Chapter 16

Cameron woke with a start. She'd been having the most pleasant dream she could remember having in a long time - she'd dreamt that she'd been chosen as a prime breeder, which for some dream-logic reason meant that she had to be taken again and again by big, strong, well-hung men.

The army and Cameron were an obvious fit; she'd been fascinated by weapons since she was a child, and channeled that fascination into an encyclopaedic knowledge of what did the most damage to goblins, and how.

But Cameron, despite the innumerable post-battle couplings she'd had with women, considered herself to be straight. She'd only twice been with a man, but it was something that she dreamt of frequently, and she was looking forward to retiring from the war effort, getting knocked up, and spending the rest of her life alternately fucking or pregnant.

After a sex-dream, Cameron would normally get herself off quickly, and immediately drift off to sleep again. Army life is unforgiving, doubly so if you're sleep-deprived. But she could see something on the horizon ... something that worried her.

She glanced over to make sure that the New Queen was securely trussed up, right next to her bed. Cameron had been carrying her for the better part of 14 hours when they'd reached the sewer's exit. There was a brief discussion about whether it was better to sleep underground, and make the trip to the chopper in the morning, but everyone was keen to breath fresh air again, and so they'd emerged near a park, and set up underneath a thicket of trees.

They were a mile or two outside of Denver proper. The chopper was a few hundred yards closer to the city than they were, and the Queen's reach only extended to a few hundred yards beyond that. They should have been completely safe from goblins in this area, but...

Vernita's snore startled Cameron, and reminded her that she was surrounded by capable warriors. Whip was on guard duty - Cameron glanced over at her. She, too, was looking at the plume of smoke in the sky.

"I'll check it out," Cameron rumbled. "You watch ... these three."

Whip nodded.

"I'll be back in fifteen.

"If I'm not ... come find me."

The New Queen didn't even think of herself as Uma any more. As a human, it had been her whole identity - as a goblin, it had been a memory, a tag, something useful for her Queen to differentiate herself from the rest of her slaves.

Now that she was Queen, she had no need for name. She had no need for identification. She was her slave's world, and anyone else was either irrelevant ... or would soon become her slave.

The plan was simple, elegant, perfect. Beatrice's knowledge of her companions made executing it almost childishly simple. A hint of musk here, a well-placed goblin there, and suddenly the team of warriors were puppets, and the New Queen was holding all the strings.

She feigned sleep, as she watched Cameron leave the camp-site. As soon as the large woman was out of view, she transferred her consciousness to Beatrice, and the dance began.