Chapter 405

The cryotube was cold beneath her hand. She knew it was more a psychological thing than actual cold, as the insulation was near perfect to keep the occupant frozen and in stasis to prevent further cellular and genetic deformation and degradation. The lights on the side burned steady, or blinked rhythmically, all with silent messages for those that could read them correctly. The cryotube was fixed to the floor of the shuttle with graviton clamps, far superior to any normal straps or clamps, but she had insisted on canvas straps with metal buckles just for her own state of mind.

She wanted the contents of the cryotube as safe as possible.

Nakteti stared out the armaglass window as her shuttle set down. She had expected a standard starport, complete with tarmac, control tower, maintenance and service bays, concourse, and parking lot. She honestly could not imagine anything else as the shuttle had transferred from the Sweet to orbit, then down into the atmosphere.

She was settling into a field. The grass was green and sparkling. On the far side of the field were cattle, all being hemmed back from the landing shuttle by beings on riding beasts. The shuttle was being guided in by a tall woman holding a crystal adorned staff into the air. To the side were drawn up beings in archaic armor of leather and bronze, with shoulder pauldrons of steel. Banners snapped and fluttered in the breeze.

The shuttle stabilized with a bump and the sound of the engines winding down.

We like to hear what's happening, floated up in Nakteti's mind as the engines going cold reminded her of a conversation she had with the occupant of the cryopod only a few weeks prior.

"I am unsure of this," Nakteti's second cousin, Thepadi, said as she stood up.

"The universe is not as we were taught, as we thought," Nakteti said, standing up slowly. She held her gripping stick in her left hands, her right catching hand still resting on the cryopod. "The Lanaktallan, and by extension, we were unaware of other inhabitants that did not follow the dictates of their society."

The door to the shuttle opened, exposing the ramp down.

Armored Terrans had moved into position on either side of the ramp and as the door opened they drew swords, extending them up and out at a 45 degree angle. The blades were inlaid and engraved, glittering with menace, all of them surrounded by a soft aura that Nakteti's brain insisted was magic even as her intellect knew it was simply high technology masquerading as magic.

But that technology might as well be magic to me, she admitted to herself.

The person standing at the end of the ramp, only a pace or two from the end, was a tall Terran female, brown scarred skin on display, her armor both protecting and emphasizing her attributes. She had a sword on her hip, her clothing was made of animal hide treated and worked and reinforced with metal. Her expression was severe, uncompromising, and for some reason reminded Nakteti of her own mother, Sangbre.

"I am still nervous," Thepadi admitted.

"Then hold tight to your gripping stick, for I will not risk insult by delaying," Nakteti said. She let her hand slide across the top of the cryopod as she walked toward the hatch. She knew the fierce looking Terran female could see her plainly, see her pause for just a moment with only her fingertips touching the end of the cryopod, before she moved to the hatch and moved down the ramp.

"HOO-KAR-AWK!" the soldiers at either side of the ramp suddenly roared out.

Nakteti barely managed to hold onto her skin at the loud roar. It was a promise of death, dismemberment, and of utter carnage. She tightened her grip on her gripping stick but did not miss a step as she walked down the ramp, staring at the large Terran female.

Thepadi screamed and fled back into the shuttle at the roar and the other crew members who had ridden down on the shuttle with her fled deeper into the shuttle.

When her feet touched the grass, which was inlaid with a swirling runic pattern from the grav-drive, the soldiers on either side of the ramp suddenly sheathed their swords, turned 180 degrees somehow just by twisting their feet, and marched away in perfect unison.

Nakteti no longer found such machine-like precision to be alarming.

"Mistress, or should I call you Matron, Nakteti," the tall woman said.

"Mistress is fine. My mother holds the rank of Matron for my clan," Nakteti said.

"Mistress Nakteti, welcome," the woman said. "King Nganto sends his regards and his fervent wishes for your safety and comfort."

"Thank you, Lady Khoonkeenadee," Nakteti said. She had looked up the name and found it stood for river of blood. The name referred to both her ascension to her throne and the sheer 'river' of offspring she had borne.

"Call me Keena," the Terran woman said, smiling. "Your accent changes the meaning of my name to be slightly insulting and we should not have that when we could be friends."

"As you say, Lady Keena," Nakteti said.

The woman looked past Nakteti, at the shuttle, her eyes narrowing slightly. "My beloved brother. You have brought him?"

Nakteti nodded.

"Shall I have my servants recover him or will your servant bring him out?" Lady Keena asked.

Nakteti turned at the waist, turning all the way around, and looked behind her. "Perhaps it would be better if your servants retrieved him. My kinfolk are huddled in the back."

Lady Keena's smile got wider. "We shall recover him and take him to my fortress-manor. There we shall decide what steps to take."

Nakteti nodded slowly, looking around. The herd animals were staring at her with dull curiosity, the riders on the beasts paying more attention to the herd than her. The crops moved slowly in the breeze and clouds were in the sky.

It seemed almost insultingly banal.

Nakteti watched as a 'sorceress' used nanite graviton systems to lift the cryotube on a cloudy nimbus of light that trailed streams of brightly lit mist, chanting softly and holding tight to a staff. Six armored soldiers moved next to the cryotube, their backs straight and swords drawn.

For a moment Nakteti felt slightly off balance. She could see 'nanite exclusion' blinking in the upper right of her vision, put there by the datalink, but part of her brain screamed at her that she was witnessing magic, not technology.

The cryotube was loaded on a wooden cart, drawn by beasts, with the 'sorceress' sitting in the back with the cryotube and the soldiers marching on either side. The driver and his assistant were dressed in comfortable looking clothing made of woven plant fiber cloth, both with floppy hats.

