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22
TSCHENKAR
Itried to sit down on the sled, but it was too small to be comfortable, so I stood back up and decided to pace back and forth.
Thuliak leaned against a tree, trying to lord over me just how cool and bloody collected he wanted to come off, but I knew he was ready to shit a brick just like I was.
“I still can’t believe she kicked us out,” I said.
“I can,” Thuliak said. “She was right to do so.”
I gave him my iciest stare, but even I knew he and Cleopatra were right. There wasn’t enough room in there for one scion, let alone two.
Menkor came up to us, radio in hand. “There’s more resistance than expected in Ginsburg, Scion—” he looked up at me, “erm,Scions. Squads on the ground are reporting that the pirates are retreating, it’s just more organized than we’d have liked.”
“And the forces outside the city are ready to flank their retreat?” Thuliak asked.
I didn’t know how he could think about anything else but our babies and our woman right now, but maybe that’s why the cocky fuck was First and I wasn’t.
“They’re ready,” Menkor said.
“Make sure the squads outside the city know that this will be a real fight. If you have to exaggerate the severity to drive the point home, then do it.”
“Yes, Scion,” Menkor said, then he slipped back through the forest.
Thuliak had sent his squad out in groups of two. Rather than forming an obvious perimeter around the bunker, they’d been sent on random patrol paths, scouring the area in a five-klick radius. He’d decided that collecting all of our forces right on top of the bunker would make it too obvious we had something to hide. We’d even covered the door back up, which pained me to do, because it meant I’d waste precious seconds getting it uncovered and opened again if Eve needed something from me.
I reminded myself that she had everything she bloody needed down there. All the supplies in the world, Midwife taking care of her, and a nice warm bed. She had that shite because of me, which I’d find a good way to remind Thuliak of at some point.
“She is giving birth much sooner than expected,” Thuliak said. “Will it always be this fast with human women?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I presume it will be this fast. Normally I’d say that’s good.”
“These are not normal times,” Thuliak said, voice heavy and grave. “There will be babies everywhere, and we don’t have a Hivemind.”
“You can’t feel it?” I asked.
He scowled at me. For once, I hadn’t actually meant it as a jab.
“Feel what?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Relax for twelve seconds and really listen.”
“I am relaxed,” he said, puffing out his chest as he still leaned against the damn tree.
“I may be pacing back and forth,” I said, looking down and seeing the deep groove in the snow I’d made from going back and forth hundreds of times, “but it’s burning off all my nervous bloody energy, Brother. You’re spending all your effort on trying to look cool, but there’s no fucking way—”
“Fine!” Thuliak growled, and he started to pace, though he didn’t freeload my groove. He started to make his own.
I let him pace for several minutes, then I asked him again. “Do you feel it?”
“It’s not the Hivemind,” he said.
“No, it’s not, but it’s like it, innit?”
“Perhaps,” he said, “I sense only…” he raised an eyebrow at me. “I sense you. And Airlock. And…”
“The babies too.”
