Page 19 of Serpents of the Night

“I’m afraid so,” Lori replied. “But the pay off of being small and soft-skinned means I have three mates who are eager to keep me happy.”

Nashee blinked at her and brought her hand up to muffle a laugh. “So I see. I suppose with that in consideration, your males will all be wishing to make you happy with the waga berries. I will take that into calculation. How many days supply do you wish to start with?”

Lori glanced over at him curiously, her brows lifting. How many days? He had assumed that they would simply be given a packaged supply as they did in the human colony. His gaze shot to his nest brothers helplessly. He did not wish to cheat his mate out of luxury by underestimating but nor did he wish to even speak of a number of days that would make his insides wither like a dantha caught in a snare.

“Five days,” Daskh supplied, saving him. “We are not staying in the shinara long, but if we need more, we will return. And add cooling herbs to our order.”

“And bathing herbs,” Kehtal added, his eyes sweeping over the shop. “I think I see some over there. Let us find some pleasing scents for our mate.”

Nashee inclined her head and picked up a small leather bag before moving on to a large woven basket in the back corner. Slengral’s eyes slid shut in a silent prayer to Shangla that five days was all that they would need.

Chapter 15

Lori watched curiously as Nashee filled the bags with various powders. As Slengral had said, the cooling herbs looked nothing like how the live plants were described but instead were a chalky looking powder that not only clung to the sides of the stone containers they were kept in but shimmered beautifully wherever the light hit it. The powder was surprisingly fine and iridescent.

She never would have thought that to be the case with herbs that the Seshanamitesh both consumed and applied externally. They were also all surprisingly vibrant pastels in green, pink and yellow. They were so pretty that they really looked like something that would be better served to be mixed with a binder for artists to paint with if she were honest. She couldn’t even recall if the tea that Slengral had so frequently had her drink had possessed any kind of noticeable pigment or shimmer. Though perhaps they had, and she had not noticed due to the dim light. Although he worked hard to fill his nest with galthie flowers for her, it was never quite bright enough for her to really see anything that he gave her entirely clearly—and most especially if it needed a stronger light to be seen.

Lori’s eyes lifted to the walls where every spare bit of space was taken up with galthie and other luminous plants that she didn’t recognize, some of them possessing even brighter pigmentation and illumination. Where in the world did Nashee get all of them from? Not even the palace had so many plants and seemed to rely more on crystals like those that were in the street lanterns.

The Uralial glanced over at her and smiled cautiously. “How are you finding the shinara?”

Somewhat surprised that she was being addressed directly when the bulk of conversation had been between the proprietor and her mates, Lori’s gaze dropped to the female, and she stared blankly at her for a long moment as her brain caught up processing what was said.

“Oh. Well. It’s fine, I suppose.”

“But not welcoming, I imagine,” Nashee knowingly replied with a commiserating smile.

Lori grimaced. “No. Welcoming isn’t the world I would use. There were a couple who were kind enough while I was directly in their path, but I’m not so sure they would have gone out of their way if the situation was different. Instead, I would say there has been an interesting mix of hostility and suspicion.”

The Uralial inclined her head in agreement, her distinctly webbed gavo snapping lightly. A sigh escaped her though as if disappointed that she was right. “The Seshanamitesh are strange even to the Uralial, though we all took to the caverns during the great travesty while the Vehal fled up into the cooler reaches of the mountains. We are all so different now, especially with the broad range of sexually dimorphic traits between us all, that it is hard for some to remember that we are all from the same root stock. If they can be so callous towards their distant kin, I should be surprised that they would treat a species from the stars any differently. But... I had hoped. If anything could promote change, I had hoped that it would come from such a unique mating as yours.”

Lori shook her head, remembering at the last minute to dip her chin as Nashee watched her gesture curiously. With the chin dip, understanding lit the female’s eyes and Lori gave her a weak smile.

“I’m afraid that they would rather find reasons to invalidate our mating to give Slengral to someone else rather than have me for any length of time within the shinara. I am more tolerated for the sake that they can’t legally find a reason to get rid of me without losing him.”

“Slengral.” The Uralial drawled his name slowly, her brow dipping slightly as she puzzled over his name. “For some reason that name sounds like it should be familiar to me—as if I have heard it in passing.”

“You probably have at least heard it in passing if Seshanamitesh gossip half as much as humans do,” Lori replied wryly. “My mate is a son of the queen matriarch. And apparently, he is suddenly very desirable to the females around here.”

The scoop slipped from the female’s hands, clattering against the stone jar thunking softly into the powder. Lori’s gaze dropped to it as it seemed to partially bury itself in the glittery pale green powder simply by falling into it and her eyebrows raised. That was incredibly fine ground. No wonder she barely noticed the taste. It likely didn’t even carry much of a texture once it was added to water.

“Oh!” Nashee shook her head, drawing Lori’s gaze back to her as she hastily bent and plucked the scoop back up. Her gavo quivered nervously and she glanced over apologetically as Slengral hissed with displeasure and drew Lori back away from the jar. “That was clumsy of me. I did not mean to get lapet all over you. My apologies,” she murmured, gesturing haplessly at Lori’s clothes.

Lori glanced down at herself, lifting her arms away to get a better look, even as Kehtal and Daskh suddenly reappeared at her side. They pushed in close to get a better look at her despite their arms being filled with various packages. That wasn’t going to help her see anything. She frowned as she stepped back into the light. Although the powder had puffed up into the air at contact, she couldn’t be wearing much of it.

Her mouth dropped open as she stared down at her clothes. How? She wasn’t just lightly dusted with a light powder. Her tunic was coated in a shimmering layer of green so thick that the tan fabric wasn’t even visible wherever the powder touched it.

“Lapet is not too hard to get out,” Kehtal hastily assured her. His head cocked in consideration. “That is, if you wish to restore the color. Unless there is a setting agent applied, it won’t dye the fabric. Getting it off your skin may be a little harder.”

“What?” Lori held her hand out in front of her. She was green. She was a vivid, light emerald green.

“I am so sorry,” Nashee reiterated anxiously. “I will be happy to offer the lapet and waga berries free of charge for this embarrassing blunder. I will even give you extra waga berries as you are gestating from what I could smell when you were standing next to me. You will most certainly need extra.”

Lori waved her off, not blaming the other female, although she appreciated the generous offer even if some of it was a little confusing. Why would she need extra waga berries? One thing at a time though. She swallowed and peered over at her mates. “How much of me is green, exactly?”

Kehtal hesitated and looked over at Daskh, the other male grimacing as he realized that he was being saddled with telling her.

“It is not so much a matter of how much of you is green,” he said slowly. “It is more of a matter of how much of you is your original color.”

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