Chrysalis

“Your brogue is beginning to show again.”

“T’aint nothin’ of tha’ sort.”

Isaac took a second, realised what he’d just said, and frowned.

“Told you so,” Cavalant said. “You’re too tense. Try to relax a little bit.”

And how exactly was he supposed to do that? The atmosphere in this chamber was so thick he could cut it with his moustache. No blade required, only a bit of wax. He was so on edge he’d mounted up and ordered the rest of his squad to do the same. Now they scuttled around the outer edge of the space, watching, waiting. At any moment, one of the hundreds of powerfully built golgari could whip out one of the oversized weapons they held and start cutting into them. So far, nothing had happened.

So far.

“I don’t like this place,” he said to his partner, Cavalant, “we’re too exposed. It’ll be too difficult to use our mobility to our advantage.”

“So you’ve said,” she drawled, “several times. And I told you that it’s going to be fine. The Eldest is with us.”

Isaac restrained himself from pointing out that the Eldest was not in fact ‘with them’. Anthony was stuck on a boat outside the fortress! If the golgari started swinging in here, what exactly was he going to do from out there?

Questioning the supposedly all-powerful capacities of the oldest and biggest ant was simply not done, however, so he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut on the subject. Better to keep his eyes peeled and spear held ready.

The trade mission occupied the centre of what appeared to be a wide, circular welcoming chamber. There were only two openings in the walls: the way they had come in and the entrance opposite, through which the silver soldier had made his exit. The space itself wasn’t cylindrical either. The gap between the roof and floor was wider in the middle and narrowed at the outside edge, like two plates, one flipped over and laid on top of the other.

Around that narrow outside stood the warriors the golgari had so ‘generously’ left to watch over them, while in the middle, the brathians and smaller ants laboured to unpack their various goods. The stalls were going up at a rapid pace, a small market taking shape under the watchful eye of Eran Thouris, but every minute in this pressure cooker felt like an hour to Isaac.

the tough beef his mother had stuffed into the pot when making stew, but he was beginning to understand just how it felt to be exposed to such unrelenting

a different story. Isaac could see it in their eyes,

the young man’s own mount.

they got close to each other. It was hardly necessary for the ants of the Colony to do it, they could smell each other just fine without getting that close, and could ‘talk’ from

illicitly taken; should you

drawing in a shaky breath. “They keep watching us. Have you noticed? They barely seem to

how they

your own head.

said I was worrying

“She’s right.”

said the Eldest would take

See? Have a little confidence. Besides, Pharlant is a hell

a wan smile. Isaac

go, lad. It’s not that bad. Go tell the others I want them riding in groups of four, no more of this aimless drifting one by one. Half the groups can move in rotation around the room, the other half

their nerve a little better if they grouped up. Right now, they were too isolated, riding about without any direction. Normally, the ants were the ones to help steady the riders’ nerves, but this

wasn’t sure if

more organised, the cavalry straightening

Isaac thought. The cavalry had seen a little battle, but not enough to inject the required iron into the backbone. Probably because they were still

reached Isaac,

see the general coming towards

little tense in here is all, some of my people were

off the motionless ranks of warriors surrounding them. “The

felt a chill