For a long while Thalric said nothing, disentangling the conflicting tones within the big man’s voice. Surely that was the sound of a man who was trying to believe, and could not quite throw off the shackles of his upbringing. But Apt Amnon had since seen the wider world, and had decided that the old superstitions of his own people were no more than that. This was an inspiring story that might be taught smugly in Collegium, save for one thing. You poor bastard.
‘Che and I met your Masters,’ Thalric declared. It was cruel, but he could be a cruel man sometimes. He was not sure if it was that quality within him prompting the words, or some rarely surfacing need for truth.
Now it was Amnon’s turn for silence, until Thalric reckoned the man might never speak again without further prodding.
‘We went below your city and we met your Masters. They’re. .’ He had no clue as to Amnon’s expression; the man might have cut his own throat by now. And what could Thalric say, now he had started on this course. ‘They’re really fat. They’re fat, slimy, old, and they care piss-all for your people.’ I had forgotten till now that Che hadn’t said anything to the Khanaphir, when we came up from the catacombs. ‘So, you know what? You’re right. You’re absolutely right. It was a trick, and you’re better off without them.’
Still silence. Maybe Amnon had just walked away while Thalric was speaking. But then: ‘I. .’ and, after another dragging pause, ‘I must speak with Che on this.’
Sorry, Che. ‘Probably for the best, as I can’t claim to really understand it.’ Thalric found himself grinning into the darkness, unhappily aware that it was probably just the mean satisfaction of having ruined someone else’s night. Oh, yes, and sleep well on that. He had exceeded by some margin his actual antipathy to Amnon, now, and was left with the self-knowledge that all this needling was just because he himself felt so helpless.
Then the cacophony broke out: a hideous, confused yammering and screeching that seemed to come from all around them, sudden and shocking and close by. Thalric’s involuntary yell was lost in it, but then he was scrambling for a sword he could not find. Those were seconds of utter confusion for him, but in which the Sarnesh had pulled themselves together and drawn blade, and then the night flashed with the brief sear of a Wasp sting — not mine — and someone triggered a chemical lamp, throwing out a bright, greenish light that the Sarnesh all closed their eyes against.
He was briefly blinded all over again, looking too closely towards the lamp when it flared, but then the camp was being overrun.
Wasps. A few Mantids too, possibly, but the bulk of the attackers were Wasps, somehow already penetrating this far into Etheryen territory. Light Airborne make a better pace than plodding Ants, every time. Thalric threw out his hand to direct a sting. In that moment he caught the expressions on the faces of the enemy, as blinded and surprised as he had been — and not running to but from. This was a clash of ill chance that there had been no need for, but no way to avoid it now, and there looked to be a fair number of them.
His sting flashed, striking one down — the Sarnesh were shooting, bolts punching running Wasps from their feet. The attackers were already in the camp, though, and it was down to swords almost instantly. Thalric saw Amnon — a huge dark shape of nightmare in the unhealthy light — discharge a snapbow virtually into one man’s face and then club another down with the same weapon, before taking a sword from one of his victims to continue the fight.
Where’s Che? But of course the Beetle girl was already up and utterly in control, standing in the centre of the camp with drawn blade, and not rushing off anywhere or doing anything stupid. It’s as if I don’t know her any more. Tynisa passed by in a blur of speed, clad only in her shift against the muggy night, but her blade already dissecting the air about her.
Thalric remained at a crouch, stinging at targets of opportunity, trusting that the Wasps would not be expecting such an attack from their enemies, and so might overlook him. The sword-to-sword fighting was furious, with the Wasps already in a frenzy, panicking and dangerous. The Sarnesh met them calmly, outnumbered but fighting as one. He could hear Zerro’s high voice shouting orders, but could not make out what the Fly was saying.
Maure and Bartrer stayed with Che, practically hiding behind her, he saw, as though she was some sort of supernatural guardian. Ludicrous thought. And yet there was something there, a strength that had been growing in the girl, which made him think again.
Then a pair of Wasps tripped over him.
In that moment of confusion on their part — and because he knew all others of his kind were his enemies at this point — he killed one with a hand to the man’s side, sting scorching where the light armour left off. The other man hacked at Thalric’s head, so close that it was the crosspiece of his guard that gashed Thalric’s temple and knocked him back to the forest floor. He was already stinging blindly in return with one hand, even as his head rattled, rolling over and feeling the enemy’s stabbing blade pin his tunic rather than his chest. Then its wielder was gone, the sword left behind. He dragged it from the earth, seeing his attacker with a knife in his thigh, hands wide, looking around for his foes, utter despair on his face. Thalric killed him.
The Moth, Terastos, dropped to his knees by the corpse to retrieve his throwing blade. He looked a little scorched about his shoulder, which counted as a near miss for a stingshot wound. Hope that wasn’t me.
There was a knot of Wasps still up, backs against a tree, sword and sting against Amnon and Tynisa and some of the Sarnesh. By this time Thalric had stopped fighting. The outcome was not in doubt and the expressions on his erstwhile countrymen left a sick taste in his mouth: Men who do not want to be here.
He saw behind them, looming around the trunk into the lamp’s wan light, the pale shadow of the same mantis from before, its barbed arms reaching out, and then one of the Wasps was gone with a horrified cry, plucked from the midst of his fellows. That broke the rest and they tried to flee, but enough of the Sarnesh had crossbows reloaded to ensure that not one of them got away.
Thalric moved over to join Che, and indeed all of the non-Sarnesh were gathering there, their camp now split into two for no reason he could discern, save that the looming darkness seemed to work more towards division than unity.
‘The mantis is back,’ he murmured. ‘The beast.’
‘I know,’ Che acknowledged calmly, and he had the immediate and unworthy thought, And did she bring it here, after mastering it before? Another in the growing line of questions he wanted no answer to.
‘Zerro’s dead,’ announced one of the Sarnesh, and the rest were keeping their eyes on the trees. ‘Two more of ours also, and the Moth’s wounded.’
Thalric’s eyes located the Fly’s small corpse, sting-charred, with a short blade still clutched in each hand. He guessed the Fly had been done for by bad luck. The tide had turned against the Wasps quickly — they had not been ready for the fight, and the Sarnesh mindlink had given the Ants a cohesion that had proved fatal for the Imperial soldiers.
‘We’ll take stock in the morning,’ the Sarnesh decided, and one of the others put the lamp out, relinquishing all to the darkness.
After dawn, they discovered the Imperial camp — so close to them amidst the trees that it seemed insane that they had not realized it was there, but the forest seemed to have its own laws governing such things.
There were another dozen dead Wasps at the camp itself, meaning that their force had been much larger than the Sarnesh band. Nocturnal scavengers had been busy with them, so that the precise story was hard to unpick. A small party of Etheryen Mantids stepped out of the trees shortly afterwards, with the Roach girl, Syale, at their head — they would have caught everyone by surprise had Che not looked up a moment before. For a while, they regarded the intruders into their realm stonily, apparently only belatedly remembering that they were all on the same side.