Ishth reached out one crooked hand to her. Ishth had caught joint-rot as the plague was just beginning its spread. She survived, but not straight and whole. Her fingers and toes curled like sickles, and her knees barely let her stand. “You'd rather have the Family break apart? We cannot survive this division. We must let their faction go and let the Humans deal with them.”
Byvant bared her teeth at the walls. Her broken ear shook and strained to move. “You mean we must let the Humans kill them.”
Ishth shook her head. “Not necessarily. The Humans do not feel things in the blood as we do. They may only imprison them. They may hand them back to us, and we can exile them. The point is they will neutralize them with a thoroughness we cannot match.” She laid her hand back on her lap. “We are agreed with the Prime Committee in this course.”
“Yes, yes.” Byvant rubbed her left ear, tugging at it and smoothing it back. “But I fear we are betraying our sisters.”
“No,” said Ishth firmly. “They betrayed us.”
Chapter VIII
Senejess watched her reflection in the night-darkened glass. Her ghost-self's ears were turned toward the door, waiting for it to open. Her eyes were a little too wide, and her nostrils flared irregularly. She looked alert and more than a bit tired, which was appropriate for right now. Her skin was tense and smooth, rippling only a little to betray her nervousness. The aquamarine robe she had picked for this evening looked good against her smooth, blue skin. Her belly filled the guard that swelled against the fabric. She realized proudly that she could carry another bearing of children.
Behind her own reflection, the window showed the assemblage ordered by the Queens-of-All. They waited clumped together in groups of sisters and allies. Everybody wore serious clothing, straight robes of dark blues, greens, or browns. They also all wore studious expressions, as if they were debating in the Council Hall instead of nibbling dainties off serving tables. All had been ordered to wait back here in this bare room with its eclectic collection of sofas, lanterns, and scuffed tables, and all had been paraded by the debating chamber to see that it was filled with petitioners: mothers, sisters, and daughters of every blood and name. These gave their pleas to a small army of clerks and assistants, who dutifully recorded every detail for the Queens’ attention.
The Queens themselves were in there right now, issuing peremptory orders to the arms-sisters, writing decrees to be posted on the debate walls, and trembling in sympathy with every grief-stricken tale they heard.
Which was not hard to do. Senejess had peered in the debating chamber with Armetrethe, and feelings of fear tinged with barest hope had washed over her like a tidal wave. It had taken everything she had not to run in there and scoop the nearest sister into her arms.
Not that the Queens had bypassed the Council. They had presented their requests to the budget and interior committees as was perfectly proper. The requests were almost impossible to reject. Money for blankets, for hospital repair, for water purification. Requests to go scavenging in unused buildings were more controversial, but bands of mothers and sisters had already started, and a quiet talk with the All-Mother of the arms-sisters showed that she was unwilling to send her people in to stop it. So, they'd ratified it, as long as the activities stayed peaceful, and they had.
Senejess had no idea how Praeis had done this thing, but Praeis had done it. Praeis and her allies, most of them former arms-sisters or in the family of arms-sisters, had scurried about bearing messages, instructions, and even orders from all quarters and somehow, in just five days, they had managed to undermine the Council's entire position and get the praises of the Queens shouted in the streets again.
Everyone in this room had felt the change in the peninsula's mood. That was why they had all let themselves be shut in here to wait on the pleasure of their Majestic Sisters.
How did we lose control so quickly? How did we not notice these simple things would bring our sisters flocking? Her ears crumpled. We thought it was just the Queens who had been isolated.
Senejess's toes arched inside her soft shoes, as if they were trying to dig into the varnished floor. She watched the reflected gathering and saw Armetrethe detach herself from quiet conversation with Ie and Pilea Waun. Armetrethe stepped delicately, almost mincingly, up to the window.
“Sister.” Armetrethe laid her one hand on Senejess's shoulder. Her stump fluttered under her neatly closed sleeve. “Your thoughts are missed.”
Senejess shook her head. Her ears turned sideways, seeking something in the whispered conversation that her mind wasn't aware of yet.
“Until the Queens-of-All see fit to give us our orders,” she said, loud enough for the room to hear, “I don't believe there's much to discuss.”