thoughts, but Kryos’ words strike their mark. “Is it wrong for one such as me to have hope of being chosen by a human queen? Am I too old? Too base? Too ugly?” We both know I am all those things. Though we are both of the old blood, my friend is wondrously handsome compared to me.
Finally glancing at him, I ask the question that proves I am not the simpleminded fool he must think me to be. “Or you perhaps think I reach too far above my station in desiring this queen of queens?”
Kryos pulls his wings back as he too studies the dark beauty before us. “I think this general is here for the combat, not the breeding. Once the war is officially over, I doubt she will continue to grace us with her presence.”
My eyes glance around, taking in all the activity going on around us. The room quiets enough for me to hear that the lovely General Watson is arguing with Mathadar about retrieving our new allies. The general argues that a smaller retrieval force will draw less notice if any of the enemy remains. Mathadar believes it better to use a larger force and sees drawing out any remaining enemy as an advantage. I believe she has not told her people about these newly discovered allies that we are tasked with rescuing, so it is her own people she wishes to hide our mission from this day.
In any event, she is spectacular in this moment, and our king seems torn between doing the bidding of this assertive queen and doing what he truly thinks is best. He eventually capitulates to her wishes, allowing her to lead our retrieval mission with just twenty warriors on three small shuttle platforms. Proving she is every inch a queen, General Watson takes her win with grace, warning him to make space available for the hibernation pods aboard our battleship.
Kryos flutters his wings, and my mind returns to his subdued warning. Since there can be no fault with the queen, he must think me unworthy of one such as her. I do not let go of this point because it will generate bad blood between the two of us. “You doubt my ability to lure such a high status queen?”
Turning to face me, his expression is blank. “I have no wish for you to be disappointed when she returns to the human city.”
“We both know she cannot go back to her people. The queens in charge of the cities will allow none to enter because they fear the infection spreading. They already turned away the other soldiers. Why would it be different with her?”
He sucks in a deep breath, and his wings twine into a tight knot against his back. “Since she commands their military, I thought it was a forgone conclusion that she would be welcomed back.” Rubbing his chin with one hand, he mulls the situation over for a long moment. “Perhaps you are correct. If so, your clade stands a good chance of being chosen by the general and perhaps her daughter.”
My face lights up with unholy glee and I don’t care who sees it. My longtime friend is correct about my chances of being selected. I am the one male deemed more primitive than all others. Even amongst the old bloods, my clade stands out as nightmarishly brutal, overly competitive and rowdy to the point of being virtually ungovernable. Yet this remarkable queen seeks us out at every turn, almost as if she values the very traits that turn the faces of other queens away. She must like our rough ways, because nary a complaint ever falls from her lips about our temperament. Instead, she commands us to quiet and do her bidding like a true queen. Each time she does, it only makes me like her more.
Being easily accepted is a new experience for me. Even when I stood guard in our former queen’s chamber, it was not an honor bestowed, but rather a quirk of circumstance. Because the crew was busy harvesting when our queen went into heat, the warriors were out gathering valuable resources in shifts around the clock. When one of her guards fell ill at the last minute, I was shoved into his space and forced to stand in the very last slot furthest from her sight. I am not certain most of the other guards were even aware I was there.
Though it was not by design, I relished the opportunity