Page 109 of Gates of Rapture
“No change,” he said.“I can’t reach the spectacle event.Marguerite has it blocked off.”
“How can she perform both functions?”Greaves asked.
Stannett shrugged.His cheeks cramped.He’d be losing it again soon.“My guess is that she’s been training Seers to work in teams.”
“My on-the-ground surveillance near the Camelback Parade Grounds says that they’ve done a couple of mass folds.What do you make of that?”
What did he make of that?Why the hell was Greaves asking him questions better suited for his generals?“I don’t know.”He brought the bowl close, took several deep breaths, and threw up again.
“You shouldn’t have indulged, Stannett.Now, when I need you the most, you’re at your weakest.”
With his chin low, he looked up at Greaves.“I truly regret my indiscretion.”Of course, right now he would have said anything to appease Greaves.
“I’m glad to hear you say so.But what I need—besides the blocks against Endelle’s Seers—is any information about when to attack the spectacle parade.Do you understand?”Greaves levitated, then slowly descended into the pit until he stood at the foot of Stannett’s chaise longue.Greaves waved the bucket away.
The female Militia Warrior stepped back, saying, “I’ll be back shortly with fresh Seers.”Greaves nodded.She vanished.
Stannett took deep breaths.It didn’t help his nausea problem that Greaves smelled of lemon furniture polish.
Greaves glanced left and right.“There is blood on the leather.”
“The women tend to bleed from various apertures, including their wing-locks, when the process overwhelms them.”
“I see.”He glanced back at Stannett.“So, how are you keeping our plans blocked in the future streams right now if the women keep dying on you?”
Stannett smirked.“I have power.It sometimes doesn’t show as much as perhaps it should, but I’m holding it steady.The effort has given me a monstrous headache, which is why I’m puking.”
Greaves’s smile softened.“Let me help with that.”He rounded the side of the chaise and put a hand on Stannett’s forehead.The pain drifted away like fog beneath the sun.
He looked up at Greaves and released a deep breath.“Thank you, master.”
“Keep blocking our side of things, and if you can find an inroad to secure the intentions and timing of the opposition, let me know.”
“Yes, master.”
Greaves lifted his hand and was gone.
Stannett released a deep breath.He had grown sick of this endless pressure to produce and perform.Greaves didn’t understand his need for autonomy.Yes, he’d lacked control, but he was doing better now and he didn’t like being hemmed in.
The Militia Warrior returned and changed out the Seers, whipping them on the legs when they uttered even the smallest sound.She struck one Seer across the face with her whip when she dared to ask where she was.The welt would last a long time.
Stannett followed his jailer’s movements.Certain ideas had taken root in his mind of a profound sense of ill usage.Once the female Seers were strapped in, Stannett put them in the usual stupor.Afterward, he rose from his chaise longue.Time to make a change of his own.
“Is there a problem, Seer?”the woman barked.She wasn’t a woman, not really.Very flat-chested, proud of her muscles.She probably wished she were a man.
“No problem,” he said.He levitated to the viewing platform just a few feet from her.He kept advancing toward her.
She narrowed her gaze.“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?Get back down into the pit and get back to work.Or did you not hear the master, not understand his critical need for your services right now?”
“I heard him and I understood him.”Stannett hadn’t planned out exactly what he intended to do.
He lifted his hand and sent a blast soaring through the air straight for the woman.She didn’t really have time to react.She flew backward and hit the wall with a loud thudding sound.She fell to the floor.
Stannett’s brows rose.Her entire chest was caved in and smoking.He’d killed her.
He wanted to feel bad, he really did, but his appetites had reasserted themselves.He left her where she was and returned to the pit and to his chaise longue.
He stretched back out.He looked inward and physically ascertained what he already knew, that the blocks held.Now to get the relief he needed.