Lady Khoonkeenadee threw herself onto the back of a riding beast with a smooth practiced motion that was almost fluid. Before Nakteti could ask how or what she would be using to travel a wizened ancient Terran male stepped up next to her, making motions with his hands and chanting. He was surrounded by a nimbus and Nakteti felt herself lifted comfortably on a complex interaction of pressor and tractor beams.

It was only five miles to the fortress manor, which Nakteti could see growing large in the distance. It was a brooding structure, heavy stone and thick mortar, surrounded by a moat, with a town or village of wooden and stone buildings at the base of the hill.

The whole thing was primitive enough that it would have been easy for Nakteti to forget she had arrived on a space ship capable of interstellar flight.

The gate had a heavy warsteel porticullus, guards, and a metal grate acting as the ceiling for the entry tunnel that Nakteti could see people staring down at her.

The whole thing oozed malevolence and controlled violence.

The Terran woman dismounted smoothly, handing the reins to a servant, then moved over and waited for the tractor-pressor beams to gently set Nakteti on her feet. The Tnvaru matron noted that the male Terran seemed tired and was covered in sweat beneath his heavy robe.

"If you will accompany me, my priests and healers are examining him now," Lady Keena said, motioning Nakteti to follow her.

Nakteti bustled along, keeping up with the Terran's long-legged strides. She noted that behind the heavy wooden doors was another warsteel porticullus and another grate for a ceiling. Her implant was kind enough to inform her that the ceiling was designed in such a way to allow the defenders to pour boiling oil on any beneath them as well as to jab invaders with long spears.

The hallway beyond had shields, tapestries, suits of armor, and weapons on decorative racks on the walls. It ended in a set of double doors that were marred by axe and sword strikes and had obviously been forced open sometime in the past.

As surely as spear thrust to the belly ended the life of the Arch-Magus right on this dais, echoed in Nakteti's mind. An off-hand comment by her hostess, reminding her that she had taken the throne by force.

The throne in question did sit upon a dais. It was ornate but comfortable looking. There was a smaller throne next to it with a comfortable looking chair on the opposite side.

A tall thin Terran male dressed in official looking array banged a heavy spear against the floor as Terrans and species Nakteti didn't recognize stopped their conversations to stare.

"Her Grace Khoonkeenadee, the Arch-Duchess of Relflagen, Lady of Magic and Beauty, the Arcane Will of King Nganto, She Who has Birthed a Hundred, is enthroned," the male called out as Lady Keena drew her sword before sitting down, setting the blade across her thighs. She gestured to the comfortable looking chair beside the throne and Nakteti moved over and sat down.

"The Tnvaru Matron Nakteti," the man said.

Nakteti sat and waited, watching the people on the sides of the room resume their conversations.

The far door opened and a Terran male entered the room.

"His Grace, Lord Karenteera, Baron of the Red Rock Hills, servant of the Duke of Tangerran, voice of the Duke of Tangerran," the man with the spear said.

The man moved up and bowed deeply to the thrones.

"Lady Khoonkeenadee," he said.

"Lord Karenteera," Lady Keena said absently, running her finger up and down the blade. Nakteti noted the slight crackle of bluish electricity dancing between her finger and the metal of the blade. "You have reason for interrupting my meeting with the Tnvaru Matron?"

The man nodded, bowing again. "His Grace, the Armored Fist of Wrath of King Aragantoo, Duke Tangerran, offers a truce between his house and yours," the man said. "He has heard of your beloved baby brother's ailment and does not wish to offend the power of House Nakteti or the Tnvaru people by continuing to prosecute the war against your house brought on by the insult of your refusal of his generous offer to take you as a concubine."

Lady Keena smiled, a cold thing. "As he has given insult to me by refusing to kneel between my legs as I sit upon this throne and put his tongue to better use than spreading foul lies and slander about his betters," she stated. "Perhaps I shall breach the failing walls of his dusty and crumbling fortress, bind him in chains, and make him dance and perform for the Tnvaru Matron Nakteti's amusement," her smile got wider. "Oh, wait, his dancing would be a threat to her feet as he gallumphs about."

Nakteti expected the man to take offense, but instead there was a slight twitch to his mouth that Nakteti had learned meant he was trying to suppress a smile.

"Then perhaps we should ask the Tnvaru Matron her wishes?" the man offered.

Lady Keena's smile gained more warmth. "An excellent plan," she turned to Nakteti. "What say you, Matron Nakteti? Should I have this slanderous dog driven from my fortress-manor with whips and curses, throwing his offer of a truce into the cesspit where it belongs, or shall we shower him with gifts for his lord, praise for his liege, and allow him to return to his wife and children?"

Nakteti waited a long moment, holding her gripping stick tightly with her gripping hands. Her left catching hand rested on the arm rest, her right catching hand cradling her chin with her elbow on her knee as she leaned forward slightly.

"Gifts," Nakteti said. "Lavish gifts for himself that his master could not dangle before him like a rude tuber before a beast of burden," she allowed herself to emulate a Terran smile. "Fine jewels and cloth, precious metals and artistry, gifts for his wives, his children, his concubines."

Nakteti waited a moment before reaching into her pocket and pulling out what she had concealed within. "And he may take this to his master," she said, holding out her hand.

A small chunk of battlesteel laid in her hand.

"From the hull of my beloved It Tastes Sweet, a promise that her Ladyship Khoonkeenadee's brother is also under the protection of the Tnvaru people, and that we will abide by any truce for as long as he does," Nakteti said.

There were titters from the humans along the walls as the elegantly dressed man reached forward and accepted the piece of battlesteel.

"I shall inform my lordship of your words as I present your gift," the man said. He gave a deep bow before turning and leaving.

Lady Keena turned to Nakteti as the doors closed behind the male Terran and smiled.

"You'll do just fine here," she said.