Princeps' Fury (Codex Alera 5)

"Invidia," Amara said. "Finally, the outside matches the inside. Treacherous, cowardly, petty."

Invidia sat in her chair and slowly withdrew a hand from the waters of the healing tub. She tilted her head at an angle that made Amara acutely aware of the fact that she currently lay bound at Invidia's feet. Other than that one motion, she did not move, until she turned her head to the Vord queen. "Well? She lives."

"Yes," the Vord queen said. She walked past Amara's view, pale ankles and delicate feet tipped with green-black toenails walking with deliberate grace across the stones and stepping over Amara's bound form. She stopped behind Invidia's chair.

Invidia shifted her body, settling her back upright against the chair's straight back and gripping the arms with weak fingers. "Countess," she said. "As ever, swift to judge."

"Perhaps you're right," Amara said. "You must have an excellent reason to explain why you are toadying for the enemies of the Realm and murdering and enslaving her citizens. Any reasonable person should be able to forgive and forget. Surely."

Invidia narrowed her eyes. "Does it look like I would be here if I had a choice, Countess?"

"I don't see a collar on you, Invidia," Amara said.

For the first time, the other woman seemed to notice the way Amara had entirely omitted her title. Her expression flickered with surprise, then offended anger, then-for just an instant-with what might have been a flutter of regret.

"The people here, the ones you've had broken and enslaved, they didn't have a choice. You took that from them."

The Vord queen settled her fingers lightly upon Invidia's neck. The tips of her green-black talons dimpled the delicate skin of the former High Lady's throat. She shivered and rippled hideously, as if some other creature entirely had writhed in its sleep beneath her skin. Her fingers tightened, and tiny trickles of blood coursed over Invidia's pale white skin.

"After your mentor betrayed me," Invidia said, her mouth spreading into a rictus, "and left me bleeding on the ground with garic oil poisoning my wounds, I fled and was found by my new liege." She tilted her head slightly back toward the Vord queen. "She made me an offer. My life for my loyalty."

"You make it sound like barter," the queen murmured, her faceted eyes half-lidded. "It is not so much an exchange as an ongoing arrangement." Then she closed her eyes, and shivered again, something undeniably alien in the motion, and Invidia fell silent.

Amara shuddered and stared, revulsion and fascination competing for her thoughts.

The Vord queen smiled slightly, let out a little sigh, and parted her dark, soft lips. Impossibly long, spidery legs slowly began to emerge from between them. As they appeared, they grew like the branches of a tree, but with horrible rapidity. Once they reached better than a foot in length, they began to stir, slowly, waving about like weeds growing in the sea near the shore.

The queen opened her mouth wider, and a bulbous body emerged from it, shaping itself as it came, until it settled into the form of the creature Amara had seen on Invidia before, albeit a bit smaller.

The Vord queen lifted her hand to her mouth and took up the creature in it, as gently as any mother handling her newborn. She reached slowly around Invidia's body and held the creature against the Aleran woman's chest. The creature spread its legs, fluttering them lightly over Invidia's torso, and, in an abrupt motion, struck with every leg at once, nearly a dozen limbs lashing out in separate serpentine motions. The creature clutched hard to Invidia, then slammed its head forward, long mandibles burying themselves in the Aleran woman's flesh.

Invidia closed her eyes for a moment, shuddering, but not moving or struggling against the creature. It seemed to adjust itself for a moment, then settled, its legs each sinking a talon into her flesh, drawing more dark fluid from her.

Within seconds, her color had begun to improve, and Invidia let out a shuddering sigh. She blinked her eyes open a moment later. "Ah. My thanks."

The Vord queen simply stared at Invidia for a moment. Then she shifted her attention to Amara.

"Now," Invidia said. "Where were we, Countess?"

"Fidelias," Amara said. She struggled to keep her voice calm, but she couldn't do it. The cold had settled into her soaked clothes, and she began shivering. Her voice shook with her.

"Yes," Invidia said, her voice growing steadier by the word. "Dear Fidelias. I don't suppose you know where he is?"

"To the best of my knowledge he was in your company," Amara said. "Or dead."

"Really?" Invidia asked. "That hardly seems likely. You were close to him, after all. He was your patriserus."

Amara clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering. "He was a traitor."

"Doubly," Invidia mused. "I had thought your type had a name for that sort of thing, but perhaps I was mistaken." She glanced down at the creature on her chest and shifted her shoulders gently. Its legs flexed slightly, and she winced. "Mmmfh. He could hardly have struck at a better moment. I was incognito. Had he succeeded, I would have been buried as a nameless camp follower, an unfortunate casualty of war-and one of Gaius's most capable foes would simply have vanished. A High Lady of the Realm, gone without a trace."

"I can't see where he failed," Amara replied. "I see no High Lady here."

Invidia stared at her in deadly silence for a long moment.

Amara bared her teeth at her in a humorless smile. "You may have lived through the attack, but High Lady Aquitaine didn't survive it."

"Enough of her survived to settle accounts, Countess," Invidia said in a quiet voice. "More than enough to deal with you. And your husband."

Amara felt a little chill of fear go through her.

Invidia smiled. "Ah. I thought as much. Where is dear Count Calderon? I can't imagine him to be the sort to let you accept a mission such as this alone."

"He's dead," Amara said, keeping her tone as flat as she could.

"Liar," replied Invidia, without an instant's hesitation. "Oh, you could deceive me about many things, child. But not about him. He's too close to your heart." She rose slowly, eyes again on the creature upon her breast. This time, it didn't stir as she moved. "This needn't be any more unpleasant than it already has been, Countess."

"Meaning it will go easier for me, if I cooperate with you, I presume," Amara said.

"Precisely."

"Go to the crows. And take your friends with you."