Chimera's Twelve
an excerpt

"Um," Kai said. Papillion ministers, their colourful wingettes in full expansion (ah, but conspicuously not as grand or bright as the Monarch mock-ups), turned gaudy brilliance on her. She cleared her throat and said again, "Um." The dreaded address had come to her, and she hadn't been listening--who could listen to that broken, psycho opera and not tune it out in self-defense?

The tightened jaw on the normally placid expression of Sri Boulon didn't inspire much confidence.

"Do you accept those terms?" the Monarch in his infinite munificence deigned to spell out for her. His voice dripped with so much condescension Kai had to check the front of her costume to see if it weren't drenched.

What terms? The Monarch's black eye-orbs reflected the room. He twisted the end of one of his intertwining tendrils, a gesture performed with robotic precision in an effort to convey apathy. It might have been the delicate, multi-jointed hands that did it, but everything about the Papillions was meticulously deliberate, suffused with intrigues and trapdoors.

Sri Boulan gave no indication of which avenue she should take, not a nod or a hint of a shake. Well, it was a yes or no question that hung in the air. Kai had a fifty percent chance of answering correctly. Better odds than she was used to dealing with.

"Sure," she said boldly, slapping her hands together. A sideways glance at the Sri didn't confirm or deny the wisdom of her choice. Kai couldn't tell if either a smile or a grimace had tightened the ambassador's face.

"Exquisite," the Monarch chimed, dropping the usual lilt to convey smugness undiluted by the alien tone. "We can begin immediately. My assistant will deliver the first task presently."

It was a gloat. A big gloat, but it was done. How could a gloat of that size be done so soon? The Monarch had won and dismissed her in the same breath.

"What did I just agree to?" Kai asked out of the corner of her mouth.

"Perhaps it would have behoove you to pay attention during quite possibly the most important and delicate of negotiations of your entire cowboy life," Sri Boulan said sweetly. She escorted Kai to the foyer.

"What first task?"

"Welcome to the first day of your year-long indenture to the Cherished One." She clapped Kai on the shoulder, a chummy gesture so out of her nature it increased Kai's apprehension.

"Can't I just say I misunderstood?"

"And decimate the negotiations? Not a chance." Kai never heard such perfunctory responses from an ambassador of the Exchange. "The Human Wedge has too much at stake to stick its neck out for a reckless lout who can't stand in chambers two seconds without daydreaming." Scolded by a Sri--that had to have been some kind of record.

"Oh sure," Kai shot back, grasping, "the vital exportation of porcelain piglets--billions of people's livelihoods rely on that venture."

"Good luck, hero," Sri Boulon sighed and left Kai to find her own way through the labyrinthine corridors.

"That's not very diplomatic of you," Kai complained at the shut portal.