Twelve queens in all — every one that’d been sitting in cryosleep, dreaming of claiming a throne. None of them was interested in waiting a single instant longer, now that they were free. They all had the same reaction as the first one: Verity was doing a lousy job, and it was up to them to fix everything. After a while, it got kind of funny, listening to them say the same things. "It’s my duty to set things right."
Even then, I knew better than to laugh.
The unfrozen queens didn’t hang around Unshummin. Within hours they were spread all over the planet and within days, each had claimed a group of soldiers to protect herself: well-equipped soldiers from existing armies, won over by pheromones and promises and charisma. Remember that the Fasskisters had spent years on their whispering campaign, preaching how Verity and the lower queens were doing a lousy job running the planet. When a new bunch of queens came along as a fresh alternative, a lot of folks were keen to give them a try.
As for Verity… that’s when she finally lost heart. In public, she was still the tough old queen, in control and able to face down all opposition; but at night, she’d just sit in her private chambers, staring at the wall. Sometimes I sat with her; sometimes Sam did; sometimes the queen wanted to be alone.
A month after the mess at the Cryogenic Center, I got summoned to the queen’s bedroom. Sam was already there, plus a shy little Mandasar girl I’d seen around the palace now and then — one of Verity’s many children, which kind of made her my stepdaughter. I’d tried to keep track of all the kids’ names, but with Verity laying an egg every twelve weeks it got tricky to remember after a while. I thought this girl was called Listener, with the hidden name Yeerlevin; but Verity introduced her as Innocence.
That was the kind of name only given to queens. Which pretty much told me what was going on. It would soon be that week in spring when Verity’s venom cycle started. In previous years, the high queen had always been too busy to nurse a successor; now, she was going to do it, because she might not have another chance. My sister and Verity wanted Innocence to be a big secret. With twelve outlaw queens already terrorizing the countryside, people might not appreciate Verity mothering up another contender for power. If word got out, a lot of folks would also take it as a sign Verity didn’t expect to live too much longer… which was absolutely true, but it would still wreck public confidence. Finally, if the other queens heard about little Innocence, they’d see her as a perfect target for kidnapping, holding hostage, all that stuff — not just now, but for a long time to come, till the girl could take care of herself. She was only six; after a year of nursing with Verity, Innocence might brighten from gentle brown to royal yellow, but she’d still just be a seven-year-old with a lot of growing to do.
So Sam and I were going to be the girl’s glashpodin: like godparents, charged with taking care of her in secret till she came of age. The job would start immediately. For one thing, Sam had to assemble a team of doctors to take care of Innocence through the year-long transformation — doctors who could be counted on not to blab, and who could also deal with any complications that might crop up while the little girl changed. Becoming a queen wasn’t always an easy process; in fact, the poor kid could easily stay sick and bleary through the whole thing.
As it happened, I was the one who got sick and bleary. The very day Innocence began to nurse, I caught the Coughing Jaundice.
If you want to know how I caught the disease, I had no idea at the time. There was a kind of embarrassing ceremony in the royal chambers at midnight — Sam and me standing there as witnesses, while Verity asked the Four-Clawed Goddess for blessing; then poor little Innocence, terrified out of her mind, took a tiny tiny sip of venom from both of Verity’s stingers… after which, a horde of doctors descended on the child, taking blood tests, sputum samples, and heaven knows what else. Innocence stayed snuggled up with her mother for the night, I went back to my room alone, for fear a maidservant might get curious where I’d been so late…
…and I just never woke up the next morning. When I finally came to, it was ten days later and I was in the special secret infirmary that’d originally been arranged for Innocence. She was there too, just a bit under the weather, nothing serious… and most of the doctors who were supposed to be looking after the girl were locked full-time on my case, trying to keep me alive.
In a way, my condition helped keep Innocence a secret that whole year. Folks in the palace knew about the private infirmary — you can never hide things from servants — but everybody thought the doctors were for me. Innocence was just one of Verity’s many daughters, assigned by her mother to keep me company… and occasionally to see the queen in private to "report on my condition": a pretty good cover for the many times Innocence wanted to see Verity alone for a few minutes, and sip a bit more venom.
So Innocence and I got to know each other… when I wasn’t busy coughing my head off or lying jaundiced and comatose. Yes, I’d tried to spend time with all Verity’s children — my stepkids — but most of them seemed pretty uncomfortable having a human think he was their father. Me, I wasn’t so great at being a dad either; my own father hadn’t set much of an example, and anyway, what felt natural to a human parent was nothing like Mandasar kids expected. As just one example, the little boys had a habit of trying to clip me with their claws. Their baby pincers wouldn’t have done a thing to a real Mandasar’s carapace, but they could cut up a human nice and bloody. End result: I was pretty darned useless for playing that particular game.
But with Innocence, I could just talk. She snuggled with me too, because Verity was too busy for that kind of thing. The poor kid needed tons of snuggling, because she was halfway to terrified most of the time. Strange things were happening to her body. Doctors were constantly poking at her. None of her siblings or friends were allowed to see her. Worst of all, people kept telling her she’d have to rule the planet someday, and that she was going to become huge and dangerous and intimidating like Verity herself. Who wouldn’t be frightened by that?
It helped her to be with me. Sam said it was good even when I was sick or delirious — Innocence stuck right by me, holding my hand, giving me sips of water, talking and talking and talking. It gave the girl something to think about besides herself. Kind of like a sick pet. And she had queenly instincts waking up inside her: the need to be in charge of someone, to give orders. "Time for the muscle stimulators, Daddy Edward; and don’t say you can exercise on your own, because you don’t. The only reason you’re strong enough to push me away is because I use the machine on you when you sleep. So stay still and let me strap this to your legs."
Even six-year-old queens know how to lay down the law.
A year passed. Sam told me they held another ceremony when Innocence took her last drink of Verity’s venom — just a tiny tiny sip like the very first, because she didn’t need any more. The little brown gentle had become a little yellow queen: no longer scared of the future, even if she should have been.
They held the ceremony in my sickroom, just so they could say I was there. My body may have been present, but my mind wasn’t: far off and unconscious, suffering through the final throes of my disease. A few days later, I finally woke up… and not a single cough in my throat. Another week, and Innocence was threatening to tie me down again. I swore I was feeling a hundred times better. She told me a blood-consort wasn’t allowed to argue with a queen. "You’re staying in bed, Daddy Edward, till Dr. Gashwan says you’re healthy."