The humans that had pursued us had closed around the base of the stairs. I leveled the Blazer at their faces, and they backpedaled a few stops, and then stopped.
“Get behind me,” I said, and Alice frowned.
“I’ve got the biggest gun,” I reminded her, and she came all the way back to the small landing outside the door—the unlocked door… from behind which came the sound of a myriad of not-so-tiny feet. Alice didn’t step behind me, though; she rested one boot against the bottom of the door, and stood beside me
“We can cover the area better, this way,” she said, then added. “I take it you did not come here alone…”
She was right. I hadn’t. I’d just assumed T’Kit would contact me when the outside was clear. I looked across at where the humans had been entertaining themselves, and saw what awaited us, if the arach chose to hand us over.
“Delight…”
“I hear you. Only vulnerability that king has is its eyes. You might need to shoot the sick bastards competing for its attention.”
I caught frustration in her tones.
“You wanted them alive?”
“They might know something useful,” she told me, “and there is always one that’s willing to barter knowledge for some kind of advantage. The arachs won’t give us a thing.”
“But the vespis…”
“They won’t know what you’ve walked yourselves into,” Delight said, and her tone had an evil edge. “I’ll do what I can. The queen is at your location, though. You’ll need to let her know.”
I was worried that I could compromise Tekravzary’s safety, if I distracted her while she was still in battle, but Alice and I had backed ourselves into a corner, and we weren’t going to last long. Information was valuable, even if I wanted to slaughter every one of the treacherous human-shaped sons of bitches approaching the stairs.
I glanced over at the king, and watched as he turned to cloud and all vestige of his arach heritage disappeared.
“Whoa!” I said, but the word came out as breathless as any uttered by a teenager seeing their first crush.
Alice elbowed me in the ribs.
“Snap out of it, Cutter. I can’t stun them all.”
“Gotcha,” I said, and tore my eyes away from the king. Alice was right. That thing was utterly gorgeous to look at.
“Just don’t let it get near you,” Delight said, “or you’ll be wanting to do more than look.”
“Gotcha,” I said, and tried to come up with a way to put the humans out of commission without killing every single one of them like I wanted to.
I’d done plenty of snap shooting on the range, precision shots, hard to make, and fast. If I didn’t think about it… I lowered the Blazer’s muzzle and went for legs.
“Keep your rounds lethal,” I told Alice, “and watch the arach.”
“Gotcha,” she said, and I set about shattering human limbs as fast as I could go.
“You hit them in the femoral, and they’ll bleed out.”
“Not helpful, Delight,” but I lowered my aim, and tried not to hit too many thighs.
“The fleshy part of the shoulder is good, too,” she added, when it was getting hard to see legs because of the bodies in front of them.
I switched things up to avoid hitting heads that had suddenly gotten too close to the floor.
“You called T’Kit, yet?”
“No. Why?”
“Because you’re going to need her.”
And just as Delight pointed that out, Alice started firing. I looked up, and realized there were more arach around than I’d noticed before.
“Where did…”
“Outside,” Alice answered. “They came from outside. The king called for help.”
“Against two of us?”
“He really wants you alive.”
Not what I wanted to hear.
Groans and sobs came from the foot of the stairs, and I realized that the human element was no longer a threat. Go figure.
By the same token, Alice and I were stuck on the stairs, because the humans weren’t the only ones we had to worry about. I raised the Blazer, and looked over it at the arach warriors slowly moving in. Most of them had retained their human forms, and the few humans hesitating at the edge of their fallen fellows stepped aside to let them pass.
The king moved in behind them, coming to a stop three meters from the bottom of the stairs. Delight swore, but I couldn’t work out why—and the king spoke.
“Halt!”
Damn, even on a single barked command, the king’s voice sounded good. It sounded better as he continued.
“My guests, I am sorry,” he said, and sorrow laced the very air.
I felt sadness bubble up from inside me, and couldn’t work out why I felt so unhappy that he was sorry.
“Pheromones,” Delight said, and she didn’t sound happy.
“Like the wasps?” I asked.
“Worse.”
Oh crap, but the king continued, and the sorrow turned to menace, making my heart thunder in my chest.
“You have failed me.”
Fear rolled through me, and I nearly dropped the Blazer. Beside me, Alice’s guns shook, as if she was experiencing the same problem. Below me, the king’s guests froze. Before they could gather their wits, he rolled out a command.
“Kneel!”
With the exception of two or three, the guests knelt. They were oblivious to their danger, to the state of the floor they were on, the pain of their fellows, everything. They just dropped to their knees, some bowing their heads, some looking towards their king. I caught myself half-way down, and about to lay the Blazer aside, before I’d realized what I was doing.
I pushed myself upright, again, even as the nearest arach leapt forwards. Alice had hit the floor, and then snapped the Brahms and Glazer up as my movement broke the spell. I propped the butt of the Blazer against my hip and reached down to pull her back to her feet.
“Fucking spider!” she snarled, snapping two shots off into the face of the first soldier to reach
