Chapter 28 #2
A black-and-orange tentacle unwraps itself from the metal and reaches toward another pipe.
Several more follow, moving with such speed and precision that I can barely track them.
Deeg swings through the chamber in a blur of scales, eyes, spikes, and muscle.
His body never seems to fall and appears lighter than it must be.
Every motion flows naturally into the next, like a gymnast performing a routine he has practiced a thousand times. And all the while he makes the metal bars ring, as if this is him playing music on them.
Deeg launches himself across the room and catches a pipe with three tentacles at once, making it ring.
His momentum carries him into a graceful spin before he secures himself upside down near the ceiling.
For a creature that looks as though it was designed specifically to terrify children, he moves with remarkable elegance.
One of his many eyes turns toward me. Then several more follow.
I freeze where I stand, and Deeg becomes equally motionless. The room falls silent except for the distant pulse of the Beast's organs. For several long seconds we simply stare at one another.
Eventually a tentacle reaches out and taps one of the pipes.
A clear metallic note rings through the chamber.
Another tentacle taps a different pipe, producing a deeper tone.
A third follows, then a fourth. The horrifying creature employed by the Inquisitor is apparently entertaining himself by making music.
Deeg watches me throughout the performance. The cluster of eyes remains fixed in my direction while he produces a short sequence of notes that echo pleasantly through the chamber. There's an odd pride in the display, as though he's showing me something important.
I lean against the doorway and listen. "You're a lot different than I expected," I tell him.
The creature responds by striking another series of pipes, this one longer and more complicated than the first. I have no idea whether he's trying to communicate or simply showing off.
When the final note fades away, I find myself smiling.
"Yeah," I say. "I think I judged you too quickly." The translation flower repeats it in the locust language.
“Who’s judging whom?” says a deep voice behind me.
I turn and glare up at Inquisitor Brax’tok, not happy about being stalked. “I thought you were an Inquisitor, not a spy.”
“An Inquisitor must be many things,” he says smoothly. “It was my hope to find you alone, and Deeg knows how to get attention.”
“You trapped me?” I ask.
He raises his locust eyebrows. “Oh no, not at all. You can of course leave this spot at any moment and return to your cabin. I think it’s more correct to say that we lured you. Because getting you away from the Chief Harrower’s side appears almost impossible.”
“Well, enjoy your music,” I snap and turn to leave. “And enjoy explaining to Krix'vorr why you were skulking around his ship trying to corner me. I don't think 'Deeg was practicing for a concert' is going to cover it."
“I expect nothing less. But if he picks a fight, I may have to kill him sooner than planned.”
I stop and turn. “You’re planning to kill him?”
“Right now, that’s the way it looks. But it depends on you.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you kill anyone,” I inform him. “You don’t know what I can do. So don’t even try.” It’s technically true - he doesn’t know for a fact that I don’t have any weapons, and he can’t be sure that I don’t have some kind of alien venom or secret spike or something else deadly.
He leans against the wall. “Indeed many things are hidden about the alien that Krix’vorr brought to the Queen’s chamber.
Do you know that nothing like that has ever happened before?
Do you have any idea of the upheaval your presence caused in the Nest?
A Chief Harrower brought a completely unvetted alien into the Queen’s own chamber!
The very center of the Nest and the Brood.
It astonished us all, especially that the Queen didn’t order his immediate execution for such an act of obvious insanity. ”
“The Queen didn’t mind it,” I counter. “Maybe it was about time someone like me came into the Nest. And I didn’t hurt anyone.” I turn again and walk away.
“On the contrary, you caused severe harm to the Brood and the Queen,” the Inquisitor calls to me. “But mostly to Chief Harrower Krix’vorr. How long do you intend to hamper him? If I asked you to leave now, would you do it? What was it that made you see him as a possible target?”
I shake my head and speed up until I turn a corner in the corridor.
Target? Krix'vorr? The idea is almost funny.
Almost.
Because underneath the absurdity of it, one sentence keeps repeating in my head, and it wasn't a joke at all.
It depends on you.
Depends on me doing what? Leaving? Staying? Something I haven't even thought of yet? I don't know, and not knowing is so much worse than a straight threat would have been.
Behind me I hear the pipes ring one more time. A single note, held a beat too long.
I don't look back.