Death in the Family

::This is less than ideal,:: Naxi’im said, eyeing the mottled collection of eggs nestled up against the cave wall.

::It is not unexpected,:: Hexeth replied. The bloodied gold queen sat beside her king, tail coiled primly around her claws. Beside her sat her mirror image coloured in tarnished copper, Queen Oadiceath.

::We have been at this location for three months. For this clutch to exist, my subjects must have scarcely set one claw on the ground before harrying off to fornicate with our hosts.::

::Our allies, my king. We were fortunate that Kalkenoux was able to accommodate us so readily. Our entire Court can hide here without anyone the wiser.::

::We shouldn’t be in hiding,:: Naxi’im seethed. ::We should be ruling over that damned rock while the Empress and her ilk rot in the sun.::

::Someday, my king. Reconnecting with the Nexus gave us access to allies, but it also allowed them to reconnect with their own. You said yourself that this would be a complex game that may last for years, but we will win it in the end. Your plan is good.::

Naxi’im released a heavy sigh that rumbled up through his chest. He glowered at the eggs, as if willing the whole of his ire to infect them. He needed a distraction.

::Have you received any word from Takith?::

::Not as of yet, my king, but Bold did report an oddity on the sensors this morning.::

::An oddity? How delightfully vague. Let’s go see my scientist and extract a few more details.:: Naxi'im stood and turned away from the eggs. If he just ignored them for a while, maybe the problem would go away by itself. Yet before he could take a single step out of the hatching chamber, a small, malformed white figure froze him in his tracks.

“They’ve arrived," Bold said. His voice lacked depth or emotion. Just as his features lacked any sort of aesthetic that might make them appealing. Though vaguely Shy-shaped, he seemed to have been built by someone who had just heard Shy described in passing. Short where Shy was tall, drab where he was flashy, fatigued where Shy was an endless font of devious energy. Bold was a failed experiment. So named because, instead of destruction, he'd found family and acceptance among the enemies of the geneticist.

::Who has arrived?:: Naxi'im demanded.

“Fire and death. The wayward queen. The ship.”

::Remind me to program you to be less irritating. Where have they arrived?::

“West thirty degrees, north fifty degrees.”

::The third highest tunnel, my king.:: Hexeth's response came before Naxi'im could voice his irritation.

:: However you understand that is beyond me.::

::I taught him to use bearings. As we do for wing movements. It made interpretation less of a guessing game.::

Naxi'im snorted in response. Hexeth had an amazing mine for tactics. He would never question her logic on troop movements and coordination. That she applied those skills to every aspect of her life did irritate him sometimes, but never enough to voice. He respected her far too much for that.

The blue king of the death court made a shooing motion at the small, broken likeness of Shy and watched him scurry up toward one of the tunnel entrances.

Hexeth had wasted no time in coordinating pigeons and magpies to go around labelling each tunnel, hallway, and cavern in the porous depths of the Healing Den to ease the transition for the rest of the Court. Even so, there were always search parties each day who needed to locate some wayward dragon or another. Should they remain lost for longer than a day…

Well, they became the hydragons’ problem then.

Naxi’im trailed after his deformed scientist, watching the white-coated man scurry over rocks and up inclines like a rat in a maze. Behind him he heard the steady, soft footfalls of Hexeth and Oadiceath. Of his queens, they were the most light-footed, the most graceful. They moved like predatory cats, and he longed for more of his kin to pick up that habit. They made for excellent spies.

It took some time for Bold to lead the royal trio to their destination. The tunnels beneath the Healing Den were long and winding, made eons ago by a force Naxi’im could only guess at. As such, they didn’t always make sense. What looked like it should lead higher often took a sudden dive back into the bowels of the asteroid.

Eventually though, Bold stood at the lip of a tunnel entrance and waited patiently for the dragons to catch up. Light spilled into the tunnel from the passage beyond, soft and cool and promising a much more open space.

In addition to the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the Healing Den, there were also numerous caverns. Many of them had been claimed by the death court. Many were still held by the hydragons. There were enough that neither side squabbled over space other than a few instances of ego puffing.

As Naxi’im crested the inclined tunnel that led up to the new cavern, he expected to see yet another wide open space with little more than stalactites and stalagmites decorating its surface. Maybe a magical light source of some kind. Strange magical finds were not uncommon down here.

He was not expecting to find the entire cavern filled with a sleek, metallic structure that looked like nothing so much as a battle scarred bird of prey.

