Stork Naked (22 page)

“Thank you.”

Resume your mission, the Simurgh thought firmly.

He had done it again. This time he focused determinedly and completed his trek to the anthill.

He approached the main entrance to the hill. A guard challenged him immediately, recognizing him as a foreign ant. The communication was electronic, but his mind interpreted it as verbal dialogue.

“Halt, intruder drone! You are not from this hill. I can tell by your smell.”

“I am Ambassador Che of Pique Ant Hill 53. Here is my credit.” He sent the authorizing signal.

“We don't have relations with Hill 53.”

“You do now. You must accept a proffered Pique Ant ambassador, as you are pique ants too. By antly protocol you are obliged to grant me the hospitality of the hill for a day and night.”

“This is highly irregular.”

“Nevertheless legitimate. I'll take your best guest room, with room service and an early audience with the queen.”

“This is preposterous. No one gets treatment like that.”

Che affected lordly sarcasm. “Oh, are you an authority on protocol?”

The guard had to give way, not being equipped to respond to higher intellectual challenges. “I'll check with my supervisor.”

“Do that, officer.”

The guard checked, and the supervisor reluctantly yielded to the requirement. It was indeed protocol, though seldom implemented. Most anthills, pique and otherwise, simply minded their own business. Che soon found himself in a comfortable chamber just off the main drag, with a docile worker ant serving as servant and intermediary. He was, after all, a drone: one of the few full males in the ant kingdom. Ordinary workers were stunted females, constrained to serve and feed their betters. This worker was Anona Ant, completely unassuming and undistinguished.

Che touched her antennae with his own. Her whole meek, subservient personality came through with that touch. “I hunger,” he informed her.

She waited. After most of a moment he caught on: she was literal minded. He had informed her of his state, but had not told her what to do about it. “Bring me an appropriate meal.”

She departed immediately. He knew that the chef-ant would know what was appropriate and provide her with it.

Soon she returned with a glob of royal jelly. Che had never encountered that before, but his ant host body reacted: this was princely fare.

He took it and started eating. Anona retreated to a crevice area and waited.

He signaled her with a glance, and she approached for an antenna touch. “Are you hungry?” he inquired.

“Yes, lord.”

“Would you like to have some of this.”

She was thrown into a crisis of indecision. Her mandibles quivered. “I don't know.”

He caught on. She was not one to have likes or dislikes; her station was beneath preferences. “Common ants are not supposed to eat royal jelly?”

“Yes.”

“But you are also supposed to do what I tell you.”

“Yes.”

“I want you well and vigorous, to better help me in my mission here. Take a small part of this glob. A globule.”

That direct instruction resolved her doubt. Anona took a globule and delicately ate it, while he consumed the rest.

The effect was swift and remarkable. Che felt invigorated and princely, while Anona's appearance shifted in subtle but effective ways. She was becoming more female. She was a neuter ant, a repressed female. It was diet that did it: one fed on royal jelly became a queen; those denied it remained physically like juveniles. He had committed a breach of antly protocol by having her eat it.

Well, too late to do anything about it. He wouldn't do it again. Meanwhile, it could get her in serious trouble. He knew that ant queens normally beheaded competition. “Do not reveal that I gave you royal jelly,” he cautioned her.

“I will not tell,” she agreed obediently.

He knew where he needed to go, but was not sure he would be given free access. So he approached the matter cautiously. “I wish to tour the hill.”

Anona waited.

Oh. “Take me on a tour of the hill.”

She took him through the hive: the workers' quarters, the guards' barracks, the fungus farm, the mess hall, the deep water well region, the high ridge where sharp-eyed ants watched for possible approaching threats, and past but not into the sacrosanct queen's apartment. And not to the one section he needed to visit: where the three alien visitors resided. His awareness informed him where it was, but she never went there.

Back in his chamber, he cautiously broached the matter. “You did not show me everything, Anona.”

Her return impulse was perplexed. “I showed you all I know, lord.”

“There is another region. Perhaps it is secret.”

She struggled with the notion of secrecy, something normally foreign to her open nature. Then she made a connection. “You gave me royal jelly. I must not tell. That is a secret.”

