The Gu's eerie eyes passed across body after body, lingering, sorting, the white wings trembling, the hall holding its breath. Across the kneeling Swords. Across the shrouded personages. And then they locked, all of them at once, onto a single figure. A burly, muscular woman near the throne, powerful and broad, a long fish-like tail coiled beneath her where legs should have been.
The Gu Archaeognatha cried out!
WUUUU!
It was a horrific sound for so small a thing, a high grinding shriek that scraped at the ear and did not stop, a noise of pure accusation, and every eye in the hall snapped to the fish-tailed woman.
She played it off at once, drawing herself up, her broad face creasing in defiance.
"This is preposterous!" she bellowed. "I serve THE Source! I serve her Majesty! I have served for ages! I have bled for THE Swords! I..."
She did not get to finish.
