All the Chimera laughed again, and Vulpina turned beet-red, but she also laughed, and did not draw her suicide dirk and plunge it into her own throat.

Lady Ivinia said, “The duty of virgins is to survive combat and be raped by their conquerors, so that they may bear male children, teaching them to slay their fathers and avenge us. Remember this! I am the mother of seven I can name with pride and others I do not name. My duty to the race is fulfilled, and painful death in melee is an honor I can claim.”

Suspinia said in a saucy voice, “Well, you’re too old to get raped anyway!”

Instead of drawing a weapon and killing her on the spot, Ivinia threw back her head and emitted a peal of laughter, and Gamma Phyle slapped the ground, guffawing, and said, “Aye! But them blue Kine ain’t got no wagglies bigger’n my pinky nohow, so who could they plumb?”

Menelaus said, “Since we are all about to die, let me just be frank and say, Chimerae are a sick, sick race. The only thing that is really good about Chimerae is that we are not as disgusting as Nymphs.”

Suspinia sniffed and snapped her fingers under his nose. “Well, that’s not fair! Chimerae have good points! We love fighting, for one thing. And we are tidy. Have you seen how squared away our tents and grounds in the prison camp are, compared to those sloppy Witches’?”

More laughter. Vulpina chimed in, “She is right! The Witches don’t even walk in step when they walk. They are like toddlers who haven’t learned how to march. At dawn they are still in their sleeping rolls when the dogs blow reveille—except unless they stayed up all night!”

Phyle said, “Anubis! You’re not saying aright, Brother Beta! Chimmers are the best o’ the best. ’Specially our womenfolk. I figures there be but two kinds of frails, those what like getting beaten a bit before bunk-up time, and those what stab their men in the kidneys with a stiletto whiles we’re asleep. Meek and feisty. Both have their good points, mind you! But both kinds likes them to kill strays and ferals like whats facing us here in this place, so I’ll bet you that these two girls and the lady will kill more of the foe than all the others in the room combined! If I win the bet, I cut off your left nut; and if you win the bet, you cut off mine! What’ya say?”

Stray and feral meant any one not bred according to the sound principles of eugenics.

Menelaus clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Joet, you’re a man after my own heart! And I do appreciate you wanting to stick up for the womenfolk—that’s right gentlemanlike of you. Unfortunately, I just found out early today that wagering is an undue complexity of life. On another topic, let me explain what these archaic words in the long-dead language called English mean: engaging-in-copulation, guano-of-bats, not-sane. Now, each separately means nothing, but, taken together as a phrase, the stalwart men of Texas in elder times used this expression (abbreviated FBC) to refer to anyone like yourself, who was (well, if I can be frank one more time) simply Fu—”

Lady Ivinia interrupted, “Do not be frank, Sterling! It erodes discipline, and in any case our cause will prevail, despite any losses. The Judge of Ages is real—Alpha Daae has convinced me of it—and will hand us victory.”

Menelaus wished he were equally confident.

5. Separated

The widow Aanwen, Preceptor Naar (along with four of his automata that had been outfitted with steam-powered machine guns), and a squad of excited and yammering dog things rose out of the stairwell, and crossed the metal floor of the firing range. Larz favored them with an airy salute of his wine-bowl.

They entered the connecting corridor. Naar uttered a command in his singsong language. The dog things lowered the bayonets and began urging the cold-faced and defiant Chimerae toward the big door. The Blue Woman, Aanwen, gestured toward Menelaus. Not him.

Like wolves separating a stray from the herd, a trio of dog things thrust their way, snarling, between Menelaus and Lady Ivinia. She brandished her spear. The Kine fell to the deck, hands over their heads, whimpering. The two Beta teenagers, blithely ignoring the ferocious dogs and their threatening bayonets, stopped and strung their bows. The Gamma soldier, Phyle, shrugged, and as if by magic, dropped his sling out of his sleeve, stone already in the pocket, and set his shoulders as if ready to sling a stone at the nearest Blue Man.

Menelaus saw that resistance was suicide. The metal walls of the narrow corridor would scatter ricochets and shrapnel in every direction, and any intact panels of reflex armor would ignite grenades and petards in counter-fire, chopping everything in the corridor to bits neatly as a steel thresher on overdrive. The gray twins might have nerve weapons that would stun or benumb Naar or Aanwen, or the Hormagaunts release spores that would sicken or slay the dog things, but neither one could affect the automata, nor prevent all the dogs from opening fire; nor could the sling, arrows, spear, and knives of the Chimerae damage the machines.

Menelaus estimated that a trained fighting-Chimera could kill ten or twelve armed dog things barehanded; but Gamma Phyle had been recently released from the infirmary tent, and was not in top shape, and Lady Ivinia and the teenaged girls could not match even his performance.

Menelaus called out in two languages not to attack, and the dogs, annoyed by the noise, struck at his face and chest with their musket butts, knocking him from his feet. He had hardened the substance of his cloak before the blows landed, and he stayed on the ground, hood over his face, unwilling to show himself lest Aanwen and Naar realize that Menelaus could not be harmed by the weapons present.

He heard the noise and commotion of footsteps receding as the other Chimerae were herded away. To his surprise, he heard no noises of struggle, smelled no blood.

Dimly, he was amazed that they had been persuaded by him, and then he realized to his chagrin that they had not been persuaded. He was the ranking male present, and by Chimera law, women were noncombatants and must obey—including armed women who were ready to fight in combat. And, of course, Beta outranked Gamma, and freemen outranked Kine.

The dog things pulled him to his feet, and pushed him to stand with the gray twins. Alalloel was not far away, and stood to one side, and the Hormagaunts and their Clades and Donors stood to the other.

6. The Gray Twins

The Grays were blue-haired: the male wore his short, and the woman’s reached past her shoulder blades. The male had no trace of facial hair. The pair were also slightly taller than the Blue Men or the onyx-skinned Locust men, and the gestures more fluid and graceful.

The woman wore a fur-trimmed black parka of a smartmetal substance not unlike the tent material, trimmed and lined with seal fur and webbed with heating elements. From her belt hung a fur muff, as well as gold capsules Menelaus’ implants told him contained energy sources. Her boots had soles of smartmetal as well, and could probably be programmed to various degrees of friction or traction, or to form snowshoes, cleats, or skates, depending on the substance underfoot. Her twin was likewise wearing a parka of black metal of the same design; heavy fur gloves were tucked in his belt. Gold capsules hanging from his belt likewise gave off a faint radio signature. Both wore snow-blindness goggles with thin slits over their eyes, giving them a sharply alien look.

Menelaus studied the energy contour coming from the golden capsules clamped to their belts, and realized it was consonant with certain types of nonlethal, short-range electroshock weapons, or radiant neural agents. The gray twins were armed.