Page 55 of The Blind Hordesman

“We’ll see about that.” Arkin leaves.

“Hey.” I walk after him, and he spins around, snarling.

I step back but don’t back down. “The help is coming, isn’t it?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Seer is down. I worry… I worry they’ll enter the dome. Let’s move him.”

“Negative.”

I stomp my foot. “You cannot defend him alone. This is madness.”

Snapping sounds come from the beach, and I gasp. Arkin spins around at the same time as I walk around him to see the shells opening and hatchlings rise. Newly hatched Swarm males stand as tall as Regha males and ripple with muscle. As one, they turn up their noses, open their mouths, and rattle out battle cries. Their armor rises. Dark green, so dark they appear as Regha Alphas. They leap onto the shore.

“Get back inside!” Arkin shouts, then runs toward them.

I can’t look away. “Run!” I scream. “Don’t fight them. Run!”

Hundreds of hatchlings swarm the four males and make a giant fighting pile. The ones on top stomp over their brothers and run toward me. I spin and race to the dome. Almost there.

The hatchlings rush for the housing, and I can’t outrun them. They’re gonna get Seer, and they’re gonna tear him apart. “Initiate intruder protocol,” I say.

The dome lights up blue, and the hatchling leaping on it screams. The dome sears his armor, cuts off his arms and legs, but more hatchlings climb the dome. They’re no more than brainless animals with no pain awareness. It’s what makes them dangerous. Ayo appears at the door, lips pulled back, tail up like a scorpion, all his hackles raised. He howls.

I turn right and run.

A hand catches my ankle, and I fall, then kick out.

The male who caught my ankle drags, then lifts me, and I kick and scream, grabbing for my necklace. I have two containers. One is venom, and the other, antidote. It’s not enough, but it will have to do. I yank the necklace, pop open one container, and spill the venom on the hatchling’s face. In agony, he screams, clawing his eyes as the poison seeps inside his hardened shell and attacks his nervous system, making his eyes bleed. Grandma preserved the art of extracting venom and preparing these kind of specialties.

Just as I get up, another hatchling grabs me. I move to throw the leftover poison at him when I see Arkin running toward us and hatchlings intercepting him, burying him under a pile of their bodies. The first hatchling didn’t kill me, so Father must have issued orders to keep me alive.

Arkin will die to secure me.

I can’t return under the dome because I’ve initiated the intruder protocol, and in order to get back under the dome, I’d have to take the barrier down. I can’t do that because the hatchlings will enter and kill my Alpha.

“Father,” I say and stop struggling against the hatchling.

The male tilts his head.

“Father, I know you can hear me. If you take me, the Hordesman Alpha will kneel before you and hand you the space gate. It will be over. Spare the males and take me. They will accept you as their king.”

Minutes pass, and I watch the hatchlings overpower the four Regha males. Tears well up and spill, and I grab the hatchling and shake him by the shoulders. “Take me!” I shout.

The hatchling snaps his sharklike teeth and picks me up. He leaps for the sea, the others following behind him. We sink, and I hold my breath as he swims. He pushes me inside the shell and snaps it closed. It’s pitch-black, and I feel the shell moving.

Pressure develops in my ears, and I open my mouth to release it at the same time as the shell snaps open, allowing bright light inside. I cover my eyes until they adjust, and lower my hand. Before me stands a Regha male in a blacktiland a belt with a serpent insignia, designating him King of Earth. Electric current runs over his red armor, reminding me of the dome current Dreikx erected around my nest. His black eyes lift at the corners when he smiles.

“Etin Reg, Father,” I say.

Chapter 21

Kiki

“Etin Reg, my dear,” Father says, then retracts the armor and extends a hand.

I clasp it, and he helps me out of the shell, then leads me through a massive cold room, where Swarm males stand, lined up and waiting for orders. They pay no attention to me, their gazes staring nowhere in particular. I have no idea what goes on in their minds, if anything. My sisters were like Swarm and did what I asked of them, never telling me no, which was why I always felt awkward asking them to do anything. Nobody should own these creatures, even if Father made them. These creatures should not even exist.

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