Chapters
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There were seven queens of any consequence in the former United States. Not that most who lived there now had ever heard that name, and certainly none of them would be willing to admit it. Those queens knew each other by many names over the years, Evoli included. Over time, their suicide pact had ensured stability in many of their domains, such that the primacy of names no longer mattered.They had come to use titles instead, and to recognize each other’s territories by those names. To Evoli, or Ajna, as…-
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Evoli ruled over half the world.In a way, her campaign had felt almost too easy. After the death of Manipura, Visuddha’s territory had come next. The especially pure queen’s army had not done her much good, even if her spies had been better than Manipura’s. But seeing Evoli’s army coming was not the same thing as stopping it. After a few hours of siege, Evoli had taken her capital with most of its controllers and males.That Viśuddha had escaped with her retinue was only a slight annoyance to her.…
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Evoli watched the army assemble outside her fortress with the eyes of a dozen different drones. On some level it pleased her to see that her rivals had not been so blind and helpless as her initial estimates suggested. Yet they also didn’t take advantage of Evoli’s weakness to come down with crushing force long before the deadline arrived. They had the armies of three great queens, yet she saw none of them. Her new capital in Visuddha’s old hive grew more fortified by the day, alone and…
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The death of Lachesis did not mean the battle was over before it started. As Evoli had expected, most of the drones that made up this army did not belong to the freakish “queen of the future.” They were, rather, the army of the great queens. Plus, Lachesis had controllers, and males, and both of these could stop the drones from going feral. The single blow did nothing but enrage her enemy.But for once, Evoli herself did not leave the field. She needed to be here, for the same reason she needed to make…
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Evoli looked out at her army, swollen with the ranks of the mighty force sent to destroy her. Many of these drones still wore the body-paint or armor of her enemies, glittering in the dawn sunlight. But all that armor didn’t protect them. There was no chance that the great queens wouldn’t realize what she had done. The real question was—how much of their army was this? It would take them at least five years to grow replacements. That assuming they could find the glamour to do it. Without so many…
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New Delaware was not one of the dozens of villages and tiny towns Evoli had faced in her campaign across the country. It was, rather, a fortress of surpassing strength, built by the finest griffon stonemasons. As night fell, Evoli could see their torches moving back and forth along the walls, and see the outlines of their patrols in the air.She couldn’t see a single changeling anywhere—though by their nature, it was hard to be certain about their presence. But Evoli would’ve been able to sense it if…
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There was only one destination left to them now. Evoli knew it, even as the Great Queens would know it. The end of all things waited for them at the fortress called Eternal.It was an ancient place, or as ancient as anything built since the end of the old world could be. It was meant to be a capital of sorts for the changelings—built by a cooperative of many queens and many workers. Riley had been all about symbols and rules. She’d designed the fortress herself.But did you think it would be my army…
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Evoli could feel her drones dying as they charged into the mouth of the Pillar of Equilibrium. Each death gave her only a brief glance inside before the drone died—from a hail of arrows, from bullets or boiling oil or many other hazards. Yet there was so much energy in there, so much life.Isaac dares to lecture me, demanding that I give up and die while he lives his endless, immortal life. What does he know of hunger? I deserved the blessing of the gods, not him, not that freak drone of a younger sister.…
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Decimus and her swarm of controllers fought brutally. Evoli could hear them from outside, and sense the violence through the aid of her own swarm. The deeper they went, the better prepared the enemy became. She could not see into the minds of Decimus and her controllers, but she could ask those on the outskirts through her own controllers’ vocal questions.The enemy was prepared—with weapons of the ancients, in great numbers. Many of the orphaned controllers died. All the better. We need as few mouths…
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The throne room had been a spectacular chamber in its days of glory. But the war above had not spared it—as Evoli walked inside, she had to climb over huge chunks of fallen crystal, probably dislodged by the weapons of the ones defending it. There were four colors, each specifically grown here rather than found. Green, orange, red, and blue, each one divided in a circle where many thrones had been.There was a seat here for every one of the Great Queens. But thanks to Evoli, there were only two of those…
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