The velvet centipede slithered into viewâeach segment rippling like dark armor, legs clicking like skeletal drums. Its voice was a hiss and a growl.
âYou wear royal scent, little ant⌠but you have no crown.â
Cinder-ant didnât flinch. âI wear the scent of duty. And thatâs heavier than any crown.â
With a shriek, the centipede lunged. Thorn-mandible threw herself in its path, deflecting its strike with a shard of beetle shell. Cinder-ant circled, darting under the beast’s body.
âNow!â he cried.
Berry-leg launched a moss-spore bomb. It exploded in a green cloud, blinding the predator.
Cinder-ant leaptâdriving his thorn dagger deep into its neck.
The centipede shrieked and fled into the shadows.
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