Dark World

by Resha Caner

part 5 of 7

The Captain awoke to sweet Red smells and sounds. The dank carcasses of the wolves had been pulled away from him, and the distant smell of a fire lifted the ashes of war refuse toward ‘sky’.

A Nurse chastised him with gentle clicks and then turned to call over her shoulder.

“Captain!” He heard Penel’s voice, and his heart gained the strength of a legion.

Another voice joined the girl’s. “We are happy to still have you with us.”

“My Queen,” he gasped, and struggled to sit.

“Rest, my Captain.” The Queen’s voice caressed him. Then she turned to the Nurse. “Leave us.” With a snap of her head, she indicated the order applied to everyone, even Penel. Her agitation told the Captain her first words had been a mere formality, and she was not pleased to see him. She paced about him in a circle, waiting for everyone to move out of earshot. Then she moved in to kneel. “Sometimes instinct plays against us, does it not? I did not give Soldiers the order to rescue you, but it is their way to protect all things Red. And so you are alive.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

“This is unexpected.”

“I hope you are pleased.”

The Queen shifted and gazed about at the trees. “Few know of this place.”

“Varus brought us here.”

“Yes, the Top Dweller. I never did trust him.”

“He saved us.”

“Yes.” She rose and took a few steps away before turning back to pace around the Captain in another circle. “Most unexpected.”

Being seated while she stood made the Captain uncomfortable, and he struggled to stand. A gash opened on his leg, and he felt blood seeping from beneath the bandages.

“I could use such a brave warrior,” the Queen said. “I shall give you a choice. You may return with us, or you may stay with the girl.”

The Captain turned his ear to the distance separating them from the others. “She will not come with us?”

“No. She was never meant to live.”

“I can’t leave her.”

“Very well.”

“You can’t leave us, My Queen.”

“You do not tell me what I can and can’t do!” the Queen thundered. She rushed back to stand over him, her breath coming hot and fast upon his face. The noise caused several Templars to hurry to her aid, but she waved them away. “I ordered that we be left alone! Do not defy what I have said!” Slowing her breathing, her voice dropped back to royal indifference. “Again, Captain, the decision is yours.”

“She will die.”

“As I planned from the beginning.”

The Captain recalled the first time he met the Sixteenth Queen, and how her very presence terrified him. Since then he had encountered many new things, and she now seemed a small part of the larger world. When she gave him his assignment, he had feared to ask a question, but now he demanded an answer. Why was the Convergence she sought worth the sacrifice of so many lives? “What is Convergence?” the Captain asked.

The Queen rubbed her chin for a moment. “Are you playing games with me, Captain? The Convergence does not concern you.”

“It does. Is that not our purpose?”

“It is.”

“Then what is it?”

“You have become a very insolent man.”

As the Captain waited, a small tremor bothered the Queens legs, but her voice remained calm. “Very well. Convergence is union with the energy of the universe.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

Nothing answered him but silence.

“You don’t know what it is,” the Captain said. “The Fifteenth Queen died before she could tell you, didn’t she?”

A nearby bush rustled.

“Penel,” the Captain gasped.

“You wicked, disrespectful little worm!” the Queen screamed. “How dare you eavesdrop!”

Penel shrieked, leaping from the bush in an attempt to escape the Queen’s wrath, but the Queen was too quick. She cornered the girl against a tree.

“If no one will obey, I’ll do it myself.” A dagger appeared in her hand, and she lifted it to strike.

“No!” the Captain roared, and he slashed at the Queen before he could think.

The Queen staggered back, brushing at her robes in disbelief as blood poured from the wound. “What have you done?” she asked with the weakness of mortality.

Templars and Priestesses stumbled in the distance, clicking and barking as they lost their voices to bewilderment.

The Captain backed away, and Soldiers traced his movements, but remained fixed to their stations. The Queen had made her order very clear. No one was to disturb her. The Soldiers would not move without an order, and the Templars would not give an order without a Queen. Without a Queen, the Colony was paralyzed. The Captain had done more than kill one woman. He had killed an entire nation.

“Captain.” Penel stepped forward, reaching out to him.

He pulled away, rolling the knife across his fingers, reaching out to touch the blood as it dripped from the blade. The blood on the knife belonged to the Queen — his own Queen. How could this have happened?

“Captain.” Penel tried again to grab and hold him.

He refused her hand. Instead he turned and fled.

* * *

Proceed to part 6...