Page 96 of I Married A Syllen

“They ruined their own samples. There’s no threat here. These plants might as well be grass,” I said with a shrug before walking out of the room.

Anger still burned in my gut that those off-worlders had been ready to wipe out two peaceful species and destroy an entire ecosystem over their failure to keep plants alive and harness their powers. Anyone who knew Orian well knew she was contemplating a fitting punishment for the people of Procrea.

I was torn as not every department was involved in the torture they’d subjected the Mothers to. While their actions had been cruel, I doubted humans understood how sentient Kandra trees were. Unlike the Great Mothers who had sheltered us during the Long Sleep, the Kandra trees didn’t have defense mechanisms. They relied on the Kalrins and queens that they housed for protection.

As for the people working on the Danatus plant as a weapon, I didn’t know if they were aware of the extreme measures being taken to supply them with those plants. Had Ludwig made the decision on his own, or had they helped him come with the plan?

But they knew to wipe out the Kalrins to ensure the plants would grow naturally…

They had devoted enough time studying this not only to find the link between the Kalrins and the ferruginous soil but also creating something edible specifically targeting them for sterilization. Kalrin workers had a rather short lifespan of a little under two years. Most of the ones we currently had were over a year old when they finally joined us in the Long Sleep. It would still take quite a few months for the last one to die. However, their rapidly dwindling numbers due to lack of replacement would soon become highly detrimental.

So how many were involved?

Maeve opening the last secured room shattered any such musings. The sight that greeted us felt like a searing blade repeatedly stabbing me in the heart.

“Oh, God! No!” Mirella whispered before covering her mouth with both hands.

“Fucking bastards!” Maeve muttered.

But the savage roar that erupted from Orian buried everything else. I didn’t realize a feral growl was steadily vibrating through my throat until I leaned over the queen strapped on top of an oversized tray on a workstation. Her eyes were glassy, her breathing labored, and her normally bronze skin had taken the unnatural hue of bleached bones.

“What have they done to you, little sister?” I said, my voice breaking with sorrow as I caressed her face.

The piteous cry she emitted shattered my heart. I removed the straps restraining her, my task made harder by the tears of sorrow and rage that blurred my vision.

Orian and my fellow Syllens were freeing the other two queens and three Kalrins held inside glass cages. Big jars contained the bodies or organs of a few of their dead sisters floating in a clear liquid. Another queen had multiple tubes connected to her with fluids either going in or out of her body. I couldn’t tell, nor did it matter.

“Why would they do this? How could they do this?” I whispered to myself as I picked up the queen.

She desperately tried to cling to me, but she was too weak to hang on. I cradled her in my arms, and she buried her face in my neck. They’d cut off her beautiful wings, leaving two bulging scars on her back. I’d never felt so helpless as she whimpered in-between whistling breaths. I pressed her chest to mine and emitted a low-level ultrasonic pulse at the right frequency to numb without knocking her unconscious. It wouldn’t take away her pain but would dull it a bit.

She weakly lifted her head to look at me. I kissed her forehead, then slowly brushed my leinis against the sides of her face. The gentle caress of my head tentacles stirred her veris awake, and they timidly connected with mine.

My stomach roiled at the sickly feel of her. I released a few of my enzymes into her to help clear out some of the toxins in her system and to ease her breathing. It wouldn’t do much as she was beyond recovery, but it was better than nothing. I just had to make sure not to allow her to share any fluid with me. Then again, I didn’t perceive anything that could be directly harmful to me. She was sick because her organs were failing.

“Who did this to you?” I asked softly.

An avalanche of nightmarish images rushed through our connection. Each one fanned the seething fury ready to erupt. Every torture, every experiment, every face of those involved was seared in my brain. When the dreadful flow ended, the queen shared a still image of the orchard she used to call home and of her Kalrin daughters asleep in their Kandra trees.

“Your daughters are safe. They’re awake,” I whispered while sharing images of her children flying around the village, eating weeds, and secreting melia nuts.

That appeased her. She looked at me with an innocence and trust that wrecked me. Her little hand reached for my face and gently patted my cheek. At the same time she dropped her hand, the queen detached from me, her veris hanging limply as if holding that connection had drained what energy she had left.

“They will pay,” I vowed while gently caressing her back. “Sleep now, little sister. The Goddess awaits you.”

She rested her head on my shoulder. I hummed a soothing song that would further numb her senses before I emitted two stronger ultrasonic pulses back-to-back. The first one knocked her unconscious. The second one stopped her heart. I tightly hugged her limp body, my cheek on top of her head while I gave in to the grief tearing me apart.

How could anyone do this? What kind of monsters would inflict this type of pain and trauma on another living creature? Animals experienced the same emotions we did, from fear, to pain, and love. Why harm such pure and innocent beings over weapons? Even if cancer treatment had been one of their other goals, why pursue it through senseless torture? Better health for one group didn’t justify the abuse of another.

I lifted my head to glance around the room. Orian, our three Syllen companions, and Mirella were each holding the other two queens and Kalrins who had also been mercifully killed. The same fury I felt shone brightly on every face. Even Mirella had murder in her eyes, while her cheeks glistened from the tears she’d shed.

“You have five minutes to get your people out of this building,” I told Maeve in an icy tone.

“Five minutes?! But I—”

“I SAID FIVE!” I shouted, making her recoil. “After that, their deaths will be on you.”

Without waiting for her response, we marched out of the room. We entered the elevator—which thankfully didn’t require a security bypass to go back to the ground floor. Maeve was speaking to the air, giving evacuation orders. It was only when she pressed her ear after concluding the conversation that I realized she was talking in the hidden microphone of her hearing device. Not that I cared about that either.