Blood of the Mantis

Che nodded blankly, looking from face to face as Taki named them in turn. Scobraan was a heavy-set Solarnese Soldier Beetle wearing a leather breastplate on which golden wings were painted. Niamedh was a woman of the same kinden, her hair shaved close to her skull and the edges of an old scar reaching from either side of an eye-patch. Te Frenna was another Fly-kinden woman, flamboyantly dressed, with a red scarf trailing from her neck. And ‘The Creev’, as Taki named him, was a halfbreed – native Solarnese bulked out with solid Ant-kinden muscles. The final member of Taki’s little coterie was the most surprising.

‘And this is Drevane Sae,’ the Fly announced. Sae grinned at Che with a face fiercely tattooed across the cheeks and forehead. He had a helm on the table in front of him with a curled metal crest, and he wore armour comprised of wood and leather. He was a Dragonfly, clearly, and Che had never seen anyone less like a pilot.

‘She does me wrong, this little woman,’ he said to Che, his smile widening to show teeth that had been filed sharp. ‘I am no metal-pilot, though. Rider, that is the word for me. These machine-shaggers can’t match me and my bride.’

Che made an uncertain noise in response and looked to Taki for guidance.

‘Sae is the best insect-rider that Princep Exilla has got,’ Taki explained. ‘These days they mostly hire mercenary aviators from Chasme, but there are enough of them still who do things the old-fashioned way.’

‘Old-fashioned and best,’ Drevane Sae confirmed. When he scratched at his stubble Che clearly saw his wicked-looking thumb-claws.

‘So you don’t like the Wasps?’ Scobraan said. ‘Well join us in a drink to that.’ He raised his mug and the others did likewise, leaving Che no choice but to follow their example. The liquor was harsh, yet almost tasteless, and made her gag.

‘You told her already why we’re of the same mind?’ Scobraan asked Taki.

‘Our little social club has a varying membership,’ the Fly explained. ‘Not least because on some occasions we do our best to shoot each other down. If you’d been here three months ago, you’d have seen a few faces who can’t be with us now. Good friends of ours.’

‘But you said… you fly against each other?’ Che looked from face to face, not quite understanding. ‘Are you friends or aren’t you?’

‘We are siblings,’ Niamedh said. ‘What we share, none who has not done as we do can ever understand. The wind and the sky’s vault above. The rush of air against your wings. The world lying like a bowl below you.’

‘Working for different cities, different parties,’ te Frenna added. ‘So we fight, who wouldn’t? When we’re told to, or when we want. We’re allowed to – that’s the point.’

‘If Scobraan is asked by the Path of Jade to fly against the Destiavel house,’ Taki explained, ‘then he and I will go head to head, and perhaps I’ll shoot him down, or perhaps he’ll shoot me.’

‘You’re like Mantis-kinden,’ Che said. ‘Or… no, you’re like a duelling society, but with flying machines.’

‘Just like,’ Scobraan agreed. ‘But this time is different. Like Taki said, we’re missing friends at this table, because of the Wasps.’

‘They’ve been in Solarno almost half a year now,’ Niamedh said. ‘Just a few at first, then more and more. They’ve wooed all the parties, with gifts and celebrations and promises of aid. Then we found there were their soldiers out on the streets, and sometimes one party had hired them, and sometimes another, like mercenaries, until sometimes they were about and nobody had hired them at all. But they were still going about their usual business, breaking down doors, making people disappear.’

‘And then Amre,’ Taki said. ‘Well, te Marro Amre-Stelo to you, but Amre to me…’ She hesitated. ‘He flew north, to visit their grand Empire, to find out where they were all coming from. When he came back he was scared. He called a few of us to meet with him, every one of us who was in Solarno then. That was me, Niamedh and a couple more. Only when we turned up, before he could even tell us, the Wasps were right there. They…’ She pressed her lips together and looked down at the table. Che was surprised at this, since the Fly girl had been nothing but cheery sunshine since they had first met.

‘They had their swords,’ Niamedh said softly. ‘And that Art-thing they do with their hands. It was all we could to do get ourselves out of their alive.’

Taki looked up again, forcing a smile. ‘He was right behind me, was Amre. But he never made it out of the door.’

‘No proper death, that – dying on the ground,’ Drevane Sae growled.

Scobraan drained his mug and waved it at Chudi, until the Thorn Bug came over from behind the bar with a jug for refills.

‘So perhaps you should tell us just what the Wasps are all about, Bella Cheerwell,’ Taki said. ‘Because whatever he knew, they killed Amre just to stop us finding out.’