Rebel Dream: Enemy Lines I by Aaron Allston Read Free Book Online

and his power, disgusted her.
    The guards and Viqi came to a halt before Tsavong Lah. He turned to fix his stare on her. “You may feelhonored,” the warmaster said. “It is not customary for one of my position to witness the disposal of waste.”
    She looked at him, and then again at the pit overfull of darkness. In the blur of that darkness, at its edges, she saw motion that seemed suddenly familiar. It was identical to that of the little black dots, the carrion-eaters, that infested Tsavong Lah’s arm.
    She concealed a sensation of revulsion. “This is the fate you’ve chosen for me?”
    “Yes.” The warmaster gestured at one of her guards. “Denua Ku will kill you. If you are polite in these last few moments of life, I will let you choose the means of your death. He could break your neck, stab you with his amphistaff, have the staff bite you. Then your body will be tossed into the pit. The creatures there will ignore it for a time, until it begins emitting the odors of decomposition, and then they will fall on it, slowly eating it away to nothingness. You will disappear into darkness, Viqi Shesh, and cease to be, as though you never were.”
    Viqi’s stomach knotted, but she kept her expression calm, emotionless. “Why don’t I just jump in? I can drown as your little bugs fill my lungs. That way, these two nameless nothings beside me don’t get to participate.”
    She could sense anger in the increasing stiffness of her guards’ postures, but Tsavong Lah merely widened his eyes and looked a bit surprised. “You are anxious to provide compensation for your failure?”
    “Of course. I will do it this way if it is what you require; it is my obligation to serve. But I’m more anxious for you to stop lying to me. To end that particular torture, I’ll jump in right now.”
    “Lying. An interesting accusation. A deliberate offense.” Tsavong Lah smiled again. “One you can offer because you think nothing worse than death could await you. If that is your belief, you are wrong.”
    “I say you are lying for this reason: you are not disposing of me because I failed you. Others have failed you and been permitted to live … because they were still loyal resources you could rely on. You’re having me put to death because you think I’m no longer valuable to you. No longer a resource.”
    To the extent that they could, Tsavong Lah’s features became thoughtful. “I am impressed. You make your point. I am killing you because you
are
no longer a resource, Viqi.”
    “But I am. My most powerful weapon is still with me, Warmaster—my brain. While I sat in my cell, I used it, and I uncovered a threat to your control of the Yuuzhan Vong, to your plans for this galaxy, to everything you consider a goal. You are in danger you don’t even know about. Only I have uncovered the secret.”
    “Name it, then.”
    “No.” She looked at her guards. “Not while these unworthy ones can hear my words. Not while
anyone
other than you can hear them.”
    Tsavong Lah gestured. Viqi’s guards took her by her arms and, seemingly without effort, lifted her. They held her over the pit. Black dots leapt up from it, settling on her feet and lower legs. Some leapt off again.
    “Anything you have to tell me, they can hear,” Tsavong Lah said, “in the final moments of your life.”
    Viqi returned her gaze to his. She was able to keep the fear she felt out of her voice. “You and I are the only ones in this chamber I
know
are not your enemies. I will not speak what I know before strangers, because it might spell your doom. If I die now, with my secret unspoken, you might figure it out yourself, and survive anyway.
I will not betray you
. So drop me.” She made her expression fierce, and the ferocity was not just a show—the fear she felt was real, and fueled very real anger.
    Tsavong Lah considered her for a long moment, then made a shooing gesture to his guards. They withdrew a step, bringing Viqi back over solid flooring,