The ship was gigantic. Much too large to see from bow to stern just by standing in the tunnel entrance. Dozens upon dozens of small, round lights lit along its angular wings and down the sides of the ovoid body. Low, straight rods hung from the underside of the wings and the body like small, black cancerous growths. There was something menacing about the unassuming rods, and it wasn’t until they turned to focus on him that he realized they were weapons.

The entirety of the ship was a smooth, matt black. Which somehow added to its ominous presence as the back of it faded into the shadows of the cavern.

Naxi'im couldn’t even see how the ship had gotten into the depths of the asteroid until he took a few steps into the cavern and peered around the low angled wings. There, at the back of the cavern and partially hidden by a curve in the wall, lay a gaping maw looking out into the void of space.

::Surprise! Do you like it?:: The all too chipper cry threaded its way into his thoughts on raven-black skeins. Naxi’im took another step forward and saw a ramp angling down from the back of the ship. On it stood his reaper queen, Takith, and her irritatingly constant shadow, Kaszas.

::What… how?:: Naxi’im asked. He really didn’t know what else he could say given that one of his queens had just shown up with a literal spaceship.

::We found it!:: Takith crowed happily.

::And we cleaned it out,:: Kaszas added. His mental voice had a rasping, grating quality. As if he’d spent his entire life gargling salt.

::Cleaned it out of what?:: Naxi’im asked.

::Oh, all sorts of little beasties. They were crawling all over the place. It was like a game of whack-a-mole for a few days. It was great! Also, we found the ship crashed on an empty planet.::

::Empty?::

::No dragon riders! None!::

::Just monsters,:: Kaszas cut in.

Takith turned and snapped at her companion, and Naxi’im felt his mental threads buzzing with a private band of conversation between them.

It galled him to know that Takith had private conversations with her balespawn fan club. Kaszas, like so many before him, had shown up one day and announced that he wished to join the death court. Great. They always welcomed new blood. What Naxi’im did not welcome was the sniveling snake’s obsession with his queen.

Naxi’im was a considerate and indulgent king. He could allow for many bends and breaches of his rules. But not when it came to his queens.

::Fun, crunchy monsters. They’ll make for good sport. The important part is we found a planet!:: Takith’s excitement was difficult to contain, though that was pretty standard for his energetic reaper. She stood on the edge of the ramp with her forelegs raised before her chest, clawed hands clasped together. She looked so eager for his approval.

Naxi’im approached the ship in silence. He made a show of inspecting it from bow to stern, examining the undersides of the wings and walking around the thick struts that made up the landing gear.

It wasn’t the ship in particular that held his interest, but the means by which it had reached his domain.

Takith was many things. Passionate, loyal, overzealous, but she was not one of his tactical geniuses. Hexeth certainly knew how to make use of her during a battle, sending her into the middle of some knot of enemies to rain rampant destruction upon them, but she too understood that Takith did not strategize. She barely comprehended cause and effect.

As the blue king of the death court examined his queen’s prize, he threaded a mental line to Hexeth and caught a whiff of his blood court queen’s doubt. Neither one of them believed for a second that Takith had the wherewithal to pilot a spaceship. And it certainly hadn’t been done by the halfwit who followed her.

::How?:: Naxi’im asked after an extended examination. Hexeth and Oadiceath had circled around to the other side, and were just then coming to join him by the ramp at the rear.

Takith made a noise like a deflating balloon and bounced on the spot, causing the ramp to thunder and rumble beneath her feet.

::Come! Come inside and see! It’s so cool!:: She squealed through their minds.

Naxi’im winced, but stepped onto the ramp regardless. The metal was cold beneath his feet. What had once been smooth steel was now a webwork of slashes and gouge marks. Spatters of old, dried blood painted the metal here and there, and dark, dusty stains marked the impact points of old rifles. The whole of the surface had tarnished with time, and now appeared nearly as black as the exterior paint.

Up the ramp and into the belly of the ship, things did not improve. Faint, reddish lights flickered at irregular intervals, lighting up the garish remains of a combat site. Crates lay overturned, scorch marks and scratches lined every surface, and wires hung from open panels in the ceiling like the entrails of a gutted animal. Worst of all, Takith and her hangnail seemed to have attempted some form of clean-up. A pile of old, ragged cloth and equipment huddled in a far corner. Naxi’im suspected that was where the smell came from too.

::What a… unique discovery,:: he said as he stepped carefully around the dubious stains on the floor.

