“I did not leave the settlers alone,” the queen said, answering questions I had not asked, “but they did not know that.”
She looked around at where the newly arrived vespis mingled with the humans.
“Until now.”
21—Airfield Skirmish
I moved with T’Kit, mostly ignored as the settlers gathered around her, seeking comfort and reassurance, asking questions about Askavor and weavers, and how the vespis would keep them safe. I had not realized just how bad the war between the vespis and the settlers had been, or how completely the humans had been brought to heel. If I had to work here, again, I’d make sure I did.
Given that it was too late to do that, now, I settled for watching T’Kit’s back, and keeping a weather eye on the world around us. Just because the attack on the settlement had been defeated, did not mean the arach forces had all been dealt with. The more I thought about it, the more I wished the Shady Marie was in orbit above us, that I could call Tens, and ask for a scan of the settlement and its surrounds.
I turned, surveying the hills above the town, pausing when I saw movement along the crest, and then moving on when a large, lone bug took to flight. I paused, again, when my gaze reached where Askavor and Rohan were standing, Cascade lounging at their feet. They were not alone.
A number of settlers had gone up to them. Some had clearly reached the limits of their courage when they were less than a meter away, and had stopped. They just stood and stared. Others moved closer, bringing Cascade into a sitting position at their approach. The settlers stopped, speaking to the dog, before turning their attention to the weaver.
Seeing that there were no longer any vespis standing overwatch on the spider-kin, I patted T’Kit on the carapace, and motioned towards the scene. She quirked her antennae, and the queen glanced over at Askavor and Rohan.
“Go,” she said, and T’Kit and I eased away from her, even as another guard stepped in to take our place.
They might be among friends here, but no-one was taking risks with the queen’s safety, and it struck me that a change in rulership would be a really bad thing, right now. I scanned the ridgeline, again, but nothing moved there. T’Kit and I eased our way closer to Askavor and Rohan, coming to a stop beside one of the settlers who had frozen in place.
T’Kit shifted to human form, and laid an arm across his shoulders. He startled, and turned his head to look at her, his face a tragic mix of embarrassment and disappointment.
“I’m sorry, guard, I…” he gestured helplessly towards Askavor, his words petering out to silence. “I will pack in the morning…”
“No,” T’Kit told him, “we will help you.”
And she scooped him into her arms, and carried him forward. The man gave a startled yelp, and then flung an arm around her neck, and buried his face in her shoulder.
“Don’t let him eat me,” he said, and T’Kit gave him a mirthless smile.
“I will not.”
When she reached Askavor, she sat the man down beside one of the spider’s forelegs, placing her hands on his shoulders so he could not get up and run away. Crouching down next to him, she stretched one arm around his shoulders, and held him tight.
“See?” she asked, and he opened his eyes.
He shut them just as quickly, again, however, and wrapped his arms around his knees.
“I’m not sure this is helping, guardian.”
“Just sit,” the guard told him. “Sit, and know that Askavor will never harm you.”
She kept her arm around the man’s shoulders and backed out from under the arc of the arach’s foreleg, before morphing back into her waspish self. The man flinched as her arm became a clawed forearm, but he did not try to move.
Poor guy, I thought. He’s probably as terrified of wasps as he is of spiders.
Judging from the way she felt in my head, T’Kit was not amused. Askavor was, though, and he clattered his mouth pieces in a weaver laugh. It was too much for the man, and he turned and tried to bolt out from under T’Kit’s grasp. She didn’t give him a chance, dragging him back and pinning him down while she breathed a familiar sweetness into his face.
“Oh…” he said, as his struggles ceased.
He glanced towards Askavor, and then rolled slowly to his feet and took the few steps he needed to reach the weaver’s side, and lean on it.
“I see, now,” and he rested his head on the spider’s nearest leg.
Askavor shifted to accommodate him, and I heard the reproach in his response to T’Kit’s tactics.
“Did you have to?”
T’Kit flicked her wings in a gesture of mild annoyance, and looked smug—although that could just have been the impression I had in my head.
“It was required. He will be able to relax enough to learn not to fear you.”
Askavor sighed.
“And you can talk to him, now. His mind will not run screaming into oblivion, when you touch it.”
“I was not going to touch his mind,” Askavor protested, and the man stroked a hand over the back of his head.
“Why not?”
“I did not want to intrude?”
“An arach who respects boundaries?”
“A weaver.”
“What’s the difference?”
“I’m not sure I should show you. You have been frightened enough.”
“So, unfrighten me.”
I caught a flicker of thought suggesting Askavor would like to stuff T’Kit into a cocoon and drop her off a cliff, but the settler did not.
“Well?” he demanded, and other settlers gathered.
“Yes,” they said. “What exactly is the difference between an arach and a weaver?”
Before Askavor could ask for T’Kit’s intervention, the wasp ushered the settlers forward.
“Come. Sit yourselves, here,” she said, her thoughts touching all in
