Path of the Hive Queen

“So, I assume there is a little bit more to your plan than just ‘hire mercenaries’,” Max said.

“That is kind of the core essence of it,” Janis said, smiling playfully. “Why, do you disapprove?”

Max sighed in a put-upon way. It didn’t really fit the way he was looming over her at the moment, given that he was standing, and really tall, and Janis was moving marbles over a large map spread on the ground. If she didn’t know him, she might have been intimidated.

“I just don’t like the idea of so many people seeing our base down here,” he grumped.

“Most people won’t,” Janis reassured him. “We’re setting up staging posts elsewhere, as I told you.” She paused, looking up. “I really have this under control, Max. You can go back home.”

Max made a face. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, just …”

“I get it. We’ll be outside the psychic link’s range, it’s making you anxious.” Janis shrugged. “Maybe you should go back and bask in it for a moment? That would do wonders to calm one’s nerves.”

“Oh, that sounds like you can’t wait to be rid of me,” he said, miming clutching at his heart.

“I just don’t want to deprive the rest of the Hive of your inestimable presence,” she responded drily.

Max sighed. “Alright. Seriously, though, can you walk me through what’s happened up north one more time?”

“Sure. Though I don’t have the latest news. They probably won a battle against the northerners by now.” Janis dusted off her hands and stood. “For the rest, it’s a lot, but let’s see …”

She went over everything that had happened recently again, all the information they’d gathered — which wasn’t much, unfortunately. She knew Galatea had started working with Leian, or maybe Berren, on their project, but didn’t know if they had gotten anywhere yet. Regina had started a search for any other seers or people with similar Classes, but hadn’t turned up much yet. And of course, she’d just come back from visiting the army in the east, and talking to Tim and June. They’d both asked her to pass their greetings on to Max.

Finally, they’d gone over everything that needed to be said, and it was getting time to say goodbye to Max for now. Janis accompanied him to the teleportation point in the base, glancing around as she went. She hadn’t been here for long, and was still getting used to it and trying to learn the layout. Having a map in the psychic link would have made that easier. But she needed to keep her own skills up anyway, she couldn’t depend on it for everything.

Finally, they reached the right corridor, and Max said his goodbyes to everyone. Considering he’d only been here a short while, comparatively, he seemed pretty popular. Still, she could tell he was looking forward to returning to the psychic link.

“Tell everyone hello from me,” Janis said.

“I will, but don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be happy to have the superior — I mean, senior prince back,” he said with a grin.

“Superior prick,” Janis muttered quietly as he was teleported away, but it was fondly.

“Did you say something, Your Highness?” Ferden asked; seemingly innocently, but she could see the suppressed mirth in his posture, so he must have heard.

“Nothing important,” she said airily. “Now, we should get to work. Daniel?”

The psychic looked up, and stepped closer from the other side of the group, which was starting to disperse. “Yes, Princess Janis?”

“You’ve done good work here so far,” she said, figuring starting with praise was best. “I will need your help with what else we’re going to do.”

“Of course, Princess, you can always count on me.” He straightened up, puffing out his chest slightly. It was almost cute. He was about her age, though, Janis reminded herself. “Although I’m not sure how much help I’ll be, with your other guest around. I’ll freely admit my training isn’t up to par with her skills yet.”

Janis glanced around to where Lianne was approaching them. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

“The princess is right,” the older psychic cut in, coming to a stop near them. “You’ve been trained well, young man. In my time, few of us would have as much experience with other psychics given the time you’ve had, either.” She turned to Janis. “Of course, I assume we’re not here to counter other psychics?”

Bringing Lianne had admittedly been a bit of a gamble. It wasn’t really a matter of trust; the southern base wasn’t a secret anymore and the woman already knew a lot of potentially damaging information, or could have gotten access to it. Janis trusted Galatea and the others in their assessment that Lianne was genuine. But she was one of the most powerful psychics around, probably. On the other hand, there had been some friction with other people at the eastern front and a bit of a change of scenery might be good. Besides, Janis wanted a senior psychic and Peter and Suse weren’t up to her level, and apparently worked best together. Otherwise she could’ve just asked for another of Regina’s students to be assigned.

“Probably not, but I’d rather not take any chances,” she said. “We don’t want unpleasant surprises, and our enemies sending a strong psychic to the south is just the sort of thing they might do to surprise us. Mostly, I’ll want your help vetting people and allowing us to coordinate and communicate.”

Lianne nodded. “Understood. I’ll keep it in mind. How will we get started?”