::I knooooooow,:: Takith squealed with delight. She bounced ahead, eager as a hatchling at mealtime. ::You haven’t even seen the best part yet. Come on!::

Hexeth caught up with the death court king. She gave him a sidelong look that required no telepathic interpretation.

::How they managed to pilot it here is inexplicable,:: Hexeth said on a private band to the king. ::Either Takith has actually been listening during my navigation lessons, or this ship is far more advanced than it looks.::

::I’m more interested in knowing how it didn’t fall apart along the way,:: Naxi’im replied.

::The interior needs work, but the overall structure looks sound. As much as it surprises me to say, Takith did very well with this find.::

::Takith has a talent for stumbling across lucrative opportunities. Even if she can’t identify them immediately.:: Naxi’im took a moment to gaze upon his black queen fondly. For all that he didn’t understand her sometimes, he found her exuberance for life endearing. She was a being of pure joy and excitement. That she found that joy in bloodshed sometimes worked to his benefit.

Takith led them down darkened hallways. Few of the lights remained in the ceiling, and of those that did exist, even fewer worked. The baleful red glow of the emergency lights flickered incoherently through some of the open doorways. Only the sickly green glow wafting off Kaszas’ feathers provided a steady source of illumination.

When they neared the front of the ship, Takith’s excitement grew wilder still. She began to bounce instead of walk, bounding from one side of the hallway to the other like a playful ferret. Then, all at once, she leapt ahead and disappeared through an open doorway.

Hexeth and Naxi’im once again exchanged a look.

Kaszas was the second through the doorway, and as Naxi’im followed him into what had likely been the bridge of the ship, he began to understand Takith’s excitement.

This chamber was huge. More than large enough to accommodate a dozen dragons just in terms of floor space. Then there were the curiously large consoles and even cup-shaped seats. There were smaller, humanoid-shaped seats and consoles as well, which took up the floor space directly before the three massive viewing ports. Yet everything else, every monitor, every input device, every cubby and shelf, was built on a scale that benefitted his kind.

This room had not escaped the damage of the rest of the ship though. If anything, it looked to be the epicenter of whatever had gone down here ages ago. Dark streaks splattered across the viewing screens, and many of the consoles were caved inwards from suspect impacts.

::This can’t be what I think it is,:: Naxi’im mused as he advanced on the large consoles.

::Oh, but it is! And watch this,:: Takith said. She looked to the large displays at the rear of the chamber, opened her mouth, and issued a guttural series of clicks and rumbles. In response, the ship sputtered to life with a cough and a hum. The ground beneath their feet came alive with a soft vibration, warming as if waking from a long hibernation. Lights opened up along the floor and the ceiling, eating away at the shadows until they were little more than specs at the far corners of the chamber. The display screens lit up. Some showed little more than cracked and darkened glass, but a few still functioned. On those screens, schematics and numbers and readouts spilled out in a dizzying display.

::Turn it off,:: Naxi’im ordered immediately. He backed away from the consoles, fearing the clicks and whirrs that emanated from them. The sparks from the destroyed consoles weren’t helping.

::No, wait,:: Hexeth cut in. Before Naxi’im could say a word to the contrary, the blood court queen slipped up to the largest array of consoles. She stood up on her hind legs and set her claws on the controls. Then she began to type.

In response to the rapid clicks of her claws, the schematics shifted. They engulfed the whole of three displays, zooming in on an overhead view of the ship. The floor plan flipped onto its side, splitting out into several different levels. One by one, she called up each level’s floorplan, examined it, then moved onto the next one.

::It’s all here. Every detail we need to understand this ship,:: Hexeth said, awe making her mental threads bright. Not a second later, one of the damaged consoles let out a hissing spark and then a bang.

Naxi’im lunged forward, ready to defend his queen from the offending electricity. By the time he reached her side, the console had subsided into moody smoke trails.

::What we need to understand is that this thing is a junk heap,:: he groused.

::Maybe so, but it’s fixable,:: Hexeth countered.

::With what engineers? What technicians?::

The bloody gold queen narrowed her eyes, a hint of red wisping through the blue of her eyes.

::I think you know exactly where we might find those.::

::You see it, right?:: Takith cut in before Naxi’im could fully process Hexeth’s words. The black death court queen scuttled closer to her king, head low and eyes wide with the pure need of a child after candy. ::Did you see what I could do? I can talk to it. This ship is magical.::

Hexeth released a sigh that was equal parts disappointment and frustration.

