Page 39 of Serpents of the Night

The entire time, she was uncomfortably aware of Payeri’s flat stare as the female watched her without any expression that Lori was familiar with. She gave Payeri another nervous smile in another attempt to break the ice, but the female didn’t so much as twitch in reaction. She was simply waiting in complete, unnerving silence for Lori to make a decision.

Settling on a direction that looked good, Lori pointed ahead and grinned sheepishly at Payeri over her shoulder. “This way, I think.”

The female cocked her head. “You think,” she echoed in a flat voice but her ears feathered and expanded before slandering back out again in a delicate shrug. “Lead the way, human maiden.”

The ironic inflection with which Payeri called her a maiden wasn’t lost upon Lori. She had the distinct feeling that she was being laughed at. Perhaps it was a little ridiculous for a grown, mated woman to be doing an exercise meant for young Seshanamitesh females, but she couldn’t help but to feel like it was just silly amusement but a hint of scorn behind that single word.

Whatever. She wasn’t going to let it bother her. It was clear that they weren’t going to turn into best friends on this trek across the desert. She’d pretty much expected that, anyway. She’d hoped for something marginally companionable, but that turned out to be hoping for too much as well, it seemed.

“Let’s go,” Lori sighed and set out across the sand, her feet sliding in areas where it was less packed than in others, kicking up and scattering the fine sand even as she became uncomfortable aware of the small dust cloud she was creating.

Payeri wrinkled her nose at it but kept several lengths of distance between them as she followed behind, her wings folded gracefully behind her back. Every so often, she extended a long wing over her head to give her some relief from the late sun as it sank. Lori was frankly a little jealous of that move, but she said nothing and barely glanced in the Seshanamitesh’s direction as she plodded forward, her thighs burning as the weight of the sand pulled at her feet even as the hot sand baked everything from the ankle down whenever it slid over the top of her feet or pooled over her ankles and heels.

It was hell, and one that barely seemed to let up when the primary sun finally sank behind the mountains. Nighttime out in the desert was just an entirely different kind of hell. Unlike the unending silence that followed them like a specter of death during the remaining daylight hours, the night burst with life as the night-blooming flowers opened, and insects, including what had to be barlisks, hummed as wildlife skittered over the sand. She didn’t see most of the latter, and she wasn’t complaining even if it was unnerving and caught her by surprise more than once when a sound rose abruptly nearby her, but there was a significant part of her that insisted that she was better of not knowing what extended beyond the limit of the crystal lantern she liberated from her pack.

At least Jathella had been kind enough to make sure she had it. She was almost certain with the way Payeri’s mouth pinched as she regarded it, that the female would have been content to watch her fumble blindly in the dark.

No doubt it would have been a hilarious story to be shared around the shinara.

Lori shook her head at the dismal direction of her thoughts. She was starting to become as suspicious as Slengral. She wondered how he was doing. Was Daskh awake yet? Kehtal was no doubt fussing with everything, his wings rattling anxiously with the way he tended to worry. She licked her lips wincing at the sting of her saliva against the dry skin. Halfway into the night and they felt painfully dry. They hadn’t started to crack yet, but it wouldn’t take long. Even the water pellets weren’t doing much for her even if the nutritional paste was keeping her stomach reasonably full, even if it was still as disgusting as she remembered. She had tried to offer some to Payeri in an attempt to share her resources, but the female had looked at disdainfully and quietly refused it. She didn’t bother to approach at all, actually, unless it was to sing to the crystal to recharge it periodically.

Glancing down at the crystal growing in the heart of her lamp, Lori frowned at it. Was it starting to look weaker already? She could have sworn that it hadn’t been that long since Payeri charged it.

Something shrieked just ahead, startling Lori from her thoughts. She stumbled to a halt and warily lifted the lamp in front of her, the weak light illuminating the sand just a short distance ahead. Whatever it was, it sounded close.

Payeri hissed with laughter from behind her. “Do not tell me you are afraid already? And of something so tiny as a voosheth.”

A voosheth? That was a Voosheth? Lori blinked in surprise, and some of the tension bled from her as something hummed past her on large insectoid wings. She instinctively ducked and lifted her lamp higher, catching only a glimmer of brilliant colors before it disappeared. Swallowing thickly, she straightened and glanced back at her companion.

“That was a pretty big voosheth,” she pointed out.

The female fanned her ears dismissively. “What do you expect when we are so close to the mountains? We have smaller species in the cave whereas these are from the Vehal. Be glad that you will see little that comes from there.”

Lori nodded mutely as she struck out once mor across the sand. If everything was bigger in the mountains, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to encounter any other wildlife, though she understood that a lot of the meat Kehtal and Daskh had fetched recently had been due to herd animals coming down from the mountains for the wet season. Good eating or not, from what she recalled the gashthans were pretty large creatures as well. All the more reason to make as much distance as possible before daybreak. Where there was large prey, large predators were likely to abound.

Despite the heat, Lori shivered but immediately gritted her teeth in annoyance. She absolutely would not freak herself out. All the same, she couldn’t help but jump just a little at every sound that followed her through the night. Every shift of sand sounded sinister as if something were stalking her.

Being dumped on the surface was looking less merciful by the minute.

Chapter 33

Daskh’s wing twitched once, twice, three times. A heavy groan tore from his chest as he shifted, the bulk of his body moving lethargically. The hissed conversation around him slowly penetrated his mind as he heaved himself up on his arms, his head lolling for a moment before turning as his gaze shifted to the two males arguing a short distance away as young Hashan watched them anxiously. Daskh’s arms shook with relief. After the nightmares that had plagued him, it was good to see that his nest brothers were there and well, but where was their mate? Where was Lori? He could not scent even a trace of her pheromones nearby.

He shot upright, however, as their words finally penetrated through the mental fog that was slowly dissipating. “Trial? What is this about the maiden trial?” he snapped, but not quite as impressively as he would have liked as his voice croaked in a broken rasp.

Kehtal’s gaze shot to him in surprise, the look of worry clinging to him briefly erupting to happiness. He snapped his wings as he shot forward, speeding toward Daskh as he abandoned a frustrated Slengral at the entrance of their sleeping chamber.

“You are awake!”

Daskh grunted as the male’s smaller body collided against him but thumped a wing around Kehtal in a brief embrace before releasing him.

“I am well,” he assured his nest brother, but his gaze lifted warily to Slengral, “but what is this discussion regarding a maiden trial and what does this have to do with our nest?”

Slengral’s gavo flattened and he proceeded to explain in sharp, bit off words that made Daskh increasingly alarmed with each one uttered.

“What? Why have you not gone after her?” he demanded in alarm as he came out of their bed, his gavo and wings snapping and vibrating anxiously.

His nest brother scoffed disdainfully and gestured toward the entrance of their nest. “You think I have not tried? I was to leave here at the end of that first night when the guard would typically be relaxed following the return of the escorts, but there are eyes upon our nest at all times. I have gotten no further than the shinara walls before I am intercepted and commanded to return to the nest. I have even reached out to Raza, but Eddie is unable to track her since her comm shows that she is still within the shinara.”

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