Page 17 of Serpents of the Night

Kehtal grinned at her. “Those are in easy supply throughout the cave system, you may not enjoy their appearance too much if you were to see them fresh, however.”

Lori frowned at him. “Why not?”

“They are not herbs like those you humans grow,” Daskh interrupted with a soft chuff of laughter. “They are more... fungal I believe the word is.”

Kehtal’s grin widened as he snapped his gavo merrily in agreement. “The most popular ones grow in long, luminous strings that are coated with a viscous fluid that they seep to attract prey.”

Her nose wrinkled. Though she knew logically it shouldn’t matter, the idea of rubbing the digestive juices of a carnivorous plant on her skin was pretty disgusting. “And you rub it on your skin?”

“Drink it in our tea as well,” her cheeky mate chirped. “You have enjoyed it many times, ashlava.”

She paled, her stomach turning. She drank it? She mentally began going over the teas that she had shared with her mates. Which one was it?

“Cease teasing our mate,” Slengral ordered with a rumble of laughter. He glanced sidelong down at her and smiled. “They are speaking specifically of lapet and gashi. They are collected and dried into a very fine powder which is mixed together. You will not be exposed to the raw form unless you are collecting the plants yourself. The tea powder is very enjoyable for Seshanamitesh and for humans alike, it seems, based on your own preference for it. It is sweet and refreshing. I believe you compared it to the mint you humans grow.”

“Oh,” Lori replied, somewhat mollified. That wasn’t too bad, she supposed. “So, you mix this with the berry juice to moisturize the skin—or scales, rather, in your case?”

His gavo snapped lightly, but he hesitated. “The males are often given permission to use the remaining juice after he finished applying it to his mate, but as precious as it is no male is permitted by his mate to use more than that except in extreme cases of illness. Or a generous female may gift her male with some out of affection. Males, especially those of the upper cavern who have no access to the berries at all, generally make do with bathing our scales with cooling tea.”

The corners of his mouth tightened in a grimace and Kehtal sighed in agreement as he cast a mournful look at his scales. “And that we do not have free access to any longer since we are not permitted to go into the growing caverns since we have abandoned the shinara.”

Lori peered down at his scales, and then those of Slengral at her other side. She hadn’t noticed before, but now that he mentioned it, their scales had lost quite a bit of the glossy shine that they always had within the caverns.

“Do you think your mother would be open to trade with the colony for access to the plants? If nothing else the cooling herbs should be helpful for all of us.”

Slengral glanced over at her, a doubtful look crossing his face as the feathery leather skin of his ears flicked uncertainly. “I do not know. She might have considered at one time, but I am not sure if she would listen to anything to do with the colony while I am in argument with her.”

The implication was obvious. Slengral was the bargaining chip now. There would be no negotiations that Queen Zathexa was bound to accept that didn’t deliver Slengral over to her. Anything that Lori wanted for the colony, Zathexa was certain to demand it as a show of peace and cooperation between Raza and the Aglatha shinara—and that was one cost that she wasn’t about to pay. Fortunately, the cooling herbs were unheard of in the colony, and it often didn’t occur to the Seshanamitesh to speak of things from the shinara unless they were asked about them directly. Not for any malicious reason, but because what little the males had available was such common knowledge among them that she was beginning to suspect that it simply didn’t occur to them that it was information worth sharing unless it came up in conversation.

Of course, if it had been anyone else from the colony there with them, they would have thrown Slengral to the wolves the moment they caught wind of it. Even Eddie. Oh, he would have hated to do it, but he would have weighed the non-lethal inconvenience and heartbreak of one mated family against the welfare of many and considered it necessary for the good of the colony. There were many who saw her refusal to even consider bargaining with her mate for trade goods as the height of selfishness.

She didn’t care if it was selfish or not, she wasn’t sacrificing even one of her mates. There had to be another way, and she wasn’t going to give up until she found it. She brushed a sweaty strand of hair from her forehead as her eyes followed a curious looking large, winged gecko. It was a strange combination of pretty and bizarre. Its sand-red back contrasted vividly with its brilliant fuchsia belly and markings were dotted with golden, sparkling patches among its scales that vividly matched their oversized golden wings. They reminded her of those of a dragonfly with their perfect oblong tear-drop shape boasting delicate, gold veins webbing through the translucent wings. The bizarre, however, came from the numerous insectoid-like appendages that sprouted from their spine directly beneath the wings in addition to their six reptilian legs. The appendages were like a dozen thin legs that trailed after them as they flew or explored their environment when they hovered in place. Although larger, tame specimens seemed to hover around handlers that offered them sweet treats, there were dozens of tiny ones that seemed to dance around the lights like moths. The latter were not only a quarter the size of the former but were also duller in color, making her suspect that the brightly colored ones were domesticated and bred for their color and size.

Kehtal’s head craned as he followed her gaze, and he trilled happily in his throat. “Ah. Voosheth. The larger are domesticated beasts that are descendants of those our ancestors had above ground before we retreated into the caverns. To my understanding, they only live wild in the mountains now. The small voosheth are the only ones natural in the caverns. It appears that some breeders have brought their pups.”

“Pups?” Hashal squeaked excitedly from beneath Daskh’s wings, and Lori smothered a smile as his little head popped up over her big mate’s shoulder to blink in wonder at the harnessed voosheth being displayed.

“Not now,” Daskh rumbled, amusement heavy in his voice as his wing dragged over their hatchling and dragged him back down into the safety beneath his wings, but not without a small squeaky huff of disappointment.

Lori chuckled quietly to herself, not at all blaming her little son. A pet wasn’t something she’d even imagined possible on Seshana.

“We will talk about it later, Hashal,” she assured the hatchling. “We just have too much to sort out right now to give much consideration to a voosheth.”

Hashal trilled softly, though invisibly, from beneath Daskh’s wings, communicating his agreement. Her mate gave her a pleased smile, having a well-known soft spot for their hatchling, but Kehtal stared over at her in shock.

“A male with a voosheth? I do not think I have heard of more than one or two males who have ever had one. One was gifted a kapan of the litter by the female who took him from the haga to be her mate, and another found an injured one that he raised in the upper caverns. Voosheth are often companions for females in the shinara.” He laughed uneasily.

Slengral hummed his own soft agreement. “My sister had one,” he replied absently as he continued to peer at the surrounding shops. “It was gray with purple markings from what I recall. It was quite loyal to her and a good companion. I see nothing wrong with getting a voosheth for Hashal.”

“I agree,” Daskh murmured, his eyes briefly studying the fluttering of the voosheth before turning to inspect their surroundings. “Hashal could use more to keep him occupied. It is certainly worth more discussion later.”

Kehtal glanced at her other two mates and laughed uneasily. “If our plan is to change precedent then it is a good thing that we are returning to the colony.”

“It’s definitely not something to consider until we are ready to return home,” Lori agreed, her heart warming at her mates’ immediate support.

Certain things were obviously deeply ingrained within their culture, and she would never intentionally trod all over anything they considered important, but the fact that they were open to considering and discussing things made her appreciate them even more. It was a consistent reminder that she had made the right decision and that they would always be able to find a middle ground because they were all willing to discuss everything as a family. Although there were many things that she had to adjust to as well being mated to three Seshanamitesh, especially in terms of their territoriality when it came to other males that required considerable compromise, she never felt as if anyone in their family had no voice in the decisions that they made together.

Propping her hands on her hips she spun around slowly. “So where do you suppose this place is?”

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