Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

“She’s in pain,” Lily said.

There was no way to read the Queen’s face. Her black faceted eyes held no emotion, and her mouth—a wet, tubular proboscis and waving mandibles—was downright nauseating, but still Lily could tell she was suffering. She stepped forward and took one of the Queen’s human hands as her pale abdomen heaved again.

Lily wanted to comfort her, but she didn’t think spoken words could be heard or understood. She tried to reach out to her in mindspeak and felt a distinct vibration clashing with hers. It was a harsh sensation that made Lily draw back immediately, like ice-cold water washing across a sore tooth. Lily knew what it meant, even if she’d never experienced it before. She looked at her coven, truly afraid.

“She’s someone else’s claimed,” Lily said. “A witch controls the Queen.”

“Grace,” Juliet said, needing to voice it aloud to make it real.

“If Grace controls the Queen, does that mean she controls the whole Hive?” Una asked.

“That’s a good bet,” Breakfast said, grabbing Una and pushing her back toward the bottleneck. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

Lily saw Caleb pull a pilfered st

eak knife out of his boot. She put out a hand to stop him. “No, don’t! If you kill her, the entire Hive will be alerted. We’ll never get out of here alive,” she said.

“Oh, we’re getting out,” Rowan said. He snatched Lily up into his arms before anyone could tell him not to and started kicking at the wax around the Queen’s belly to get into the room beyond.

“Rowan! Where are you going?” Tristan snarled.

“We’ll never be able to jump up that long drop. We have to go this way,” he snarled back.

The Queen’s belly spasmed next to Rowan’s head. Lily laid a hand on the swollen skin as she suffered through another contraction.

“Poor thing,” she whispered, torn for a moment and wanting to help.

She saw the look of distaste on Rowan’s face as he went back to kicking his way through to the next room. The rest of the coven seemed to collect themselves from their initial shock and joined him. The wax was thick and soft, and it absorbed their blows rather than shattering, making it difficult to move aside.

Lily thought for a moment that the Workers covering the Queen would attack them, but they didn’t. In fact they hardly took any notice at all, and continued on as if blinded by their single task of tending the Queen.

We may not be so lucky with the Sisters, Rowan said in mindspeak, picking up on Lily’s thoughts.

He broke through the wall of wax and put Lily down. Protect Juliet, Lily told them in mindspeak. She’s the only one besides me who can’t fight.

Breakfast, Caleb, and Una formed a circle, keeping her and Juliet in the center as they moved out. The rest of the Queen’s abdomen lay alongside them as they moved forward.

Careful, Tristan warned them all in mindspeak.

There were lines of little Workers scuttling to and from the body of the Queen on the floor and the coven had to tread gently not to step on them. The Queen’s body was at least thirty feet long and ten feet high and supported by wax buttresses that obscured the end of it.

Stop, Rowan said, raising a hand. There was movement up ahead. Rowan looked at Caleb and tilted his head. Caleb slid forward silently at Rowan’s command and melted in the shadows. A few moments passed.

I think it’s safe, Caleb said. Just move slowly.

They came forward and saw Warrior Sisters lined up at the end of the Queen’s abdomen. Lily stopped short when she saw them, and then noticed that these Sisters looked different. They had lighter bodies, wore no armor, and they didn’t carry whips; nor did they seem to see anything but the task before them. With each spasm of the Queen’s abdomen, a translucent white egg the size of a backpack dropped from her tail into the waiting arms of a Sister. After the large egg was birthed, the Sister waited with her other hand held aloft for a drizzle of tiny Worker eggs that she caught and cupped protectively to her chest before hurrying off with the whole clutch.

I think I’m going to be sick, Una said.

Steady, Rowan replied. Everyone stay calm. Act like you belong here and they probably won’t even notice us.

Rowan led them past the docile line of Sisters to one of the less-used hexagonal tunnels that led upward. The passage let out into a storage chamber that had two dozen wax sarcophaguses. As they weaved their way through them, Lily saw male bodies squirming inside. Their pale and heavily muscled limbs were twisted up with black veined wings. She was glad they all had their faces turned away.

Drones, Tristan said. Keep moving, Ro.

The next ramp opened into a huge cavern. Towers of wax held six-sided cells, each with the dark shape of a growing Sister just behind a protective film. Along one wall Sisters were bringing the newly laid eggs to empty cells. Next to them, Sisters were bricking up the cells with wax from their mandibles. Rowan led them away from the action.

They made their way up a series of ramps and tunnels, and the smell of pollen and honey grew stronger. Workers by the millions buzzed in and out like a black fog. She was scared to inhale and possibly swallow one of them. The walls dripped with honey and Lily could taste pollen dust, bittersweet and chalky, in the back of her throat.