QueensQuest (16 page)

We did not need to hear more.

On the floor below, clear, lozenge-shaped tanks, like
upright sarcophagi, lined a great stone room. They glowed with eerie pulsating
lights, some pinkish. Others, with larger clones, gleamed a darker red. Others
were purple or green. Many tubes and wires ran from them to a central engine,
which hummed and growled as it kept the unnatural creatures alive. Other arcane
equipment that I did not understand filled the empty spaces. White-robed
figures moved among them. Scientists, I believed.

I advanced to examine the nearest of the tanks. It shone a
bizarre and sickening shade of rose. Within it, a naked woman stood.

She had flowing fair hair, nascent breasts and wore my face.

I shrieked and punched the tank with a fist. The clear
material of which it was composed gave slightly but didn’t break. I struck it
again, and a crack appeared. Another hit from knuckles now bloody, and fluid
oozed from the widening fractures. I grabbed a narrow blade from a nearby table
and shoved it into the break. Twisting it opened the rupture into a gaping hole
that gushed a thick liquid, like amniotic fluid.

The creature within opened her mouth—my mouth—and shrieked,
clawing at her throat as she died. I gasped and shuddered as if I had been
struck. One of the scientists grabbed me, screaming as he attempted to pull me
away. Younger and stronger, I shoved him so hard he fell to the floor, hitting
his head.

He did not thereafter move and I ignored him.

Though I was not a fighter, a sick fury fueled my blows.
Destroying the second clone was easier and by the fifth it had become almost
boring. I felt myself changing, becoming harder, tougher, angrier. On the other
side of the chamber, Storne used a hammer-like tool he’d found to smash
sarcophagi. Several of the copies resembled him. The Kaldir-clone joined in
with glee. I noticed that the cloning tanks containing males glistened purple
and green.

Finally, every replicant was dead. The stone floor was slimy
with the foul brew in which they were spawned. I do not know how many we
killed, but I regretted none.

But in the farthest reaches of the room, a last pink
sarcophagus stood, open and empty of its clone.

I stood and stared at it, trying to comprehend the
implications. The Golden Throne screamed my name, my scepter longed for my
grasp. I hoped to sit in my place and rule before the interloper could displace
me.

’Twas time to return to Remarck and reassume power.

But where was Maia?

I hardened my heart and stiffened my back. I said to Storne,
“With or without Maia, we must leave, and now.”

His jaw firmed. “Yes, but…” He glanced at the Kaldir clone,
and asked, “Is this the only pyramide where cloning takes place?”

He blinked. Still frail, he’d nevertheless worked as hard as
he was able to destroy the cloning room. Even so, I could not trust him but
listened when he said, “Yes, but other pyramides house more experiments. This
is part of a complex. Come see.”

He led us up the same broad stone stairs we’d descended to
reach the cloning room. I followed him through the smaller chamber where we’d
been imprisoned. The fetid air had not improved by the addition of so many
bodily fluids from the beakers we’d smashed. Even though the pyramide’s
interior was protected from the heat by thick stone walls, the spilled blood
had congealed and started to stink. Ghostly figures still wandered the room:
the almost-dead, pale and drained. It was a strange and chilling sight, all the
more frightening because I had almost joined their ghastly ranks.

Kaldir’s double walked across the cloning room to a wider
slit in the pyramide’s side. We followed him outside, though I feared floods of
bright sunlight after the pleasant dimness of the interior.

But outside it was unexpectedly gray and cool. When I
glanced upward, I could see that all three moons had, in an unusual conjunction,
obscured the sun. The shadows they created felt welcoming, as though I were in
a more familiar environment.

I sucked a deep, cool breath into my lungs, feeling it
expand my body, and looked around. We stood perhaps twenty feet above the
ground on the lower side of a pyramide that was wedged beside the city wall, in
the midst of a cluster of the triangular structures.

“We need a better view.” Hitching his dirty robes above the
knees, Storne climbed not down but up, toward the pyramide’s tip, so he could
assess the situation.

I looked at Kaldir’s double. He swayed, looking a little
forlorn. “Will you not come with us?” I asked.

“I don’t think I can climb yet.”