“Yes. But that is not the secret I meant.”

She struggled further, and managed to make another connection. “I am now becoming female. You are male. You want me to—” She broke off, not conversant with the process. The ants did not need any Adult Conspiracy to mask the process of reproduction; workers simply lacked the capacity. But now, like a child on the verge of adult interest, she was struggling with it.

“No, no,” he said quickly. “That's not it.”

“You are rejecting me,” she said, her antennae wilting.

Now she was becoming emotional, like a non-centaur woman. He was coming to appreciate why royal jelly was limited to royal ants. “No, not at all! I just—” But how could he explain?

“I am not adequate,” she wailed electronically. He felt her utter devastation. She had no experience with the female state, so tended to overreact.

“You are fine, just the way you are,” he said quickly, and felt her mood swing positive. “I just did not have this in mind when I came here.”

“I'm sure I can please you, if you show me how,” she said eagerly.

Che had three problems with this. First, he did not want to take unfair advantage of a truly innocent ant girl. Second, he did not want to further complicate his emotional life, which already had an illicit passion for Surprise Golem. Third, he had no idea how ants signaled the stork, if that was what they did. He might figure it out in time by trial and error, but that was bound to be awkward.

Then he had an idea he hoped was unworthy of him. He could ask her to take him to a truly private place. She might not know about the alien presences, but think that the place they were kept was deserted. Thus she might after all lead him to where he needed to go.

However, being an ethical centaur, he rejected that unworthy ploy. “This is not the place or the time,” he said. “I must first accomplish my mission.”

“Another place, another time,” she agreed, pathetically ardent. “What is your mission?” She now had more initiative, too, no longer waiting for direct commands.

And of course he couldn't tell her that. For one thing, his true mission was secret; for another, he was not at all sure this chamber was as private as it seemed. The pique ants had been a mite too obliging in providing it, and might be watching him in ways that didn't show.

“To ascertain whether this hill is suitable for my hill to establish formal diplomatic relations with,” he said. That was true; it was part of the deal they had made with Hill 53. but it was hardly the whole truth.

“Oh, I'm sure it is,” she said. “We're a wonderful hill, with many fine qualities and good workers. Not long ago we raided another colony and took some slaves, and now they are loyal workers. Except—” She broke off, perplexed.

He was interested in whatever mystery this hill had. “What is it?”

“Some were odd. I don't know what happened to them.”

Well, now. “Were there three of them?”

“Yes, I think so. They looked regular, for their variety. Like ordinary vari ants. But they weren't the same as the others.”

Like three transformed children, he thought. So they had been hidden away, per a directive from the Sorceress. “Could they be ench ants?”

“Yes! Enchants.”

“I would like to see those ench ants.”

She rippled her antennae in a shrug. “They're gone. I never saw them, and heard no more of them after the raid.”

Che had a fair idea where they would be. But he still needed a pretext to go there, and had to find a way to get into a section that was surely well guarded. Maybe he could go alone at night, when the hill was quiet, and explore.

“Well, let's relax for now.”

Anona was glad to cooperate. “Anything you wish, lord.”

He folded six legs, settling to the floor. She settled next to him. Now she had a musky female scent that stirred his awareness. How far was her transformation likely to go?

A guard ant appeared at the entrance. Che got up and went to touch antennae, as it was the only way to know what brought the brute here.

“You are looking for ench ants?” the guard demanded.

Was this trouble? How did they know of his private dialogue with Anona? Straightforward seemed to be best. “I am.”

The guard moved aside and a regular worker ant came forward. Che touched antennae. “I am Conspir Ant. Some of us seek to overthrow the queen and establish a new order. To do that we need to gain control over the ench ants. Are you with us, foreign drone?”

Che distrusted this. “I have no interest in revolution. I merely want to see the ench ants.”

“Then we shall have to kill you, for you know too much.”

“This is ridiculous!”

But already the guard ant was pushing into the chamber. Its forelegs had huge sharp pincers suitable for snipping off legs or head. It came at Che with those weapons raised. He retreated; as a drone he was stronger than worker ants, but wasn't equipped to resist a warrior ant.