“For now, we’re heading to an outpost we’ve set up a little ways away from the base,” Janis explained. “Come with me, and ensure you’ve got everything you need.”

She made her way through the base, picking up a few other people. The vehicle bay that led to the outer entrance was pretty busy, and Janis paused for a moment to watch the activity and note the layout of the barricades and other structures they’d set up. Then she continued on.

Just before they actually exited the base, she turned. “As a safety precaution, we’ll be hiding our presence,” she explained. “There are drone mounts waiting for us. Lianne, please hide our psychic signature. I’ll try my best with the mana signature. And Zephyr, please make us invisible during our exit.”

“I’ll only be able to keep it up for a short time for this many people, Princess,” the man warned.

“I know, just hide our exit, we’ll be in cover soon.”

It would have been easier to leave through the tunnels at the other side, there were more opportunities to reach the surface and disappear into the landscape, but that would also require quite a detour and take longer. Janis didn’t want to waste any time, and she needed to know this worked, anyway.

Once everyone was ready, she moved, walking quickly toward where the drones were hidden in a slight depression in the terrain. The others kept up well. Janis even had trouble seeing them, despite being this close and presumably not being targeted by the effect.

Once they reached the drones, Janis quickly climbed on one of them, guiding the others with a few whispered instructions. It was a good thing that the drones were so obedient and able to understand basic orders even without the psychic link. The rest of the group would just follow her drone, which she could guide quietly. Though she was probably being too paranoid, anyway, but it would be stupid to assume the base entrance wasn’t watched.

And while she hadn’t been here before, she’d studied the maps enough to know exactly where she was going.

They rode for a while. While the location of the base was no longer really a secret, it was still sensible not to have this location be too close by it.

Eventually, they reached the outpost she sought. It was located in another depression in the terrain, surrounded by a grove of olive trees and a craggy hill on one side. The actual clearing in the middle had been cleared, however. Originally, there had been the ruins of a small village, which had clearly been abandoned several years ago, here. The drones had cleaned up and expanded it a little, leaving the area much larger than it first seemed. The additional space would probably be necessary.

It also wasn’t empty. A task force of some drones with several Imperial soldiers waited here. They were accompanied by several other groups, shown by their distinct clothing and the way they clustered together. Everyone looked up and stepped aside as Janis and her party approached.

She dismounted slowly, scanning the area and noting where construction had begone on the outpost proper; it was still shallow enough that she could comfortably see everything.

“So the woman of the hour finally appears,” one of the men spoke up, grinning at her.

Janis smiled back tightly, quickly assessing everyone.

As expected, the man — the leader of the largest group currently present — was a relatively high level, though nothing exceptional. At least by her standards. He was dressed kind of foppishly, in garish orange and yellow, with a feathered hat she caught Daniel eying with obvious interest. This fashion sense seemed to be shared by most in the gathered group, though usually a bit more subdued.

“So I am,” she agreed. “Thank you for waiting. We can get down to business now.”

“I’m sure we are all eager to hear what sort of business you bring to us. Your Highness,” someone from another group, this one an elf, put in. He was still dressed a bit colorfully, his hair woven in braids with what looked like amber in them.

The same Class as Anuis, interesting, Janis noted. There aren’t many forests around here, it’s obvious he’s from a bit further away. His group was also the most mixed one, containing humans, elves and even a gnome and dwarf each.

Not that she didn’t know who these people were, at least in principle, she wasn’t that unprepared, but it was good to confirm things with her own eyes.

“Yes, I wonder what sort of business someone could possibly want to hire mercenary companies for,” Zephyr grumbled. Probably a bit louder than he’d really intended.

The first man gave a good-natured laugh. “Indeed, my friend. But there is still a lot of nuance to such a contract.”

“Which we will be discussing,” Janis agreed with a smile.

“Your Highness, we set up some refreshments,” the highest-ranking Imperial present, a captain she didn’t know personally, spoke up.

“Good, let’s move and discuss over drinks.”

“We won’t say no to that,” Siljarn agreed with a smile.

Janis paused. “These are my companions …” she quickly introduced them, then listened to the brief introductions from the others. Only a few people from each group actually approached and seemed ready to take part in the conversation. Although those who’d waited to greet her clearly weren’t everyone in their companies, either.

As promised, they indulged in the provided food and drink — it had been expensive to get that here, but money wasn’t exactly a problem at the moment — and Janis asked a few questions about their companies. There were actually four of them represented here, although the two men who’d taken the lead commanded the larger ones, while the others were smaller.

