Then shocked once more when Venero politely declined.
How dare this mere mortal find Arista, the prime product of the Hive, to be less than adequate! The Hive would have eliminated Venero in that moment for showing such disrespect for a vastly superior life form.
Arista, however, did not.
The infection wasn’t contained or halted, either. It was a curious phenomenon, to be sure.
Would it destroy her?
* * *
No matter how long she considered Venero’s decision, Arista could make no sense of it. Why had he declined the pleasure she’d offered to him?
Why hadn’t she taken advantage of yet another opportunity to kill him?
She might have argued that she had permitted him to live and even made an alliance with him in order to have his assistance in reaching the Citadel where the ShadowCaster was stored. At this point, though, she was close to the Citadel and not in need of guidance.
She could have argued that she had need of his experience in order to procure the ShadowCaster from the Grotto, but he didn’t know what it looked like. She alone would have to identify it. He readily admitted that he had little advice for what would happen within the Grotto.
She could have killed him that very morning, but instead, she had watched him sleep, her heart aching to touch him.
To caress him.
To try to change his mind. She might have tried if the probability ratio had not been determined to be zero.
There was no chance of Venero loving her. But why not?
She puzzled over it, even after he awakened and they began the last of their journey. By his calculations, which she saw no reason to question, their quest would be completed by the setting of the sun this day, one way or the other.
Would either or both of her quests be completed?
They were in the tunnel that led to the Citadel, and Arista knew her opportunity to ask him for an explanation was rapidly slipping away. They had progressed in virtual silence since he had awakened, and he walked ahead of her.
She cleared her throat. “Will there be spies at this proximity?”
“Probably not yet.” Venero glanced back. “Why?”
“Because I would talk to you, if we will not be overheard.”
“Chances are pretty slim, at least until we emerge from the tunnel. There will probably be a sentinel there, but we’ve quite a way to go yet.”
“Thus will not be detected.”
“Exactly. Are you going to tell me why you’re after the ShadowCaster?”
“That would be a violation of my directive.”
“And telling me your objective wasn’t?”
Arista frowned, finding herself at a loss. Rather than exploring that, she asked her own question. “Why did you refuse me?”
Venero stopped then, and when he turned, there was no humor in his expression. “I told you. Because I don’t love you.”
“But conjugal relations are possible without love. In fact, I understood that most men preferred to enjoy such pleasures without the possibility of a long-term commitment.”
“Maybe they do.”
“But you do not?”
His gaze flicked over her. “Not this time.”
He would have continued walking, but Arista needed more of an answer. “I don’t understand. We are physically compatible in terms of height and size. I’m not without an understanding of how to give and receive pleasure.” Venero started to smile, which she took as encouragement. “We share a prowess with weapons and neither of us are unattractive. Why not this time?”
“Well, you are assigned to kill me.”
“But I have not acted upon that.”
“True. You could be biding your time, trying to win my trust.”
“Because I have not.” Arista noted that he didn’t dispute that. “You don’t trust me. This is why you refuse to be intimate with me.”
“Exactly.”
“But you slept in my presence this morning.”
“Did I?” His gaze was level and she realized he had fooled her.
How could that be?
“You were awake?”
“I was awake. I’m surprised you didn’t take your chance.” He considered her for a long moment. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I love you.”
He nodded once and turned around to continue, as if their conversation was at an end.
“Why don’t you trust me? What have I done, other than arrive on that mission, to encourage your suspicion?”
“It’s enough, isn’t it?”
“If you truly distrusted me, you wouldn’t have offered to show me to the Citadel. It would be illogical to ensure that we were alone together…”
“Where there were no witnesses.”
“You planned to kill me!”
“Only if you tried to fulfill your mission.” He shrugged. “It’s only logical, isn’t it?”
Arista narrowed her eyes. She thought he made a jest but she didn’t understand his humor this time any more than the others. His manner reminded her of Gemma, who liked to tease, even though Arista never fully understood that either. She had learned to watch Gemma closely in order to guess with reasonable accuracy as to whether her friend was making a joke. Venero was much harder to read, probably because she’d had less time to observe him.
“Do you tease me?” she dared to ask, and he laughed out loud.
“Maybe a little. You’re so serious, Arista. I can’t stand the temptation.”
“But you can withstand all other temptation I offer.” She trudged onward beside him, feeling that her feet were as heavy as her heart. It was nonsense, of course. All weights were precisely as they had been at her creation. “Do you love another?”
“No.”
“Are you betrothed or promised to another?”
“No.”
“Are your tastes inclined to those other than women?”
He laughed again. “No!”
“Then why? Why not me?”
“You’re insulted.”
“I’m trying to understand.”
He seemed to think about that for a long moment, then nodded as if he made a decision. “I suppose the truth won’t hurt.” His gaze collided with hers. “Because you’re a cyborg.”
