We want to find out what exactly is going on.”
45
- Umbra-
Empress Juriniel stops ten feet away from me, flexing her glove-clad fingers. I swear they’ve got small, black blades attached to their tips, which is why she could cut that leaf so easily.
She folds her arms over her hollow abdomen, putting each hand into the opposite sleeve, mandarin-style. “Umbra, I wanted to see you here, instead of down on the planet. Now you’re safely away from Khav and the palace, we can talk freely.”
Vera doesn’t translate, but my Khavgrese has gotten really good, and I understand what the Empress says. I can’t form all the sounds of the language, but the words and the grammar aren’t that hard. Especially if I just don’t care that much about speaking perfectly.
I keep hold of my knife. “Talk freely in a Vyrpy ship? I not understand.”
Juriniel looks me up and down. “This is not a Vyrpy ship. It’s mine. The Vyrpy are simply my helpers and servants. But beforewe talk, do you like my garden? It’s not as fine as the one down on the planet, but it has many of the same specimens. I like seeing things grow, don’t you? Plants can be useful. And enjoyable. Look, here is one of the tastiest things you’ll ever try.” She comes closer and reaches her hand out to me. Between two gloved fingers is the small, silver leaf she just pinched off a plant. “I was going to make an infusion for myself, but now I want you to take it and taste it! You’ll be astonished how much delicious flavor one small leaf can contain.”
But I’ll be damned if I’m going to eat something this crazy empress is offering me. “Maybe next time. Let talk about the Vyrpy.”
“Oh, don’t be tedious,” she sighs. “You’re a princess now. You need some social graces, and the Syntrix knows you’re sorely lacking in all of them. Your first lesson is accepting gifts with some degree of courtesy. Here, take it!” She comes closer, waving the little leaf.
I take a step back, clutching the knife gun in its sheath. “I work on my social graces later. You are friend with the Vyrpy, the enemy of the Khavgren Empire. You’re keeping lot of people prisoner at this ship, including some Khavgren legionnaires. How long you have been a traitor?”
She finally drops her arm and sighs. “No graces at all. Well, perhaps it’s just as well. It’s not that you will need them much longer. Yes, I do keep some prisoners. I have certain plans for them, but the time hasn’t been right. And I must say it has amused me to keep a ship in orbit around Khav, filled with captives that the Vyrpy caught in various battles. In orbit around the very heart of the Empire! I have had many happy moments thinking about it.”
I’m so full of questions I struggle to gather my thoughts. “Are you the reason the Emperor not can use the Syntrix right?”
Juriniel shrugs her thin shoulders. “It was a challenge in the beginning. I had to weaken him both in body and in mind. He was a strong man, that Craxallo. Now, keeping him weak is almost effortless. Of course I have the help of my friends here.” She reaches out and caresses a small, red flower with one hand. “Or rather, of the interesting poisons they can produce. They keep him in constant sickness. And so, whenever I offer to take his place, and sit on the Throne to send strengthening Syntrix to Khavgren armies, he gratefully accepts.”
“And you make sure that the Tentacle Throne only sends negative Syntrix their way, not strengthen them butweakeningthem,” I accuse her. “This place all full of dirty Syntrix here. Poison to the mind.”
“I am their enemy,” she admits. “What else would you expect? It’s worked wonderfully well.”
She has evil plans for me, that’s obvious. I’m not sure what to do. I was never trained for psychological terror like this. Stalling for time with questions is the only thing that comes to mind. “Did you try to kill Mareliux?”
She rolls her eyes. “Well, obviously. Oh, are you trying to record my confessions with your AI?”
I hadn’t actually thought about it. “I’m sure my AI recording all this.”
Juriniel raises her fine eyebrows. “Yes? Does it still work for you?”
I glance down on Vera. “Vera?”
There’s no reply. Even pressing the single button on the side of her black plastic case doesn’t wake Vera up.
The Empress smiles. “No? I’m sure you wonder why. I imagine you were too happy to see me to notice that it stopped responding.”
“Vera!” I slap the black little screen and try the button again, but she does appear to be dead. And even if she’s strictly speaking just a machine, she’s become a friend to me.
I glare at the Empress. “If you broke her, I will murder you.”
“No,” she says with complete sincerity. “You won’t. And I didn’t destroy it. But I did try to killyou. But I think you noticed the missile and the lackey with the knife? Your Syntrix is different from the usual Khavgren one, that’s why you succeeded in thwarting my attempts. I couldn’t stop you. I’m curious about the gas bomb, though. That wasn’t me. Who else might have been trying? How could you make so many deadly enemies in such a short time?”
“Being an alien seems be enough to make as many enemies as I’d ever need in Khav palace,” I snap, angry about Vera and determined to stay mad and not get sad, at least not yet.
“But you were received so well!” the Empress says mockingly. “As an Imperial Princess! And still it wasn’t good enough for you?”
I look around the big room, looking for escape. Surely those big windows in the ceiling are just huge lamps that make the room seem like it’s in the sun. “You made sure I not feeling welcome at all. And that tame quaestor of yours.”
She laughs, a joyless, trilling sound. “Oh, you don’t like Preniat? I don’t think anyone does. But he’s the right mix of ambitious and not-too-bright to be a perfect helper.” She looks around the greenhouse and sighs deeply. “I had everything so well in hand, you know. The Emperor was too weak to do much, and I used the Tentacle Throne to weaken his forces whenever they most needed to be strengthened. The Empire was shrinking by the day. All I had to do was wait. Prince Nerox is too lazy and enjoys the young ladies too much to be any kind of threat. The future will be even better. I will be able to rule through him, offering to handle his tedious duty of sitting on the Tentacle Throne. I will let Nerox do his partying and womanizing while I control the Empire and turn it all into a smoking ruin in just a year or two. He will be a complete pushover. And if not… well, what works with Craxallo will work with him, too.” Again she caresses the flower. “The Syntrix will be quiet, then. Harmonious. Andours.”
