...fight!

<No. Let us continue.> Lur’vess adjusted her helmet, which had twisted slightly around, and gave Teysa a nod of acknowledgment. A livid bruise was beginning to flower across one temple.

They circled each other, both wary now. Lur’vess still leaned forward aggressively, but she seemed content to wait for an opportune moment to make the first move. Teysa sensed an opening.

<Lur’vess, I have tried to talk to your fellow sisters, but they are… difficult to reach.>

Lur’vess stared at her as she paced. She was as silent as her sisters had been, but there was something different about the cast of her face. Something different behind her glossy black eyes. The others had been silent because they had nothing to say. Lur’vess seemed as though she was silent because she was struggling to find the words.

<It is different for us,> she said at last. <We are not stupid, Teysa. None of us are.> She lunged forward, but Teysa was already moving her spear to block. It was a feint, though—Lur’vess swung around, slashing her leaf-bladed spear at Teysa’s arm. The impact rang against her vambrace and she almost dropped her own spear. Her grip on it loosened, and she had to scuttled backwards to avoid the next swipe.

<I did not say you were,> Teysa replied. Lur’vess ignored her and advanced, still swinging. Teysa needed just a second to adjust her grip and regain her focus, but Lur’vess was denying her that second.

<We are not ants, either,> Lur’vess said. She spoke in an emotionless monotone even as she attacked. <An ant colony is one thing, yes? One creature. It has many bodies, but they are all one living thing. Some think that of us. The Matron is the warren, the warren is the Matron. But it is not so.>

Teysa caught one blow on her pauldron, the next on her spear shaft. But she had misjudged. She thought Lur’vess was conserving her momentum, but each slash of the spearhead had tremendous **** behind it. The first impact shivered Teysa’s spear shaft and numbed her fingers. The second sent the spear spinning out of her grip. It landed in the sand two meters away with a dull thump.

Lur’vess did not pause for an instant. She swung again, and this time Teysa grabbed the spear’s haft with both hands, just a foot behind the head. She stepped forward before Lur’vess could wrench it out of her grip and tugged. The spear dropped to her side and hung there. The driders stared at each other from less than a foot away, frozen in a tableau, both gripping the same spear and neither willing to let it go.

<The Matron says we must be a society,> Lur’vess said. <Some of us care for her eggs, some of us feed the others, some of us build the home, and some of us protect. But for the protectors, it is easier to… to be ants. To be extensions of the Matron’s will. Even after she told us not to. Everyone lives for the warren, but only we are expected to die for it. That is easier for us if we are like ants. Nothing of value is lost when we die.>

Teysa listened, spellbound. This was the most she had heard any guard drider speak at one time before. She stood in silence, holding her breath, unwilling to speak in case she broke the spell. Lur’vess gave a mighty tug and wrenched the spear out of Teysa’s grip. She swung it around, but checked her blow. The blade, razor-edged and gleaming in the dim mosslight, hovered a few inches from Teysa’s throat.

<That is one to me, then.> Lur’vess’s voice was still a monotone, but she sounded somewhat satisfied with herself. <Again?>