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  “What’s going on?” Her voice sounded high and annoyed. “What’s the matter with the lot of you? Why are you running around like a bunch of ninnies?”

  “Amalthia!” Brynn tried to shout but somehow her voice came out in a whisper instead. “Amalthia duck! Run!” she cried a little louder.

  She herself was crouching on the ground now, although she didn’t remember how she had gotten there. She had a vague, terrified idea that if she laid low and didn’t move, she might present less of a target.

  “Run?” Amalthia frowned at her. “What are you tal—” The long, wickedly barbed stinger of the thing diving down on her suddenly struck.

  Brynn crammed her fist into her mouth to keep from screaming when she saw it thrust into Amalthia’s back and come out the other side, protruding through her chest, directly beside her right shoulder. It’s barbed tip was bloody but there was something else dripping from it as well, some kind of green venom that burned and hissed when it fell on the grass, withering the dark blue stalks of vegetation to smoking black husks.

  Only then did Lady Amalthia seem to understand that something terrible had happened. Brynn saw her stare at the barbed stinger protruding from her chest, her green eyes wide in something like amazement.

  “What—” she began and then the many, hairy, chitinous legs of the thing that had stung her gripped her by the lovely pale green morning gown she was wearing and began to lift her off the ground.

  Amalthia’s eyes went even wider and she began to scream—long, ragged breathless shrieks that echoed through the gardens like alarm bells, pealing and pealing in a never- ending flow of horror.

  Brynn wasn’t shrieking but she did feel strangely unreal as she watched Amalthia flailing in the grip of the huge insect thing. It was beating its many pairs of veined, translucent wings now, rising into the sky and taking Amalthia with it.

  “No! No! Put me down!” Amalthia shrieked as her feet—clad in dainty green slippers—left the ground.

  Taking her—it’s taking her away! Brynn realized with horror. She thought of the skull in her dream, speaking with Amalthia’s voice. “Kill me…we are all dead anyway…Kill me!”

  “No!” she shouted and jumped up, running to grab one of Amalthia’s legs through her voluminous skirts to try and yank her back down. For a moment she was in a tug of war with the huge insect with Amalthia shrieking between them, a living rope. But the insect was strong—it ducked its head and gnashed its mandibles at Brynn, catching some strands of her long, black hair in its serrated jaws.

  Brynn batted at it in a panic, feeling the small, sharp pain of the hair ripping out of her crown as she lost her grip on Amalthia’s leg. The other girl rose immediately into the air, still shrieking as the thing which had grabbed her beat its wings harder, gaining traction.

  “No!” Brynn gasped. She jumped up to reach Amalthia again but all she managed to do was grab her foot. The other girl kicked and her little green slipper came off in Brynn’s hand.

  “Princess—get down!” a familiar voice shouted.

  Brynn turned to see Varin charging through the garden, sword in hand heedless of the plants and bushes he trampled along the way. He pushed Brynn behind him and swung at the giant stinging thing, still hovering in the air.

  Because of his longer reach, he was able to chop off at least one of the beast’s legs. It fell to the ground with a meaty thud and lay there twitching in the blue grass. Like a dry black stick that had somehow come alive, Brynn thought numbly.

  But despite the loss of its limb, the creature kept flying, carrying Amalthia higher and higher into the sky, still shrieking as she went. Varin jumped for it but couldn’t reach it again. He swore aloud and shouted for back-up.

  More men came running—guards this time which been patrolling at the other end of the gardens. Because they weren’t slaves, they were armed with blasters. They took aim and shot and shot again but none of them could hit the target, though Brynn was fairly sure at least one blast did hit Lady Amalthia. At least, if the huge black hole burned into the skirt of her green gown was any indication.

  “Give me that!” Varin growled at the guard who had hit Amalthia instead of the insect. He reached for the man’s blaster but the guard tried to keep it out of reach.

  “You’re a slave!” he protested.

  “And you’re a fucking horrible shot,” Varin snapped back. He grabbed the blaster anyway, took aim, and fired at the insect thing.

  His shot hit home—the insect dipped and it looked like one of its wings was disabled.

  But it has so many wings, Brynn thought despairingly. And sure enough, the thing was able to compensate. Though its flight became more erratic, it kept going, taking Amalthia with it, well out of range of the guards’ blasters.

  “Goddess damn it to the Seven Hells!” Varin roared. He thrust the blaster back at the startled guard and shouted, “Go get the Master of the Ships! Tell him what happened! Tell him he needs to deploy an armed scout cruiser immediately before that girl is gone beyond our reach. Go!”

  The guards gave him a startled look but several of them, including the one Varin had shouted at, went running off, presumably to do what he had ordered.

  Only then did the big Kindred turn to Brynn. Taking her by the shoulders, he ducked his head and looked anxiously into her face.

  “You okay, little one? It didn’t hurt you, did it?”

  “It…it got some of my hair.” Brynn put a hand to the crown of her head. She could still feel the small stinging pain where the hairs had been ripped out. “It…it came out of no where,” she whispered, shaking her head. “It wasn’t there and then…then it was!” She felt numb…shocked. “How…how did you know to come to me?” she asked Varin. “Did you hear my shouting?”

  He shook his head. “I felt your fear and came looking for you. I told you to be careful! How could you come out in the gardens after that dream I had about you?”

  “I…I didn’t want to,” Brynn whispered. “But Amalthia made me. She…” She dropped her voice. “She saw us hugging last night,” she murmured. “And she threatened to tell the King. It made me so angry…” She clenched her hands into fists—there was a knot forming somewhere in her throat but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I…I was just wishing that something awful would happen to her—that…that she would be…would be st-stung…But I didn’t want…I never meant…”

  The last word ended in a sob, though she tried to hold it back. Suddenly her vision was blurry and the gardens were swimming around her, just a lot of brightly colored blobs where the flowers should be.

  My fault, she thought. It’s my fault she’s gone—I wished it on her!

  “Of course it’s not your fault, little one,” Varin said softly and Brynn realized she must have said the words aloud.

  The big Kindred gathered her close and held her to his massive chest. He smelled like leather and spice and clean sweat and Brynn guessed he must have been practicing at the Arena when he’d felt something was wrong with her. She hoped none of her bare skin was touching his—she didn’t want to hurt him. But at the moment she felt so overwhelmed she couldn’t do anything but sob as guilt and fear and pain came rushing in.

  “It’s okay, little one—get it out,” she heard Varin rumble.

  Some of the ladies in waiting had come back now and they and the guards were milling around aimlessly, looking at him and Brynn uncertainly. The ladies looked both shocked by what had happened to Amalthia and scandalized by what was taking place between the Princess and her slave.

  “Stop staring and go back inside the palace,” Varin told them, glaring. “You ladies get under cover and stay out of the open. Guards—keep a watch and make sure there aren’t any more of those fucking things—whatever they are—around.”

  “And what will you be doing, slave?” asked one guard, who appeared to be the captain—at least if the trim on his uniform was anything to go by. Clearly he resented being given orders by the big Kindred.

&nbs