Arista was surprised by his assertion. He was guessing. He couldn’t know. She didn’t know why he would venture such a guess, but that was a matter to consider later. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she protested and forced a laugh. Venero didn’t smile.
“I know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re a cyborg, and that means you can’t love me, because you’re incapable of feeling the emotion. And that means you must have had another reason for making such a confession, and that means that I’ll sleep once our ways have parted for good.” He nodded, then strode on, walking more quickly than he had before.
Arista stared after him. “You truly don’t trust me.”
“I told you that already.”
She hurried to catch up. “Maybe you’re wrong.”
“I’m not wrong.” He was resolute. “Just because the probabilities are long against something doesn’t mean its impossible. You’re a cyborg, a good one, but a machine nonetheless.”
Arista was insulted to be called a machine. “How could you know such a thing? No one ever knows!”
“That’s the easy part. What did you dream last night, Arista?”
She opened her mouth to confess that she never dreamed, then saw the understanding in his eyes.
“Exactly,” he whispered. “All biological life forms dream.”
“But how did you know whether I did?”
“I’m my mother’s son,” was all he said by way of explanation. Arista asked for more detail but Venero refused to answer her. It wasn’t long until he held up a finger, indicating that they should be silent because the end of the tunnel was near.
It wasn’t rational to love a man who could not—or did not—lov
e her in return, but Arista couldn’t get rid of the feeling.
She considered the possible outcomes of their assault upon the Grotto and found them lower than would have been ideal. There was a seventy per cent chance that either she or Venero would die and never leave the Grotto. There was a fifty-two per cent chance that they both would die there.
How could that be? Did Venero mean to betray her? If she had not loved him, she might have thought so, but Arista didn’t believe he would do such a thing. The probability was still calculated to be thirty per cent, but Arista didn’t accept it. There had to be an error in the computation.
She marveled quietly at her own reaction, knowing she had never before questioned the probability calculations she was programmed to constantly perform.
Then she considered the alternatives. The queen must have anticipated their arrival and prepared for it. How had she known? Arista couldn’t be certain. Someone else could have betrayed them. Someone could have noted their departure from the capital city and their failure to keep to the stated schedule of reviewing the crops together.
Then she remembered what he’d said.
“You dreamed of our quest,” she said, so quietly that the words were the barest breath between them. “And your mother heard your dream.”
Venero’s smile was rueful. “She doesn’t always need spies.”
“You knew I didn’t dream because you have the same power.”
“Not quite. She gathers dreams. I send them. But you couldn’t receive one, because you don’t dream.”
“When did you first know?”
“In Regalia. The first night you were there.” Venero sighed. “Although to be fair, it was your fighting skill that made me wonder.”
“I let you strike me.”
“Yet you didn’t respond immediately when I did.”
Arista’s true nature had been revealed by her own inability to feel pain. She had always thought it a good thing, but now considered that if they were successful, she would ask the Hive to consider modifications to her sensory input.
“How do we proceed?” she asked, knowing that she meant more than the quest itself.
“We get in to the Grotto. You take the ShadowCaster. Then we try to get out alive.”
“It’s a thin plan.”
He smiled. “I prefer to think of it as flexible.” He winked, irrationally playful in such a serious moment, then continued with a purpose that Arista couldn’t explain.
Venero was right in one matter, though. The ShadowCaster must be retrieved. That was her primary objective. She wouldn’t consider the second one, not yet.
Arista didn’t even want to consider the ramifications of failing even once. She was quite certain she had never done it before, but felt no anticipation of a novel experience.
* * *
Because I love you.
The Hive felt a shudder in its processors when Arista uttered the words aloud, never mind that she spoke with such conviction. The Hive had been certain that she was simply using a familiar idiom to express the change in her feelings, but now, it wondered. The Hive tabulated and calculated, but couldn’t be certain.
Mortals said that actions spoke louder than words.
The Hive liked conclusive tests.
The truth would be revealed by Arista’s reactions in the Grotto.
* * *
Arista considered the prospects of success as they walked the last increment of the tunnel.
“Surely, even if the queen isn’t in residence, this repository of her treasures should be guarded?” she asked.
“There are other ways to defend a prize than with fighting men,” Venero replied.
Arista would have asked for a specific list of what other powers his mother possessed, but Venero turned to her and lowered his voice. “Once we get into the Grotto, ignore me and find the ShadowCaster.” He winced. “If we’re challenged, I’ll try to buy you some time.”
“You’re assuming she will confront us.”
He was more serious than she’d ever seen him. “It’s my mother’s treasury.”
The probabilities were spinning in Arista’s mind, and the chances of success were steadily dropping. She frowned, not wanting to say anything.
“You must be calculating the chances of survival,” Venero guessed. “Isn’t that what you’re programmed to do?”
“Yes.” It was a great relief to admit the truth to someone.
“How does it look?”
“Bad.”
He nodded, not apparently surprised. “Add this to your calculation: I’m going to distract her by giving her the chance to kill me herself.”
