Page 23 of Queen Takes Sunfires 2
A shiver rocked my shoulders. During my captivity, some children had been born to Ra. While none of them had been queens, they had all been… ravenous. They drained their mothers like a parasite would devour its host until it could be born. Most of the unfortunate queens died at birth or shortly after.
So far, I felt fine. I didn’t feel endangered. But it was definitely a concern I would need to weigh heavily. Did I dare carry any child of Ra’s to full term and risk loosing something even worse on the world?
My head ached. I yearned to rub my temples. Maybe cry a little. Anything to release my fears and emotions. I didn’t have to keep the blank, empty stare and the smooth, cold face any longer, but I’d done it so long, I didn’t know how to stop.
This soldier had saved me, though I was a long way from trusting him. His motives were still unclear to me. “I refuse to carry a fetus to term just to continue Ra’s line. I don’t care how powerful she might be, if she’s born a queen. I don’t care how rare queens are any longer. I won’t do it. I won’t be his broodmare.”
The soldier straightened his shoulders, as if my words assured him. I hadn’t expected that at all. I thought he’d push for me to keep the child, no matter how risky it would be. “Which is exactly why we had to act immediately. No one will choose but you, Your Majesty.”
I let out a long breath, allowing some of the tension straining in my shoulders to ease. “What are your names?”
“I am Sun Tzu. This is Marcus Antonius, who sent his sundogs in after you.”
One of the skeletons stepped closer and dropped down beside the first. His sunfire blazed down his arms and connected to the two sundogs that sat panting on either side. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. I knew the sight of them would terrify you, but we couldn’t think of any other way to get you out of the nest as quickly as possible.”
One of the sundogs made a noise very much like a whimper. A sound a normal animal would make.
Bracing myself, I looked at it, trying to see it with fresh eyes. Not as a sunfire creature of destruction, but as a living creature that had tried to help me, even if it hadn’t gone as planned.
Up close, its head was large, broad, and heavy with a blocky body shape. Usually they were running so fast that they blurred, so it was hard to get an idea of what they actually looked like. The other sundog looked very much the same, as if they were siblings, but its color was slightly darker red. More like blood versus the glow of lava.
I felt a faint stirring in my mind. A whisper. Barely there, as if tentative and afraid. It wasn’t a word, but a picture.
Creatures lined up against each other, screaming furious war cries as they charged at their enemies. Weapons clashing. Pain and blood and death.
“This is War.” Marcus Antonius patted the dog on the right. “He is very sorry that he bit you. The black shape tugged on you, trying to pull you out of his grip, or he never would have broken your skin. He’s actually very gentle despite his size.”
I looked at the other sundog and its image flickered briefly in my head. People fighting, yes, but without weapons. A bitterness flickered on my tongue.
“This is Strife, his brother,” Marcus Antonius continued. “They were only pups when Ra resurrected me.”
I stared at him, watching his reaction. “Did they ever kill a queen so the nest would fall?”
His jawbone clenched, grinding his teeth together a moment. “No. Never. I wouldn’t do such a thing. Neither would they.”
“They’re sunfires. You carry a sunfire. I’ve seen what you’re capable of.”
“Look at him.” He tipped his head to his left at the sundog sitting so quietly beside him. “Does he look like a monster?”
Strife’s eyes were large and soulful, even though they glowed like banked coals. I didn’t have much experience with animals of any kind, but I had certainly seen enough of sunfires to assume they didn’t experience any emotions other than hate and rage.
“You’ve only experienced sunfires that were warped by Sepdet and Aurelian,” Sun Tzu said softly, drawing my attention back to him. “We cannot fault you for fear in that regard. But we are different. Sunfires aren’t the nightmare creatures you believe them to be. We will show you.”
I shrugged slightly. “I know what I’ve experienced. I had the scars to prove it, before I managed to heal myself in this world. Now I carry sunfire essence inside me. How quickly before I turn into a rage-filled monster like Ra?”
Another skeleton stepped forward, though he didn’t kneel. “You could never be like him.” His voice was haughty, his manner very lordly, even for a Soldier of Light. His sunfire blazed in a double set of wings behind him. “Anyway, Ra never carried sunfire essence. His madness and cruelty were his own making.”
“This is Kuros,” the first soldier said without volunteering any further information.
As Kuros gave me a grand bow, his wings swept out and bumped into the other soldiers, drawing a mutter from the one with the sundogs. “You might know me better as Cyrus the Great.” At the blank look on my face, he added, “King of Persia. I conquered the Median Empire, the Lydians, the Babylonians…”
“Not the only king among us,” Sun Tzu interrupted in a dry tone that implied that Kuros was only just getting started listing his many accomplishments. “Though the only one who claims to be great. We also have a god in our ranks.”
A god… like Ra? Wary, I watched as one of the other soldiers came forward. He looked very much like the others, though his sunfire’s coloring stayed a solid red rather than flickering like flames. A god? Like Ra? He didn’t seem to carry that kind of power.
“He doesn’t speak,” Sun Tzu continued. “His brother, K’inich, the Maya sun god, betrayed him and had his tongue cut out. Once he had what he wanted, Ra absorbed K’inich and forced Chak Ek’ to serve as a Soldier of Light as a reminder.”
Ra had loved to “own” all the solar beings and houses, and that certainly sounded like something he’d do to punish anyone who’d stood against him.