“We will also be looking for unaffiliated fighters,” she explained. “Adventurers, mercenaries at loose ends, or just people with fighting ability who are looking for a change. I’m hoping for your help to train and manage them, too, if necessary. Rest assured you’ll be compensated for it. Beyond that, of course, we have some specific ideas. You will likely be split up as well. Sometimes the goal will be not to fight, but to get the enemy to back down. I realize you’ll have less loot and plunder in my employ than you may usually aim for, but instead, you will get generous and regular payments, as well as bounties and bonuses for particular accomplishments.”

Janis could tell that had caught their attention, and the noise level swelled for a moment as they discussed what she’d said. She should have known money talk would be important to them.

“It’s not that we want to question your word or your mother’s coffers, Princess Janis,” Gedalpo (‘call me Terrace’) spoke up. “But in our line of business, it is only prudent to ask for some proof up-front. To ensure there are no misunderstandings, you see. Especially for new clients.”

“I understand,” Janis assured him. “Allow me to remove any doubts regarding our ability to pay up. Tem, if you would?”

Several of the attending soldiers brought in two chests. With a dramatic flourish, Janis nudged them closer, then threw open the lids and allowed the gathered people to look into them. Their ooh’ing and aah’ing in response was satisfying.

The chests glittered with gold. Some of it was in Imperial coinage, but a lot was not, simply pressed in featureless disks or bars. There were also precious stones, a good mix of several types. She had even included some silver to be thorough.

“As you can see, wealth is not an obstacle for the Empire,” Janis told them. “There is more where that came from. A lot more.” She had Conjured some of it herself, and she could easily add more to it if she wanted.

They crowded around to look at it, and after asking permission, the two leaders started going through the chest, revealing more of the gold that had been hidden from view at the bottom. Janis smiled slightly.

“I’m starting to think I should ask to get more money,” Lianne muttered.

“You could,” Janis replied, amused.

It wasn’t like they couldn’t afford to pay her a higher salary (or stipend, or allowance, or expenses? She wasn’t sure). Though admittedly, they were more careful about this sort of thing when it impacted the Empire itself rather than south of the mountains.

“You don’t throw money around like this up north, though,” Zephyr noted.

Janis stopped smiling. “Perhaps the situation is judged more delicate up north,” she said quietly. “And, well, if we should happen to cause a little bit of inflation down here … it wouldn’t exactly hinder our goals to put a little bit of extra pressure on the city states.”

Of course it would probably hurt innocent people who were just trying to live their lives if that happened. But they couldn’t afford to ignore economic aspects. And the economy here was still largely agricultural. Most people wouldn’t really be too affected anyway. Especially since even lavish payments to the mercenaries wouldn’t really cause that much of a potential devaluation of gold in the long term, in any case. Especially if it was mostly gold; they didn’t exactly use fiat currencies here. Not that Janis was an expert.

Gold was the one thing they had and could easily spend down here, in contrast to sending more troops, which were sorely needed elsewhere. It would make it harder to directly control any territory down here, but that wasn’t exactly their primary purpose, anyway.

She waited for a little bit until the mercenary leaders had satisfied themselves that the gold she offered was genuine.

“Looks like you really want our services,” Siljarn said as he turned away and walked towards her. “In this case, we will be happy to swear our swords to your cause, Princess Janis.”

“Indeed,” Terrace added, smiling as he joined him. “How long are you intending this contract to last? And who, exactly, would we be fighting? Not that I’m not up for challenging any of the cities here, but I want to know who we will be sending home crying to their mothers!” He laughed.

Janis smiled politely. “There are indeed quite a few details to work out. Put briefly, we will engage you for three months, for now, and likely extend the contract further. I suggest two-month units with either party able to cancel it if they give notice a month in advance.” She paused. “We will also be open to renegotiating, especially if you do well. If you get any offers from our enemies, I ask that you bring them to us first and allow me to match what they offer. We will of course investigate to make sure anything like that is genuine. For now, we should discuss your salary for the first three months …”

“Sounds good,” Terrace said brightly. “How about one of these chests each month for every company?”

Janis laughed. “Surely you’re joking.”

They settled in to haggle, which the mercenaries were clearly used to. Janis didn’t bother to drive too hard of a bargain, even if she tried to keep things vaguely reasonable. She didn’t really care about the exact figure they arrived at too much, but she couldn’t exactly come off as a pushover, either. Or let them know it was all Conjured and she could easily get even more. That felt like it would be too much temptation.

She was perfectly fine with letting on that the Empire was filthy rich, of course.

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