The guard quickly backed him against a wall. He could not retreat farther. The two pincers came at him with terrible efficiency.

Then the guard halted, its antennae waving. Something had charged it from the side, and had hold of one leg just below the pincer. It was Anona!

Che leaped forward, grabbed the captive pincer, and bent it back. After a moment the leg snapped off right beyond where Anona was holding it.

The guard seemed not to know its loss. Its other pincer shot toward Che's neck.

But now he knew how to fight this thing. He dodged aside, grabbed the leg behind the pincer, and bent it as hard as he could. It too snapped, rendering the guard helpless.

Conspir Ant was retreating. “Stop him!” Che cried, but he lacked antenna contact so his cry was silent. Instead, he charged the other ant and used his mandibles to chomp one of its hind legs. Loyal Anona chomped another.

Then the hall beyond was filled with guard ants. There were way too many to overcome. They were done for.

Che managed to touch antennae with Anona. “Stop fighting! We can't handle these.”

She stopped immediately. They retreated back into the chamber as the guards crowded in menacingly.

“You did well,” Che told Anona, and felt her electric thrill of responsive joy. Then they waited for the end. Actually it would be the end only for her, because he would merely revert to his centaur form. Yet his mission would be incomplete.

But the guards did not attack. One approached Che to touch antennae. “Come with us, drone.”

Surely to be formally executed. “Leave Anona,” Che said. “She is no part of this.”

But that was not to be. The guards marched both of them to the queen's apartment and shoved them in together.

Suddenly they were in the presence of the Pique Ant Queen. Anona prostrated herself abjectly. Che, uncertain what to do, merely bowed his head.

The queen approached. She was a splendid specimen of her kind, twice Che's size and devastatingly female. She clearly had no doubt of her command of the situation, and neither did he. She touched antennae briefly with Anona, then with Che. To describe her touch as electrifying would have been a severe understatement. “Tell all.”

Such was the power of her command that he did not hesitate. There was no confusion or holding back; the truth poured out. “I am Che Centaur, occupying an ant body so as to investigate three inhabitants of your hill. They may be three human or demon children transformed to ant form by an evil Sorceress. If so, we must rescue them.”

“They are not,” the queen said. She disengaged, wiggled an antenna at a servant skulking in the background, and touched antennae briefly with the servant. Then she returned to Che. “I have summoned them here so you can verify this.”

“But if you captured them in a slave raid, how can you be sure of their nature? They seem to be from another reality.” He hoped she understood that concept.

“They are from another reality,” she agreed. “But they are not transformed human or demon children. They are enchanted ants. We do not know their ultimate origin, but it seems they were not welcome there, and were put among workers subject to raiding. They had passed through several hills by the time we got them and recognized their worth.”

“Those other ant hills wanted to lose them?”

“So it seems. Before I clarify their nature, it seems best that you meet them. Then you will understand.”

Soon the three ench ants arrived. They were all suppressed females, exactly like other workers. Che lost interest in them immediately.

“Do you wish to interview them directly?” the queen asked.

Che realized with a start that he had not completed his mission. “I suppose I should.” But he didn't.

“Try again,” the queen advised.

Why hadn't he already done so? It wasn't like him to be so forgetful. He took a step toward the three, then was distracted by Anona, still humbly prostrated before the queen. “About her,” he said. “I gave her royal jelly, unthinkingly. She tried to protest, but I didn't understand. She did not willfully disobey the protocol.”

“Have no concern,” the queen said. “Anona is my loyal servant, reporting everything to me. That is how I knew about your refusal to betray me to another hill.”

“But she never left me! She defended me at the risk of her own life.”

“Because that was her directive. I was curious about your nature and motive, so assigned her to you. This is not conscious on her part; I am partially telepathic, and she is partially so also, so I am able to receive the communications she receives and sends. More specifically, my talent is to read minds only when others are thinking bad or evil thoughts. Since it is by definition evil to oppose my rule, I learn what I need. But I can't be in all places at all times, so Anona serves as my surrogate, evoking those thoughts if they exist. Be assured that no harm will come to her as long as
I govern; she is far too valuable in ferreting out plots such as the one you encountered.”