::It’s not magic, Takith. It is, however, exceptionally well suited to our needs. The fact that you can speak to it tells me that it has an advanced linguistic program. That it has consoles this large tells me it’s accustomed to draconic patrons.::

::Or something equally large,:: Naxi’im mused. ::Something that may want its ship back.::

::We found it!:: Takith flicked her tail irritably. ::Finders keepers. We found it and cleaned it out of its nasties, and now it’s ours. I’d like to see anyone try to take it from us.::

::My king,:: the call was a soft wisp against his thoughts, like a thread of smoke across an otherwise clear sky. It drew his attention back to the hall through which they’d come, where Oadiceath stood framed in the blackened archway.

::Yes, Oadiceath?::

::I have found something. Come this way.::

To any of his lesser denizens, Naxi’im would have balked at the command. Oadiceath, like Hexeth, was different. When she spoke, he listened. The blue king turned and slunk after the disappearing tail tip of his verdigris queen.

::Hey, wait, where are you going?:: Takith demanded. ::I’m not done showing you around yet.::

::Patience, Takith,:: Naxi’im admonished her gently.

He knew she didn’t like to wait. He also knew that Oadiceath could not have found anything that interesting in the minute they’d been onboard the ship.

Takith scurried alongside the blue death court king as he stalked back down the hall and turned a corner. Oadiceath’s shadow disappeared ahead of him. Takith swept into its place, bright eyes looming inches from his face.

::Hey! You know what’s cool? How this thing flies. Let me show you-::

::Takith.:: Naxi’im didn’t need to put any emphasis into the sound of her name. He stared her down, waiting for her to move.

The black queen twitched her head side to side, as if some unseen presence tugged at her from over her shoulder.

Now his curiosity was well and truly piqued. What had Oadiceath found? And why didn’t Takith want him to see it?

After a moment of indecision, Takith slunk out of his way, head low and tail down. Curiouser and curiouser. Also frustrating. They could have just told him what was so interesting instead of dancing around the subject like this. With a short glance over his shoulder, Naxi’im confirmed that Hexeth and that cretin, Kaszas, were not far behind him. Kaszas cowered in much the same way as Takith.

Oadiceath sat beside a torn, scorched scar in a wall. He gave her a glance, but she had eyes only for the hole in the wall. He stepped close and placed a clawed hand on the tornado opening. She stood and walked away, giving him space to squeeze his lithe frame through the opening. Once on the other side, he immediately drew up short.

Eggs. Ten of them in total. All of them bore charcoal black shells with flecks of iridescent green throughout. They sat in the midst of another pile of scraps pushed together into the semblance of a nest. Bits of broken machines and tangled wires poked up at random angles throughout the nest, and a rank odour drifted to his nose through the rent metal that served as a doorway. Sulfur and rot, mingled together into a hideous potpourri.

A commotion erupted behind him, but Naxi’im had difficulty in finding the motivation to care. He backed out of the room slowly, his mind whirling through a thousand new emotions. Something twisted in his guts, and it took him a moment to recognize the nauseating, burning pinch of rage. He turned to see Takith pressed low to the ground, her jaws gaping in a furious snarl, as Hexeth stood defensively before Oadiceath.

::Why did you have to go and do that?! We were supposed to be partners!:: The black death court queen screamed at her sisterly counterpart.

Oadiceath looked unmoved by Takith’s fury.

::I don’t know what you’re talking about.::

::Hexeth, remove yourself and Oadiceath from the room. I need to speak to Takith alone,:: Naxi’im said. His mental threads were as smooth and even as freshly spun silk. This was apparently enough of a threat to cause Takith’s predatory stance to melt away into a grovel in a heartbeat.

In response to his command, Hexeth bowed her head, then stepped backward, pushing Oadiceath behind her. They were out of sight within seconds, and Naxi’im turned his attention to his little reaper.

Kaszas, for his sake, had decided to hide in a corner. Though it could scarcely be called hiding given his wings cast a perpetual hellish glow around him.

::My king. Kingsey. Dumpling. Naxy-waxy-::

::Enough,:: Naxi’im snarled, and this time the twisting, roiling rage building inside him echoed across his mental threads like a shock wave.

