“It’s delicious,” the Empress purrs with an undertone of shrillness. “Take it.”
I know I hit her, but the gun doesn’t seem to have done any damage at all.
Juriniel smiles. “Oh no, little menace. That little thing won’t work on me. If it could, the Vyrpy wouldn’t have let you keep it.”
“Stop!” Someone crashes through the plants nearby.
“Take it!” Juriniel hisses, pushing the leaf into my face and rubbing it on my lips.
I have no idea how toxic it is, and this is desperate self-defense. I aim the knife-gun between her eyes and push the firing button.
Again the gun jumps in my hand, and a hole appears in the Empress’s face. And again it’s as if she doesn’t notice. There’s no blood, not even a tinge of red. It’s just… empty.
“Open!” she screeches and pushes me to the ground, putting one knee on my chest and making it feel heavy despite the lack of gravity. “Take it! It’s yours!” Her immense mass is keeping me in place.
I fire the knife gun two more times. Each shot hits the Empress, with no effect. I try to push her away with the Syntrix.
“Warrr!”There’s a mighty roar and aclang, and the Empress’s strangely huge mass is completely off me.
Holding himself in place with one hand grabbing a bush, Mareliux reaches down, gently takes my hand, and pulls me to my feet. “Are you all right, my love?”
“No,” I tell him truthfully. My arm is bleeding, and I’m badly shaken. “But I will be. Nerox said to tell you that the Empress is dead.”
His eyes widen and there’s a sharp intake of breath. “Nerox said that?”
“Traitors!” the Empress screeches. She’s holding onto a sapling to not drift upwards. “You can’t escape! My Vyrpy will kill you all and we shall own the Tentacle Throne!”
“We,” Mareliux says, keeping a good grip on me so that he’s between me and Juriniel. “You don’t mean the Khavgrens, of course. What exactly were you planning?”
The Empress stares at him. “With us in power, with usowningthe Tentacle Throne, the whole galaxy will be ours! Nobody sees its true power. Only we do. We were supposed to have that Throne! It should all be ours, to use to keep the Syntrix in balance and chaos. And now it will!” She flicks the silver leaf away and it drifts into the bushes.
“You hurt my wife,” Mareliux says, his voice flat and deadly.
Juriniel tries to scratch him with her finger blades, but Mareliux easily evades.
“Yourwife?” she scoffs, voice going shrill again. “Oh, stop it. Nobody believes that. But it was a good attempt. She really had strong Syntrix, that little Earth girl. Strong, but wild. We had to shield that pitiful little planet from the Syntrix when we first found it. They were the only people that could rival us. Oh, you should have seen what they did with their planet, Mareliux! The buildings, the palaces, the giant triangular tombs made from immense stones, cut straight from the heart of their planet! Even the Khavgren can’t make anything like that, despite the Syntrix and despite that technology you’re so proud of. But Earth could. That’s how strong their Syntrix abilities are. I don’t mind admitting that we fear them. And so of course you come dragging an Earth girl to Khav. Married! No, nobody believed that part. But no matter. The Vyrpy will kill you now, the Emperor will soon die, and then the Tentacle Throne will be mine. How long do you think this pitiful empire will last after that? I estimate four days before I can receive my Primarch on Khav and present the Tentacle Throne to him! He can rule all the Syntrix. And that means he will rule the whole galaxy!”
“You hurt my wife,” Mareliux says again, taking a step closer to the Empress. “And you will never have the Tentacle Throne. Certainly your Primarch will never set one claw on Khav.”
I’m starting to have some idea of what they’re talking about. It’s obvious that Juriniel is not what she seems.
“There’s nothing to stop me,” she says with great sincerity. “There’s a thousand Vyrpy in this ship. You have a hundredwarriors with you, at the very most. And who knows how many of them are really mine, like the Calanians?”
“And Nerox,” Mareliux scoffs. “But my warriors aren’t that weak-minded.”
“I haven’t been able to convince Nerox yet,” Juriniel admits. “But he won’t be a problem. I’ll make sure he stays entertained and busy with one girl after the other. Oh, do you hear how quiet everything is? The battle is winding up. We should end this, too. And since my first offer was rudely refused—” There’s suddenly a small knife in her hand and she lunges at me so fast she’s just a blur.
But Mareliux is ready. Bellatriz’s edge strikes the Empress at shoulder level and stops her in her tracks with a resoundingclangand a shower of green sparks. One of her robes falls off her.
“Oh well, if you insist,” she says in a strange, unpleasant voice
Then my mind turns inside-out as she changes shape. Her tall and thin form morphs into something else. Her skin, once so smooth and pale, starts to ripples like disturbed water. The haughty lines of her face distort into a horrifying parody of a smile. The bones in her body crack and shift with a sickening wet sound, and her limbs lengthen and grow thin. Her fingers stretch into long, wicked claws as the gloves drop to the ground. Her clothes tear and shred as her body expands, and a sickly, dark fluid oozes from her pores, coating her in a shimmering, oily sheen. She grows taller and taller, her neck elongating and her jaw jutting forward. Her eyes, once a normal yellow, turn to glowing, slitted emeralds.
It’s an alien, that’s obvious. But it’s not a Khavgren or a human. It’s dark and jagged and tall, with an iridescent sheen to its smooth body. It looks war-like and deadly, with claws and spikes and wide, slitted eyes that glow green.
The Syntrix changes, too. It’s as if there’s a buzz in it, a disturbing element that makes it feel unpleasant.
“A Phrexz shapeshifter,” Mareliux growls. “I wish I’d suspected it sooner.”
