I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties-Chapter 511: Terms of Teeth part two

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"If you lose," he continued, "I will take you alive. I will ensure, personally, that you do not die on the journey to the capital. I will argue for your hive to be annexed, not destroyed. Your people will live under Scarlet law, not under the fire. I cannot promise how gentle that law will be. I can promise it will be law, not slaughter."

He planted the butt of his spear in the sand with a solid thunk.

"These are the terms," he said. "Take them or throw them back and we resume what we began."

Kai listened.

He listened not just with his ears but with the strange, sharpened sense that had grown in him since the Crown first settled on his unseen brow. Vorak’s aura did not waver. The cadence of his words did not hitch. Whatever else the man was – enemy, threat, problem – he was not a liar by instinct.

He might still fail to keep his promises.

But he would not break them easily.

Kai straightened.

"I accept the duel," he said.

Shadeclaw sucked in a breath. Luna made a noise through the Net that sounded like someone strangling a curse.

Akayoroi closed her eyes once, as if in brief, private prayer, then opened them again. When she spoke, her voice crackled with command.

"Rings," she snapped across the Net. "Hear the Lord. This is his choice. You will not break formation. You will not move without orders. If a single spear leaves our ranks to interfere, I will assume treachery and handle it accordingly."

Yavri’s watchers echoed the order, their threads weaving through the upper galleries.

On the flats, Vorak turned his head slightly and murmured to an officer at his side. The man saluted, then barked orders down the line. Shields shifted. Casters lowered their hands. The elites tightened their ring around the circle but did not step into it.

Only two spaces were left open.

One at the base of the ramp.

One opposite Vorak.

Kai stepped back from the lip and turned.

Every face near him watched him with naked, unhidden fear.

Shadeclaw.

Silvershadow.

Luna.

Akayoroi.

Behind them, rank upon rank of drones, their plates dull with fatigue, their eyes bright with desperation.

He lifted his chin.

"Orders," he said, voice calm.

Shadeclaw snapped to attention.

"Ring One holds the ramp," Kai said. "No advances. No sallies. If I fall, you do not break and run. You do not charge and die. You keep the wall as long as your legs stand. If Vorak breaks his word, he will find we have more teeth than one Lord."

Shadeclaw’s throat worked.

"Yes, Lord," he said. "We will hold."

"Ring Two," Kai continued, "stays in reserve. Rotate the wounded off the front every quarter hour. No heroics. If Vorak keeps his promise, you will have many years to break yourselves on other problems. If he does not, you will need your breath for what comes next."

Vexor’s distant acknowledgment came back through the Net, rough but steady.

Luna folded her arms.

"Your orders for me," she demanded.

"Live," he said. "Yell at anyone who forgets to. And if I do not come back, make sure Miryam does not try to solve that by licking someone’s spine in half."

"I hate you," she said. "Go win."

Akayoroi stepped closer.

"And for me," she asked.

He met her eyes.

"Watch our guests," he said. "The princesses. They will have opinions about this. Some of them may try to act on those opinions. Keep them from doing anything that will make the court decide we broke our end first."

Akayoroi smiled thinly.

"With pleasure," she said. "I enjoy telling royalty what they may not do."

He turned to go.

A hand caught his wrist.

Golden scales, cool and firm.

Miryam stood just below the bend, coat half open over light leathers someone had bullied her into sometime between midnight and now. Her eyes burned.

"You will not go alone," she said along the Road, the words underlaid with a low growl.

He had not heard her come up. He should have. His instincts had been dulled by worry.

He faced her fully.

"This is mine," he said. "My war. My mistake. My duel."

She bared her teeth slightly.

"I am yours," she said. "Your teeth are mine. Their general attacked you. He bloodied my mountain. He made you stupid. I should be the one to break him."

"You hatched last night," he said. "You are still tasting your own scales. You have not yet seen how his spear moves. I have."

"My rank is higher," she countered. "My aura is fuller. I can feel I have more teeth."

"I also have more experience being hit very hard and not staying down," he said. "This is not about numbers. It is about ledgers. Understand this, Miryam. If you walk down there and crush him, the Scarlet Kingdom will not see a duel. They will see interference. They will call the bargain broken. They will bring more banners. Older ones. Redder ones. The thing Ikea did last night will unravel."

She flinched very slightly at the name, filed away for later dissection.

"I do not care about their ledgers," she said. "I care about you."

"And I care about them as well as you," he said. "That is what being Lord means. Compromise. Boredom. Pain. Trust me with this one. Your day will come. There will be battles where I will throw you at the problem and cheer."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You promise," she demanded.

"Yes," he said simply. "On the Crown. On the hive. On whatever parts of myself you think are worth swearing by. There will be fights that are yours. Today is not one."

She studied him, weight shifting.

Behind them, Vorak cleared his throat, the amplified sound echoing up the ramp.

"If you are planning to have your next three years of domestic arguments before we begin," the general called, "I should have brought a chair."