::I can explain,:: Takith barrelled on. ::You see, we didn’t exactly know how to pilot this thing when we first got it, so we were kind of just floating through space a bit? And then I felt the itch. You know the one. Hexeth taught me all about the itch. And… well… you were so far away…::

::She was suffering, my king. I couldn’t leave her to suffer. I only wanted to serve,:: Kaszas simpered. The baleful glow of his wings flickered and danced across the walls as he crouched low and scooted toward Naxi'im, ever the submissive subject.

Red closed over his vision like a tidal wave. His Takith had flown her maiden flight, and he hadn’t been there. His little reaper had chosen a mate that was not her king. And this insect, this sniveling, insignificant worm, had deemed himself worthy enough of taking his place. He had laid claws on HIS queen.

Naxi’im did not so much move as he flowed across the room, muscles coiling and uncoiling in a single, fluid motion that carried him from where he stood to Kaszas. He leapt upon the balespawn, claws rending flesh as he bore the larger dragon to the ground. Kaszas let out a short squawk of fright before Naxi’im’s jaws closed around his throat.

::My king, wait!:: Takith’s cry cut through his pulsing red thoughts. He turned his eyes on her without loosening his grip. Kaszas’ pulse rabbitted against his tongue.

The black death queen slunk his way, her belly dragging along the floor.

::Please don’t kill him.::

::And why shouldn’t I?::

::Because I- Because…:: She trailed off, and he felt her mind grasp for words that wouldn’t incite him to further violence. The words she wanted to speak were there, blindingly bright in the mind she tried desperately to shield from him.

Since the day of her hatching, Takith’s mind had been an open book to him. He had felt every thrill of delight, every stab of fury. He had shared in her curiosity over the clutches of her sister queens and had nurtured her glee for the mayhem they caused on strafing runs against the Vella Crean. He had always known every intimate little detail of her thoughts, but now when he reached for her mind, he found a wall instead.

Naxi’im flexed his jaw and felt the vibrations of Kaszas’ squeals of protest through his teeth. Blood pooled in his mouth, sweet and hot and metallic.

He should kill him. He had every right to kill him. Why did he stall then?

Because something else had caught his attention. A small and barely perceptible keening sound. As he focused on it, the sound grew louder, followed by the skittering of many little claws.

::You leave him alone, you big meanie!:: The shrill, childish cry emanated from a small ball of orange and green that came barreling into the room. Behind it came a second, more vibrant green creature. They opened their little mouths and released twin creels of tiny fury as they charged Naxi’im.

Takith swept into their path, catching up both hatchlings in her arms and dragging them back from Naxi’im.

::No! Nonono, my little grubblings. Sweeties, come away. We have to stay away.::

::Yes, stay away,:: Kaszas cried, panic making his voice thrum. ::In fact, get out. Take a hike!::

Ah, and there it was. The key to the door of Takith’s thoughts. She hadn’t closed him out because she no longer wanted him to know her. No, she was protecting the secret life she’d led while away from him.

So much had happened in her absence. Not just her flight, but her maturation. She’d grown into a fully fledged queen with subjects and a family of her own. How they’d come about was not important. What mattered was the way she huddled protectively over them, and the look in her eyes as she gazed at the maggot in his jaws.

It should have been him that inspired that level of commitment. Yet, the longer he thought on it, the more he blamed himself. After all, he had trusted her to venture out on her own before she’d fully developed. He’d known her to be of a simpler, easily distracted mind, and yet he’d let her go out unchaperoned, save for her sycophant. Careless and thoughtless, and now he reaped the consequences.

The rage began to trickle away, solidifying into something new. He unclenched his jaws from Kaszas’ throat and allowed the balespawn to wriggle out from beneath his claws.

Kaszas bleated pathetically as he dragged himself over to Takith and the odd little hatchlings. He collapsed at her side while she hovered nearby. Her eyes darted between Naxi’im and the bloodied dragon laid out at her feet. Naxi’im didn’t need to feel her thoughts to know what she desired in that moment.

::You will live,:: Naxi’im declared.

::Oh thank you! Thank you, my king-:: Kaszas began. His words vanished beneath a wave of fury rolling off the blue death court king.

::Silence, you mindless maggot. I spare your life only for my queen.:: Naxi’im paused and turned his attention to Takith. ::MY queen.::

Takith cringed and ducked her head low. The rage cooled again.

::I will admit that this…:: Naxi’im raised a claw and gestured vaguely at the diorama before him, ::fiasco is my fault. I placed too much trust in Takith. I have always trusted my queens to be loyal. Clearly this was a mistake.::

::Now wait a minute-::

Takith did not finish her thought. A rolling growl erupted from Naxi’im’s throat, shaking dust from the ceiling overhead. She ducked her head low again, crouching over the now trembling hatchlings.

