sure his disrespect
sure his disrespect wasn’t being overheard.
“He has placed a small explosive device in my abdomen. I still have the scar. He demonstrated to me how it works. After twenty minutes of being further than half a mile away from him I would be as dead as the hive wants me to be. He explained it to me very carefully . . . to make utterly certain I would not run away,” said S’kith quietly.
Keilin sat in shocked silence. Finally he said. “I’ll check with Bey. There must be a way . . .” But he had a sinking feeling. He remembered Beywulf saying to S’kith when the man joined them on the roofs of Amphir, “Aren’t you too far . . . ?” and S’kith’s strange reply. He’d meant to ask about it, but had forgotten about it after all that had happened. Another thought occurred to him. “And for God’s sake don’t mention the idea of sex to Shael!”
“It will offend her? I do not understand. But as to speaking to the foodmaker, it doesn’t matter too much. I would not go anyway.” S’kith was quiet for a long time. “I could not leave you, friend—nor Leyla. You see, until I left the hive I was a man alone. Throughout my childhood, throughout my life I was alone. The warrior brood sows loved me . . . but they did not trust me. You do not trust in the hive. To trust is to die. But you have trusted me . . .”
For two hundred years the Alpha-Morkth had tried to breed hive loyalty into their slaves. They would have been dismayed to see that where they had failed, human nature had succeeded, against all odds.
Keilin felt guilty. All he’d ever done was to feel sorry for the odd man. Suddenly S’kith turned away from the gray view to look at Keilin. There was life in his strange eyes. “I know what I will do. I will teach you the bioenhancement routines. You have taught me so much. It was forbidden for one human to teach another in the hive. I shall teach you, and take joy in defying the Morkth.”
Three days later, the barge sailed out onto the wide, ice-free Elbe River. On the east bank lay Morkth-occupied lands. To the west the new Empire of Tynia. It was the first sunlight they’d seen for days and the whole party were up on deck, soaking up the weak watery stuff. A skiff full of armed men came sailing out from one of the fishing villages on the western bank. Leyla readied her bow.
“Leave that alone, you daft woman. Them’s guvment people,” bellowed the steersman. S’kith touched Keilin’s hand. “Back,” he said quietly.