chapter thirty eight: the wolf in sheep's clothing

Myriam turned away from her conversation with Janeway and sighed. Now there was danger in the Daer-on-Naiad.

Seven glanced at the holoprojector. "The Empress knows where our tactical center is. Her attack pattern has changed."

"So it would seem," said Myriam softly. She entered another set of instructions into her console, redirecting the movement of troops and the ships above. Voyager was not showing on the scope—she tried not to think of that too much. There were more things to focus on than that. Important things. Difficult things.

"I wonder why," said Myriam softly, "in all the time that Nayrn's spy was here with us, she never thought to attack the Daer-On-Naiad?"

"Perhaps she didn't want to put herself in danger," suggested Josh.

"Unlikely," said Seven. "If she were truly a defector, then she would have nothing to fear from a Maldorian attack."

"Well, maybe she doesn't want to see the daer destroyed, or maybe she—" Josh continued.

Myriam cut his explainations off with a wave of her hand. "Or maybe she had something else at stake."

"I don't understand." The boy looked confused.

"Maybe she had something to gain by telling secrets to the Empress. Maybe there was something she wanted."

"If it was a she," Seven added darkly, glancing at the boy.

Josh continued. "You mean… Janae? That's what everyone was saying…"

There were shouts from outside. Myriam glanced towards her projector screen; Maldorian fighters were on their way towards them. The ground was shaking; their shields were being compromised. Myriam had set up those shields countless years ago, to prevent the Eminence from detecting them. Now they were failing, and she hadn't enough strength to sustain them and fight the battle at the same time.

"We have to stop them," said Josh. "You can stop them, can't you?"

"Stop them?" Myriam laughed. "No, this part of the battle is over. If we fall, we shall fall; and the rest of the galaxy shall turn without us. Perhaps it will be better, for the spy is here with us, and we should perish together."

"Here, yes," said Loess. "It was something that should have been seen a long time ago."

Seven tilted her head. "We have failed."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Josh. "Who—"

"Maybe you should tell us," said Myriam quietly. "Bryanna?"

The child remained silently seated in her corner. She hadn't spoken since the conversation had begun, and was now staring fixedly at the battle display. The cavernous hall was silent save for the distant rumblings of war.

There was a long, long pause.

"Well?" asked Myriam softly.

The rumbling grew insistently louder.

The child hesistated, then looked at her mother, eyes shining. "I had no choice."

"Really." Myriam sounded more disappointed than angry.

Josh turned to look at the girl in the corner. "It was you?"

Bryanna looked at him. "I'm sorry."

"I don't believe it! I can't be you! What—"

"It is me. I'm sorry." Bryanna's voice was high-pitched, tremulous.

He couldn't believe it. "Why? Why betray us? What has she ever done for you, huh? She killed your mate, she killed our people and yet you went to her, told her everything—" The child's voice rose to a shriek.

"She was going to find out about Calista!" screamed the girl as she jumped to her feet. She threw herself at her mother's feet, sobbing. "Anyone else would have told her—anyone else but me! I had to make sure nobody ever found out! Nobody!"

Myriam hauled the girl to her feet by the straps of her dress. "And did it ever occur to you that nobody would have gone to the Empress at all? Did it ever?" Her voice was low, dangerous.

Bryanna stared at her mother with unwavering, moist eyes. She sucked in a breath. "Someone was going to, sooner or later. They hear a lot of things around the daer. The men… some of them didn't want things to change. They didn't want their life to change; they didn't want to learn magic—"

"Who are they, Bryanna? Who are they?"

Tears spilled from the child's red-rimmed eyes as she sucked in another breath. "The… other children. The ones who've passed beyond."

Myriam released the child. "Ghosts, Bryanna?"

The girl nodded, looking at the floor.

"There's no such thing as ghosts."

Bryanna looked up. "Yes there are, I've seen them with my own eyes!" She turned and glanced at the rest of the room. "No-one else can see them! Only I can!"

"No, Bryanna… you must be mistaken. When we pass beyond, we truly leave this world behind." She put her hand on the child's shoulder.  "It has been proven."

Bryanna shook Myriam's hand off her shoulder. "No! I know what I've seen."

"It was a trick, Bryanna… somehow she must have tapped into your mind, tricked you into believing her…"

"No," said Josh, "that doesn't make any sense. If the Empress could see into her mind, then she could have seen anything she wanted to."

"No," said Myriam, "There are some barriers that even the most powerful of all Mage cannot overcome by themselves." She gazed steadily at Bryanna. "Love is one of them."

Bryanna tore from her mother's grip. "You don't love me! You don't care about me!" She shrieked. "Only Calista did, and I didn't want her to get hurt!" So saying she ran out of the war room.

Myriam stared after her. "I was so focused on the our struggle… Never did I realize how much she was suffering," she said softly.

Loess put her hand on her arm. "Time enough for later. The battle."

Myriam glanced at the battle simulation. "We must stop them." The roar of approaching fighters was growing thunderous now; the war room was visibly shaking.

Then outside came the high pitched cry: "Stop it, you're killing us, you're killing us!!"

Myriam looked alarmed. "Bryanna!" She glanced towards Loess for confirmation. "We cannot allow her to take her own life—"

Loess looked terribly old and ancient. "We cannot turn her from the path she has taken. Nayrn has been manipulating her for years. Perhaps this is the only way that she can repent for all that she has done."

Myriam blanched. "She is my youngest—"

"And the most willful and wayward," said Loess. She put her hand on Myriam's. "We all make our own sacrifices."

Seven, ever monitoring their battle status, reported, "The fighters will intercept us in forty seconds. The troops await your commands."

Myriam stared flintily at her head Seer. "Have I not made enough sacrifices for our cause? And now you would ask me to let my own child die? You, who have never been a mother, would dare to presume such a request?" She moved towards the door rapidly. "I will not allow that." She pushed the bronze doors open, and the roar of the approaching fighters shook the room. She glanced upwards and shouted. "Bryanna!"

In the distance there was a faint scream of a child, and then the entire shielding surrounding the Daer-On-Naiad turned fiery red, surging with energy. The sky had caught fire; it was burning. Myriam sank to her knees. She had been too late.

Loess glided across the room and pulled her to her feet. "Janeway has entered Licknok Moor," she said.

Myriam turned back and glanced at Seven, her face frozen, eyes expressionless. "The fighters?"

"Destroyed." The ex-Borg kept her tone neutral and emotionless, but it was a struggle. She paused for a moment, looking down at her console, then glanced back at Myriam, and now her large blue eye was shining. "It was… a noble sacrifice. The Empress should no longer suspect that we exist. She cannot detect our remodulated shields. Her fighters were taken in what seemed to be a massive explosion. Her spy is … no longer transmitting." The last few words were nearly caught in her throat. "It was noble," she repeated finally.

Framed against the doorway, the tempest howling outside, Myriam looked suddenly brittle and fragile. "Perhaps it was," she said softly, her voice devoid of its power and command. She glanced once at Josh, too traumatized to speak, and then repeated in a near-whisper, "Perhaps it was."