::I have always known you to be a creature of immediate gratification, Takith, but this goes beyond the pale. You are free to pass judgment and rule as you see fit. But at all times, through all things, YOU. ARE. MINE.:: Each word launched like a javelin at the minds of his audience. For each impact, he saw them cringe. ::Or rather, I should say, you were free. For your transgression, you are grounded. You will go nowhere without an escort. You will pass all decisions through your sister queens.::

::But Kingsey-::

::QUIET,:: he roared, both through their minds and through the chamber. ::You have broken my trust, Takith, and for that, you will face consequences. This ship and all its responsibilities will fall to Hexeth and Oadiceath. They will appoint its crew. You will remain by my side at all times. And now you will thank me for my generosity, as I am allowing your pathetic little cluster of leeches to live.::

Takith did not raise her head. She trembled from head to toe. When she looked at him, he could see how his proud and vibrant reaper had been cowed. A pity, but necessary.

::Thank you, my king,:: she said quietly.

::As for you,:: Naxi’im said, swinging his attention back to Kaszas, ::You will never fornicate with any female ever again. If you do, I will end you. I could remove your ability right here and now, and believe me when I say that I dearly long to do so, but that would take away your choice. You chose to claim my queen’s maiden flight. Now you will choose how long you remain alive.::

For a short time, Naxi'im thought that Kaszas might argue. He kept his head down, shielded beneath the cage of his claws, but his eyes burned with a furious light. Naxi'im hoped that he would object. He prayed for a reason to end the wretch right then and there.

::Yes, my king,:: Kaszas said at length.

Damn. Ah well, at least Naxi'im knew he would suffer for the rest of his life. A worm like Kaszas couldn't live without needing to exercise his virility.

Silence claimed the room for a time after the balespawn's acknowledgement. Naxi'im heard nothing beyond the pound of blood through his own temples and the laboured breaths of the cretin who had stolen his queen's maidenhood. He needed time to process this revelation. He needed to think on what would become of Takith. Thanks to this event, he didn't know if he could stomach keeping her at his side.

She'd been so precious to him. This betrayal felt worse than the death of his rider. At least then he hadn't trusted the man who ripped his heart out.

::My king?:: Takith ventured. Her voice held a fraction of the fire he was used to hearing from her. ::What about my eggs?::

Naxi’im turned and stared at the rip in the wall. He couldn’t see the small cluster of ovoids through the shadows, but he felt them. He felt them the way he felt the scar that forever marred his face.

::I will deal with them. You are dismissed.::

::But-::

Again Naxi’im shook the room with a growl dredged up from the depths of hell. Takith’s protests fell silent.

Naxi’im did not turn to watch them as they shuffled about behind him. He heard them wavering, communicating in glances and snatches of private thoughts between them. Eventually, sense won out. He heard Kaszas pull himself up to his feet, breath labouring through his lungs. He heard the balespawn trudge toward the exit, and a moment later, he heard the pitter patter of tiny claws chasing after him. Takith was last to leave, her steps light and slow as she slunk out of the chamber.

Naxi’im sat down and curled his tail around his legs. He was enraged. He was incised. He was hurt. He needed to make an example of them.

::Hexeth,:: he called. And within seconds, the bloodied queen’s claws scraped against the metal floor behind him.

::Yes, my king,:: she cooed into his mind. Her voice had always soothed him. Like ice on a burn. Her words, her pragmatic way of thinking, her love for him, in these things he could always find solace.

::Bring me Umbradae. I have a task for him,:: he said. And then, a moment later. ::And gather your sisters. I have an announcement to make.::

::As you will it, my king.:: She paused, and he felt the weight of her deliberations against his mind. ::May I ask what will become of the eggs? They are still a queen’s clutch.::

::Oh, I am aware,:: he rumbled. ::We will hail them as the newest evolution of the death court line. Each one of the eggs will find a home with our allies. Far away from me. And from the egg given to Umbradae, I expect Doctor Krum to bring me the secrets of the balespawn blood.::

Naxi’im turned, the flickering light of the ship’s interior casting long shadows across his face, turning the long scar on the side of his face into a cadaverous grin.

::Soon enough, the death court will be the only line to breed true. Takith may have failed me, but from her failure I will snatch glorious victory.::