Nina paused, at a loss for words. Tears glistened on her cheeks. “I–I don’t know what to say. My twin has perished. My beloved Leon-”
Baroness Droad lurched up from her throne, as might a puppet whose strings had been harshly yanked by a cruel master. She was suddenly erect and looming atop the dais. She was taller than her daughter, and despite her age, one could tell she had once been athletic and beautiful, just as Nina herself was today.
The Baroness pointed an accusatory finger at Nina. She sucked in her breath and shook her head. She let a crystal goblet drop from her hand to smash upon the stone steps that led up to the throne. Nina had not noticed the goblet before, but now she could see the bluish wisps of vapor that rose from it.
“You’ve been drinking, mother. You are not yourself in your grief.”
Her mother laughed at that. It was a full-fledged laugh. “For so many long years you have haunted me, girl. Now, you’ve done your worst. I suffered your existence as no other of my rivals was ever tolerated. You were the viper I took to my bosom. Do you know that when you suckled, you were the one that always bit me?”
Nina opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had seen people in grief, she had seen people intoxicated by the maddening drug known as blur-dust, but this was the first time she’d encountered both at the same time. She tried to think of a way to defuse the situation, but none came to mind. She decided to ignore her mother’s odd behavior, make the report that chivalry demanded, and exit the castle as quickly as possible. Her mother was bound to come to her senses in time.
“We met with a force of mechs, Baroness,” she said, standing at attention as her mother staggered down the remaining steps toward her. “They were not guided by any human group we could see. They ambushed us in the near desert of Sunside. We were overwhelmed, and somehow they disabled our perrupters. I was knocked senseless-”
“And your brother was killed, removing him from the line of succession. Yes, I know your plans, girl. If anything, this proves you really did sprout from my womb, despite everything I’ve felt to the contrary.”
“Wha-what?”
“You heard me. You arranged this. You were twins, but you came into this gloomy house five minutes after your brother. He was thus the elder, and set to inherit everything.”
Nina shook her head, not so much in denial, but as if to clear it. How could she be hearing these foul words? How could her mother suspect her of such evil?
After standing and gaping for a few seconds, something her mother had said managed to penetrated her thoughts. That this imagined murder of Leon reminded mother of herself. “Mother, are you saying you killed someone to reach your station?”
Her mother cackled again. She walked to a table carved with dark hardwood and poured herself a fresh goblet of blue, wisping liquid. She sipped it and hissed in pleasure.
“Of course I did. Did you think all I did was sleep with your father? A dozen girls could have taken that easy route. After any contest, examine the winner. Rarely will you find the contestant that took the easiest path.”
“Who then? Who did you remove from your path?”
Olivia huffed. “Have I not been clear? If there are a dozen girls, and you are perhaps in the middle of the line-up-the math seems clear. By removing the first five or six, you have just reached the front of the line. What could be more obvious?”
Nina shook her head in shock. Her mother had killed to reach her station? Killed rival women? She now recalled stories of her youth, things whispered of grim times before her birth. Her father, Lucas Droad, had possessed another wife before Olivia, that much she knew. She’d died long ago…could her mother have had something to do with that? She looked at her mother with new, horror-filled eyes.
“Not father’s first wife?”
Olivia shrugged. “Why not? The woman was a cow.”
Nina put a hand to her mouth. She felt heartsick in an entirely different fashion. Suddenly, she felt she understood her father’s exit from this world as she never had before. Who would want to live with such a horrid woman?
Olivia busied herself with another goblet. This one she lifted and offered to Nina.
“Here,” she said. “Since we are truly the same flesh, perhaps we can come to an understanding. Take this drink and toast me, daughter of mine. You are now my only heir.”
Another girl might have accepted the toast, but within Nina’s person was not only the heart of Lucas Droad, but also her mother’s temper. She drew her sword instead and slashed the goblet from her mother’s fingers. The power-sword in Nina’s hand had appeared with startling speed and she’d flicked it on in the same automatic motion, as the armsmen of the castle had taught her to do. It was only good fortune that she hadn’t cut away a portion of the Baroness’ hand as well as the goblet itself.
The blur-dust laden alcohol steamed in a slurry mess on the flagstones. Shards of broken glass reflected the light of the power-sword, which ran with plasma. The smell of the blur-dust vapors filled the room and stung Nina’s eyes.
Olivia nodded, as if unsurprised. “I offer you peace, and you draw your weapon and threaten me in my own chambers. I can see your ambitions exceed a single step forward. You are not content with being next in line to this throne, are you? In a way, I suppose I should be prideful.”
“No. No, mother-”
“Do not bother to deny it, child. These things are in the genes, you see. It is nothing to feel ashamed of. Unfortunately, only one woman can rule. It is not your time, nor will it ever be. Perrupters!”
Nina’s head twisted from side to side. The mechs that stood in each of the room’s four corners had each taken an immediate step forward. They had stood still all this time, as they always did, one under each of the four flickering artificial torches that illuminated the throne room. They now were at attention, awaiting their orders.
“Mother, I only feared that the wine was poisoned. I’ve done you no harm.”
“Of course it was poisoned, girl. Perrupters, take this assassin to the dungeons. Put her in the flooded cells. She is to be disarmed, chained, and left for the fish-rats to feed upon.”
Nina took a step back and tried to look at all four of the perrupters at once, which was quite impossible. Her eyes were wide, and they stung from staring in fear. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest and she felt mildly ill. How could all this be happening? How could all the worst moments of her life be wrapped up into a single heart- wrenching day?
But the perrupters did nothing. Nina watched them, but they did not do so much as twitch. Her mother hissed in vexation.
“I should have changed their conditioning years ago,” Olivia said.
There was a blinding flash, and Nina felt her arm go numb. She looked down and saw her right hand was missing. It was on the floor now, impossibly it seemed to her. The fingers still gripped the hilt of her saber and the blade ran with sparking plasma.
Nina fell to her knees in shock. Olivia stood over her, smiling for the first time today. It was a grim smile, without revealed teeth or any hint of joy. It was a smile of vengeful triumph. In her mother’s hand was her own power-sword, a blade which ran with pale green wavering pulses of force. She’d slashed off Nina’s hand while the girl eyed the perrupters.
“I had a deal with your father, you know,” Olivia said, holding her sword high for a killing stroke. “When he received the summons from the Nexus, he left two infants in my care. It was not only duty that drew him to the high post at the Nexus. He did not approve of my methods of social advancement, and I’d tired of him in general. I promised him no one else would be slain in pursuit of my ambitions, if he swore never to return. Thus he gave me sole rulership of Droad House in his absence. Today however, I must break that pact with your father, as you have forced my hand.”
Nina waited no longer. She still had her brother’s sword on her waist. Her remaining hand moved without warning. There was a blurring arc of white fire as her brother’s sword blazed into life. In a single slashing motion, Nina drew the blade from with her left hand and flicked it outward, cutting low. The blade sizzled and smoked as it cut her mother in half.
Disturbed by the sudden violence, the four mech perrupters twitched and shuffled, but there was nothing they could do. Conditioned to protect the entire family, they could not interfere when the various members fought amongst themselves.
