The Ruler of the Storm began large and swiftly became huge, covering half of Creation before they dove inside its enormous, heavily armored hanger.
More soldiers were waiting for the prize, but this time the boy evaded them, breaking into an easy sprint, diving under a pair of arms and reaching the hallway in the lead. Yet suddenly the strength in his legs was gone. His lungs refused to breathe, and his heart was a lazy muscle, and feeling as if he was weeping, he lifted one hand and then the other, wiping at the dry cheeks and dry unfeeling eyes.
Good caught him, barking some general complaints.
The quickest soldier fell in beside him, saying, “The boss wants to see you on the bridge.”
“List,” said Diamond.
“Not today,” the young man said, smiling nervously. “Tomorrow, sure. But today, we’ve got your girlfriend ordering us around.”
For no good reason, he remembered that little girl from school.
Prue was in charge of the world.
But of course his Archon was at the front of the pack. List was behind her, smiling as if his life depended on it, and various generals and aides took the trouble to look the boy over. The brown school uniform was in shreds, his feet bare and distorted by freshly grown callus, but the rest of his flesh and everything beneath the flesh was perfect. Not a scar to be found. Prima got down on one knee, which made her shorter than Diamond, and with concern and pain, she said, “I am so very sorry about your mother and your father. Those good people will always be missed.”
Words hit him and flowed away, and he just nodded.
“The Eight,” she said.
Diamond blinked. “Who?”
“I know this is hard, and too soon,” Prima said. “But that creature down there. The one that murdered your father. Did she have a name?”
“Divers.”
“Divers, yes.” She glanced at List before looking at the boy again, and very carefully, she asked, “Do you think Divers is responsible?”
The question made no sense.
“She was trying to kill you too, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, madam.”
“And did she say . . . do you have any sense . . . did Divers have any role in the attack that dropped the trees?”
Diamond wanted to vanish and couldn’t. Quest could disappear easily, and that was a fine reason to be jealous of her. “Others did the attack. She told me. But the ideas were hers, and she was in charge. Yes, madam.”
“Well,” said Prima. “Thank you. I needed to know.”
Then she was on her feet, and gone.
List lingered.
“Where’s King?” asked Diamond.
The Archon of Archons didn’t answer immediately. He had to study the boy, his mouth working itself into a tight rough pucker. And then a new smile arrived, plus the words, “I’ll take you to him.”
King was using a fancy telescope. Nobody else stood near him. Nobody wanted to be close to him. King had never been taller or more powerful, dressed in shorts and those gorgeous bright scales, spikes jutting from his elbows and that spectacular head. Hearing Diamond approach, he took a step backward. “You can have a good look,” he said. Then he gave his brother one long stare before saying, “I saw you and the smoke fighting all of them.”
“All of them?”
“The Eight,” he said. “It goes by the name Divers, but eight of them are trapped inside that one big body.”
That made everything worse. Diamond listened to an explanation that his brother had harvested from various sources, various mouths. He learned how many brains were merged inside one body. The creatures were united, and once he understood that and accepted it, there was no purpose in listening to anything else.
Good dropped to the floor, quickly falling asleep under the telescope’s mechanisms, where nobody could step too close.
Diamond wished that he could do the same.
Approaching the telescope, he discovered that the eyepiece was glad to get pulled down, and he looked ahead with that new eye, powerful but very narrow. Human soldiers were carrying bodies wrapped in bright white sacks. The landing party was heading back toward the cages, ready to abandon the reef. Then Diamond twisted his gaze to where the tent had been erected, except the tent was gone and the papio were standing in close ranks. Most of them wore uniforms, but one was larger than the others. One of the papio was wrapped in tent fabric and almost too weak to stand, knots of the complicated pink hair rooted in the rebuilt scalp.
“I see her,” Diamond said.
“Let me,” his brother said, easing him aside. Then after a moment, he asked, “Was the smoke our other sister?”
“Yes.”
“Does she carry a name carry?”
“Quest.”
“Well, that’s a funny sort of name,” said King.
Prima was standing beside the most important window, talking to generals with words and slicing hands.
King didn’t look anywhere but through the telescope, yet he seemed aware of everything. With a calm slow voice, the one mouth said, “You know, she has a plan. She plans to kill Divers.”
“Who does?”
“Your Archon. As soon as our people are off the reef and safe, she’s going to launch the big rockets. Reef-hammers, we call them.” Then because he was proud about what he knew, he told his little brother a string of details about hammers and firing mechanisms, each detail earned by being quiet and sly.
This news was important. Diamond felt the impact even if he couldn’t piece together all of the meanings.
Then King stepped back. “Look again,” he said. “Because I don’t think the papio will let us see her any day soon.”
Diamond stood very still, looking at nothing.
A smell was hanging on his brother, some pungent quality that meant something, and King moved differently than before. He wasn’t trying to be human anymore. Gazing at the half-human face, King told Diamond, “You look tired.”
“I am tired.”
“And something else. I see something else.”
“In my face?”
“And through your body too.”
Diamond nodded and said nothing, and he glanced at the middle of the bridge, watching the tall control panels and their red buttons. But when he walked, he walked straight to Prima. A general was talking loudly about ship positions and the timetable to reach home again, and the woman was listening, satisfied if not happy. The Archon looked engaged and nervous, but she didn’t jump when a boy’s hot hand suddenly grabbed her by the elbow.
“Hello, Diamond,” she said.
“Are you going to kill the Eight?” he asked.
There. She jumped, if only slightly. Then she glanced at the general beside her, letting her bottom lip curl against her teeth. Very carefully, she asked Diamond, “What did you say?”
“Are you going to use the rockets?” he asked.
Every general made some noise, and the one full of timetables asked, “What’s our boy talking about?”
“Something overheard by his brother,” Prima guessed.
Just then, List arrived.
“Will you try to kill her?” Diamond persisted.
“What is this?” List asked.
The generals started to explain the confusion with a confusion of words and gestures.
Prima ignored all of them. She bent just enough to bring their eyes close, and very carefully, almost patiently, she said, “I thought I should. I even hoped to do so. But no, no, it’s too careless, too incalculable. Millions of people depend on me, and that’s why as soon as we get clear of the reef, I will order Lieutenant Sondaw to disarm the weapons, and then I’ll relinquish my command.”
Diamond nodded slowly.
“Not soon enough,” said one general.
And then List said, “Be gracious, gentlemen. These last days have been awful, but today will be better than most.”
Good was still napping on the floor, and King was listening to every conversation while he watched their sister learn to walk on new legs. Diamond started to walk in their direction. He wasn’t thinking about anything hard or certain. The adults behind him were happy to feud, and nobody thought about him again. Even when he broke into a casual trot, nobody noticed.