"Do we have a deal?"

Even with Bristaness standing close over her shoulder, even faced with the fury of a queen, still the girl sneers.

I first sensed her, or first remembered that I sensed her, late at night when all the other humans had left me, and it was dark and peaceful and far too quiet. I didn't think she was supposed to be there, because all the lights with their horrible heat and incessant buzzing were shut off for the night-shift, and she was alone-- small and alone and helpless, standing there, staring at me. If I'd had the energy, I would have lashed out at her, but I couldn't have reached, anyway. The bars of my cage were too close together, and she was standing just beyond what reach I could have managed.

Unable to violently show my thoughts on the subject of nosy, staring, puny runts of creatures called humans, I settled for lifting my head as much as I was able and showing her my grinning teeth. Most of them backed off at that-- once or twice I'd sent a weaker one running at the sight of me. This one, though, this one didn't so much as twitch. All she did was bare her own worthless excuses for teeth back at me in what those humans called a smile. They're supposed to be pleasant things, smiles; my keepers did it all the time at each other, accompanied by the heat signals, posture, even scent for pleasure, encouragement-- affection. I don't think that particular human knew what those things were, and her smile was more like mine: false and humorless, fierce and dangerous. I wanted to scream at her and beat the bars of my cage, no matter what shocks and bruises it gave me; I wanted Bristaness to come and tear her apart for me, even if it meant he would be caught at last; I wanted her to leave me to the humiliation of my confines and not mock me with her freedom. But I had no energy, Bristaness could not kill anyone who might be missed, and I had no way to send her away from me, or even tell her to leave.

She had left, anyway, and the next time I sensed her twisted, humorless presence, she had replaced one of my many keepers, the many puny humans who worked amongst the cages and the strange creatures therein-- none so grand as a queen, a leader and warrior born and bred, but some so strange and rare that even I had never come across them before. We were a menagerie of murder, a collection of chaos, carefully watched, enclosed, and, in the case of many of us, drugged into insensibility. How they found a drug that could flow through the veins of a queen or her followers, I doubted I would ever know: the mind of a human was impossible to try and delve into, too shadowed and stupid to make sense of. Only Bristaness and Charliss were open to me, and even they could not hear me clearly unless they came close to me, in thie pest-infested place.

One of the weaker keepers was gone the next time I was aware of time and my imprisonment again, and instead, there was her, drifting between the cages like a ghost, carrying water, food, towels, shying away from anyone taller or louder than she-- which was nearly everyone. Everything about her-- posture, expression, even heat signals-- was submissive, silent, broken. I knew better, but why would I tell my keepers of the viper in their midst?

"Well?" she demands, hands planted firmly on her hips, a posture humans somehow think intimidating. "Do we or do we not have a deal?"

Now I have known her for weeks, months, even years-- how can one tell, through the fog of drugs, humiliation, and boredom? I still know nothing about her, though I know she is dangerous. It would be wise to let Bristaness kill her and try to find another way to free me from my prison-- yet, this "deal"... it has the seeming of sweetness to it. But is the seeming worth the risk, worth dealing with her? Worth dealing with any human, disgusting worms that they are?

::Give me a moment, brat,:: I tell her, hissing and pacing the tiny cage that has been my life for as long as I have been held here in this metallic, lifeless, human-made place. Time without drugs, I know not how much time but at least it has been enough, has cleared my mind and released my body from the worst of its weakness-- her doing, and now I know why.

The human girl continued coming, day after day, always tending another creature, cleaning another cage, never allowed to come in contact with anything that might be used as a weapon, but trusted with the most dangerous of beasts. When they finally set her to me, though I still hated her, I was curious, and that was why I allowed her to approach my cage without threatening her, those times I was aware enough to protest. That first time, I was, and I kept every sense I had trained on her as she approached me. All she did was slip my ration of meat through the slot just for that purpose, drawing a spark from the field of power there but, when it recognized something about her, nothing more than that. If I had tried the same thing, it would have thrown me back against the back wall of my enclosure. I had tried it many times, simply out of desperation or fury at the weak hands, so close yet still impossible to tear from their places on human wrists. It was no power I knew anything about, and certainly no power I knew how to combat, and yet the humans reached through it like it was nothing. Just like this girl did.

When they began allowing her to administer my dose of whatever kept me weak, that was when I first thought she had some kind of plan. For two injections, it was as always: sleep hit me soon after, and I would wake sometime later, slowly and with a pounding head and trembling limbs for hours after. After those first two times, though, when the needle struck home from the human girl's hand, I felt nothing but the irritation of the sting. I was, of course, clever enough not to make a fuss about it. I didn't want that drug any more than I wanted the cage I was trapped in or the charity of a weak human. Awake and aware, but lying still, I would watch her, and I came to realize that no matter what she was doing, her attention was always on me. There was something she had in mind, some purpose or plan in her madness. I didn't know whether I liked that or not.

I still don't. It was a surprise to me when she suddenly appeared, in the middle of the deserted night-shift, and approached my cage purposefully. She told me that she did, indeed, have a plan, one that would free me, my warrior, and my drone-- and herself. And now she awaits my answer. I have been clear-headed for many days and nights now, and the bars of my cage chafe at me. But this puny human still wants something of me, of my males, and she will not release me unless I agree to help her.

::My queen, it will get us freedom,:: Bristaness' voice comes hesitantly. I snap my jaws at him, but nothing more, and he speaks again. ::I have tried for so long, but found nothing. No way to free you. No way to escape with you. Her plan... it is a good plan.::

At my hiss, he falls silent, and I pace in my cage. He is right. This is a good plan. It is only that it is a human who brings it to me that makes me wish to bite something.

But... I might as well use that wish to bite something for my own gain.

::Very well. Unlock my cage, let me out, and I will kill whoever you put in my path.::

The girl smiles slowly and cruelly, and presses the release.

Chapter Two

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