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We started to move. I dragged the sled behind us, and after many long kilometers trudging through the snow, I felt cold enough that I considered putting on the clothes again.
I stopped to check on Eve, and saw that she was shivering.
“Why is it so cold?” I asked.
She frowned, and spoke with clattering teeth. “It shouldn’t be this cold so close to Ginsburg. We’re only like 20 or 30 klicks from the pass.”
Cleopatra frowned. “Could the pirates have damaged the core?”
“The terror core?” I asked.
Eve laughed. “Terraforming core.”
“I was close,” I said.
She smiled. “You weren’t really, but yes, it’s possible. It could even be possible that the pirates are intentionally lowering its output.”
I didn’t understand, and I didn’t want to look ignorant in front of Kantus, but sometimes the only cure for ignorance was asking questions. “Why would they capture a city only to make it uninhabitable?”
“Because,” Eve said, “you saw how they were going all over looking for women. If they reduce the radius of the habitable zone, it will force everyone into the city.”
It made sense. It was a strong tactic. “Including my forces outside Ginsburg?”
“We learned about terraforming cores in school,” Eve said. “They operate on an inverse square law, so it might be tricky to fine-tune it just so that they could bait your warriors into the city, especially since Khetar are so resilient to cold. Because of the way an inverse-square works and the way Khetar handle cold better than humans, I doubt they could make it colder for the Khetar outside the pass than it would be for the pirates in Ginsburg.”
I furrowed my brows. I was losing her and could barely follow what she meant. More questions were necessary. “So they are changing the field of the terror form from a large sphere to an upside-down square?”
Eve looked at me as if I were a child, one she was trying very hard not to laugh at.
“Inverse-square,” Kantus said, all three voices singing together. “It’s a mathematical principle.”
Bloody hell, Kantus had actually learned about maths before the Hivemind failed. I glared at him.
“No hard feelings, Scion!” he said, as if reading my mind. “You didn’t have time to learn about how the universe works, you were busy leading your pack. It’s nothing to feel upset about, right, Matron?”
Eve nodded. “That’s right. I love you even if you’re not good at math, Tschenkar.”
“I will learn these maths. As soon as I have time.”
“Of course you will,” Kantus said.
Cleopatra smiled at me, then patted my arm—as if I were some small animal who that would make feel better. “It’s okay, Tschenkar, I’m no good at math either. I also have no idea what Eve is talking about.”
“I think,” Eve said, “that they will be able to flush the women back into the pass, any also any of the Khetar from theInseminatorwho stray too far from the city, but they shouldn’t be able to force the Khetar too far in, at least not without sending the whole city into an ice age.”
Finally an explanation without maths. One I could add something to. “Yes. Khetar can handle the cold more than the pirates can. It would be suicide for them to pull the plug on the core.”
“See?” Kantus said, reaching down and squeezing my cock. “You’re not stupid, just bad at math.”
I swatted his hand away, then grabbed his nearest body by the throat. I squeezed hard. I thought I’d grabbed the red one, but it was actually the yellow one. The face was just going red from lack of air.
“Tschenkar!” Cleopatra screamed.
I sensed the other two bodies approaching me, so I just squeezed harder. “Touch my cock again and I snap one of your necks.”
The other bodies backed away, and I let go of the yellow one just before the lack of air could do real damage. Kantus’s yellow body collapsed into the snow and gasped for air as the other two bodies fell beside it, touching the yellow body as tenderly as if it were a woman’s body. I had to look away, because it felt wrong.
“Nevertouch me without permission,” I said.