“Get something to eat, then.” I yanked at the ruby that
Prince Kaldir had given me, breaking the chain, and handed it to the clone.
“You have the gratitude of the Queen of Shadow. Rest from your travail and walk
in the sight of whatever god in which you believe.”

Then I followed Storne, blessing the gray sky that eased my
exertions. I could hear shouts and cries of delight below us as the Children of
Light enjoyed what was, to me, a normal coolness. A pleasant breeze swept from
the marshlands to the east, bringing a gentle humidity to the air.

That there was a triple eclipse was fortunate, for it seemed
as though the odd conjunction of the three moons in front of the sun was an
occasion for rejoicing in New Medina. Any guard that had been set on our prison
was distracted by the celebrations. Below me, I could see piles of soft fabric
in the street, where people had shed their robes. Naked men and women stretched
their freed arms gratefully in the freshening breeze, touching and caressing
each other with wonderment on their faces.

I briefly wondered what Kaldir had told his people about the
sudden disappearance of the Queen of Shadow, who had been lately an honored
guest in his realm. No doubt he had lied. My jaw tightened. He would pay, as
would anyone else who had conspired with him to abduct me and Storne.

Storne had reached the pyramide’s top. I joined him and
peered over its tip to oversee the city. I allowed my gaze to trail along the
city walls, noting the location of the great stone archways and the heavily
guarded city gates. I saw the souqs that had amused me, and in the distance, I
espied colorful tiled buildings, their glitter and gleam muted by shadow. In
the other direction, outside the city, rose still more structures. One pyramide
among them attracted my attention, for its tip still glowed despite the dimmed
illumination caused by the eclipse. And that glow was an odd blue-purple color,
most unnatural.

I nudged Storne in the side with an elbow.

He scrutinized it. “What could it be?”

“It must be some sort of secret,” I said. “Else Kaldir would
have shown me such an unusual sight.”

“Yes, the two of you seemed to have formed a bond.” A wry
note had entered his voice.

“Seemed is the appropriate word,” I said stiffly. “Friends
don’t poison friends’ food or sap their blood for hellish experiments. Come
on.”

My bare feet were already sore, so I climbed down with care.
Nevertheless, I used the broad cracks between the pyramide’s stone blocks and
was on the ground swiftly. Storne followed. Once on the ground, I wrapped my scarf
to conceal my hair and face and motioned for him to do the same. The longer my
enemies believed us to be imprisoned, the better.

I paralleled the city walls, moving toward the gate closest
to the violet-tipped pyramide. I kept to the alleys and the shadows, my natural
domain. But as I walked, I became aware of a follower. Despite Storne’s
presence by my side, I felt vulnerable without my guards. Our weapons—his
hammer, which he’d stuck in his belt, and the thin blade I’d taken from the
cloning lab—were not adequate.

“We’re being shadowed,” Storne whispered into my ear.

“I know.” I turned away from my intended route and into a
broader street, hoping that any assailant would not dare to attack us on a busy
thoroughfare. Quickening my step, I headed in the direction of the open-air
market I had seen from the top of the cloning pyramide. There, we could lose
ourselves in the crowds, and perhaps I could steal a better knife.

A crone, bent and withered by age, grabbed my arm. Her
slight form was shrouded in grubby white veils. “A coin, kind lady,” she rasped,
while a voice sounded inside my mind.
Keep walking. Don’t look around.

Storne reached for her throat before I intervened. “It’s all
right—it’s Maia,” I whispered.

He gave me one startled glance but complied. “What
happened?” I asked her.

“I have been searching for you for two days.” Her clawlike
fingers dug into my arm. “Kaldir has expelled everyone else, the DarkDwellers
and our people, from his lands.”

I drew in a shocked breath, for this was tantamount to a
declaration of war.

Storne hadn’t taken his gaze off her. “Where are they?” he
demanded.

“Rall and Parron are riding to Windrush to fetch
reinforcements. The rest of our people are in an armed encampment some miles
outside the city, on the edge of the WestMarch. The DarkDwellers have left for
their lands, vowing to return with an army. They have sworn to raze New Medina
to the ground.”