Arista blinked. If he was sincere, the probabilities of her survival would leap considerably. Of course, the queen would demand the return of the assassin’s fee she’d paid to Cumae if she ensured Venero’s demise herself, but if Arista returned with the ShadowCaster, she would not be blamed for a failure.
Still, the prospect of Venero sacrificing himself for her quest troubled her. There must be some facet of his plan that she didn’t understand. “Why would you do that?”
“You’ll laugh if I tell you.”
“I assure you that I won’t.”
That smile returned, all too briefly. “No, I guess you wouldn’t.” Venero frowned. “There is a prophecy that if and when my mother gains a clear vision of the future, she will be invincible. That’s why she wanted the ShadowCaster.”
“But she has it already. If this prophecy is true, then we walk into certain failure.”
Venero wagged a finger. “Only if she’s learned to use the ShadowCaster. I did some research on them. There’s quite a lot of literature, even though they’re supposed to be extinct. Maybe because they’re said to be extinct. Lots of speculation, that can’t be proved or disproved.”
“I understand.”
“One common theme, though, is that the ShadowCaster can’t be controlled. That it shows what it wishes to show of the future, or sometimes doesn’t show anything at all. There’s a lot of speculation as to why it makes those choices, too, but I’m wondering whether she really can use it effectively.”
“She anticipated my arrival.”
“Because she arranged it.”
“What if she is invincible?”
“Then we’ll lose, but I’m willing to take the risk.”
“That is illogical, in the face of no other supporting evidence.” Arista, though, recognized the valor that the Hive had discussed with her before. That trait often encouraged mortal warriors to take risks on instinct—another quality that eluded quantification and replication—and frequently led to success, against long odds.
“It’s not illogical. If my mother and brother continue to run Regalia as they have, it has no future, whether the planet crashes into the sun or not. The people have no hope. We’re completely reliant upon Incendium for any trade that we manage to have. We should have our own star station, our own fleet, and our own university.”
“Have you proposed this?”
He laughed. “As soon as I returned from my schooling on Advocia. I was exiled for three years for my audacity.”
“To where?”
“Sylvawyld. A planet in our system even more undeveloped than Regalia. My mother said it would give me an appreciation for the simpler things in life.”
“Did it?”
“It taught me to keep my ideas to myself,” he acknowledged grimly. “But she’s wrong, and something has to change. If you succeed in taking the ShadowCaster and escaping from Regalia, then she’ll have a setback and this kingdom might have a chance of becoming more than a backward corner of the galaxy.” He met her gaze steadily. “Get the ShadowCaster, Arista. Help give Regalia a better future.”
It was the first time he’d used her name and the sound gave Arista enormous pleasure. She felt a glow inside herself, one that couldn’t be explained by faulty circuitry, and a new sense of purpose.
“You are competition to your brother Urbanus,”
she said, realizing the import of his words. “Do the people prefer you to him?”
Venero laughed. “Did the people you met seem happy with their current administration?”
“No. Many appealed to you to intercede on their behalf.”
“Because I think of them and their future. My brother thinks of himself and his own, just like my mother. Go ahead and calculate the reaction of the common man to that.”
“It isn’t a sufficiently complicated question to merit such computation.”
“Exactly.” He nodded, his gaze scanning the plain. “If I have to die to get the ShadowCaster off Regalia, it’s worth it. It’ll give them a chance.” Arista admired his concern for the inhabitants of the planet, but he didn’t linger to discuss it further. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Soon enough, Arista stood beside Venero in the shadows that lurked inside the opening to the tunnel. It was just barely dawn, and the valley before them was shrouded in fog. A dark spire of stone pointed at the sky, its base obscured, and Arista knew it had to be the Citadel. It was strikingly dark in contrast to the fog and the overcast sky. A narrow ribbon of road led up the slope to the gate, and she could see a smaller tower guarding the road. A broad slow river was beyond the watchtower, the bridge on that road being the only visible way to cross it. Behind the Citadel, the mountains rose in high jagged peaks, a dusting of snow on their summits, ensuring its defense from the rear.
A pennant emblazoned with the royal insignia hung limply from the highest tower.
“She’s here?” Arista asked quietly.
“Apparently.”
“Did she anticipate us?”
He frowned, his gaze moving restlessly over the scene before them. “Maybe.”
Even with the fog, Arista could see that the parapet bristled with armed soldiers. There would be archers hidden in their ranks, and the gate was both barred and defended.
Slipping into the Citadel unobserved didn’t appear to be an option.
“How do we get in?” she asked as Venero gathered his belongings with purpose.
To her surprise, that unruly twinkle was in his eyes again. “Easy. We knock.”
Before she could ask, he strode out of the cave and marched down the path on this side of the mountain spur. He made no attempt to hide but swaggered and even whistled. She watched the ripple pass through the ranks of the guards as Venero was noticed, and spied more than one crossbow raised.