“As well they should.” Storne’s tone was grim. “Where are
their armories and smithies?”

“I have my suspicions.” She nodded in the direction of the
violet-tipped pyramide.

“I noted it also. What is it?”

“That pyramide is a fortress, heavily armed and guarded. I
believe it contains their weapons. The smithies…I don’t know. No manufacturing
goes on in New Medina, where the nobles live.”

We continued to make our way deeper into the souq, passing
leatherworkers’ stalls and robe merchants plying their wares, pale, ghostly
swaths of fabric billowing in the breeze. “Perhaps the heavy manufacturing does
not take place nearby. But the weapons stores…” I mused.

The hand on my arm tightened.

“The army and weaponry must be in or near this city,” Storne
said. “That pyramide is the most likely place. Let’s go.”

“How will we make it past the gates?” I asked.

“Now is our best chance, when the guards are distracted by
the eclipse.”

And distracted they were, sharing wineskins in a group while
watching naked girls dancing in the street to the reedy tune of oud and drum.
We slunk behind them out of the gate, unnoticed.

* * * * *

The violet-tipped pyramide was unexpectedly far away, appearing
to be close due to its sheer size, and was surrounded by a cluster of smaller
huts. We slipped between them unremarked. Although the smaller and faster of
our three moons had continued in its orbit, two still obscured the sun. The sky
had lightened, but the work I imagined that was usual seemed to have been
suspended in favor of a general holiday, for the area was deserted.

We eyed the fortress from a safe distance in the lee of a
nearby unoccupied hut. “Four entrances,” Storne said. “One on each side.”

“This is surely their stronghold,” I said. “Look at the
sentries.” Despite the eclipse slackening Lightside security, the guard was
tight at this pyramide, emphasizing its importance.

“I can slip through one of those slits.” Maia pointed at
dark gaps between the stone blocks that occasionally interrupted the smooth
monotony of the pyramide’s sides.

“They’re for ventilation, I trow.” I gazed at them with
narrowed eyes. The slits seemed to be perhaps a few handspans wide and the
height of a man. “But how would we get in?”

“You don’t need to.”

“I don’t want to be separated,” I said. “The last time we
were apart, Storne and I nearly died. Separating is a bad idea.”

“I could get in and cause a diversion. The guards would
leave a gate unprotected, and you could sneak in.”

“But we don’t want them to think that anything is amiss
inside… How about creating a disturbance in one of the huts?”

“How?”

“A fight between the soldiers about a gambling debt or a
woman?” I wondered aloud.

“An explosion or a fire would be easier and less dangerous,”
Storne said.

“Um, yes. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.” I
tapped on the side of the hut. “But the walls are mud bricks and the roof
metal. What is there to burn?”

“Something inside.”

I peeked into the deserted hut, spying pallets and cots. All
were of Lightsider stone, but uniforms were folded upon each, the robes that
were common attire. “I’ll leave you to it,” I told Maia.

“One moment.” Storne slipped into the hut and grabbed one of
the robes. He shed his filthy garb to assume the clothing and weapons of a
Child of Light, including a belted scabbard sheathing a wickedly curved blade.
He handed me his hammer.

Maia dropped to her feet and transformed into a shadowy,
snakelike form, leaving me to take her clothing as Storne and I retreated to
the far side of the next hut. Soon, startled shouts from the hut’s interior as
well as a curl of smoke told me that she had done her work. When she slithered
forth, I slapped my foot on the ground to draw her attention. As she approached,
I leaned over and let her coil around my left arm. The guards from the nearest
portal of the pyramide deserted their post to help put out the fire, and we
slipped inside unimpeded.

The pyramide was quiet, its vast interior mercifully free of
any busy folk who could get in our way. I again blessed our moons for their
fortunate conjunction across the sun this day, for without the eclipse, I felt
certain we would have been swiftly discovered.

Zigzagging staircases dominated each of its four interior walls,
constructed of the same large stone blocks that built the pyramides. In the
center, another oblong rock rested, behind which a young guard lazed against a
stone chair. He sported grubby robes, pimples and a bored expression.

“Anything to report?” Storne asked him.