Page 11 of Serpents of the Night

His mother peered at her for a long moment but inclined her head in turn. “You may leave. Someone will be sent for you during the meal hour. I suggest that you be ready so that we are not left waiting for you.” Her eyes lifted to him. “The return of my son is worth celebrating.”

“For the time being,” Slengral countered, and his mother’s gavo flicked dismissively in acknowledgment.

“As you say... for now. Regardless, you shall be the guest of honor, Slengral, so remember that when you arrive for the feast.”

“I will,” he replied, a clicking growl grating at the back of his throat as he gently ushered his mate from the room while making every effort to appear that he was not doing exactly that.

His mate just gained a small foothold of respect; he would not compromise that promising start, even if he felt like he was about to crawl out of his own skin at having his mate surrounded on all sides by potential threats outside of their nest. Their assigned nest was a poor substitute. It was not theirs. It did not possess their mingled scents and he found that he missed the human technology that effectively shut everyone and everything else out that did not belong there. He had ignored it and found it inconvenient for many cycles of the moon, but now that it was absent, he discovered how much he appreciated and missed it.

“I will be pleased to return home as soon as possible,” Kehtal grumbled once they were back in their cave. He shifted several of the pillows and woven blankets in their nest, creating a small bed for Hashal with some of the excess bedding before drawing the nestling from beneath his wings and tucking him into it. Kehtal cast an unhappy look in the direction of the curtained off entrance. “I feel exposed.”

“As do I,” Slengral agreed with a growling hum of displeasure.

Daskh peered over at him as he helped Lori back into the nest. Their mate was already stripping off her coverings and yawned as she settled into the pillows. Daskh had been the first to insist that their mate return to her interrupted rest upon their arrival, and it seemed that he was right to do so. “Do you wish for me to guard the entrance?”

Slengral thought about it and dipped his chin in the negative. “I do not think anyone will try to do anything just yet. Right now, we are negotiating and should be safe enough. She will likely feel more secure among our coils anyway.” He regarded his nest brother worriedly. “You appear tired. The flight was long, especially carrying our mate. Rest with her for now while I see what has been provided for us.”

“I will help,” Kehtal offered, his wings snapping open as he lifted up from among the cushions. “It would be good to know what we need for our comfort, especially that of our mate, while we are here.”

Slengral inclined his head in agreement, his gavo snapping. Even though he was forced to be there to answer the absurd charges and fight his mother and the council for his freedom to be left in peace with his mate and nest brothers, he would make sure that his mate had every comfort possible. And if his mother believed supplying them with an ill-equipped nest would change anything, then she was going to be unpleasantly surprised.

Chapter 9

The nest was actually surprisingly lovely once Lori was fully rested and able to really look around. The walls were rounded and smooth, and the light of the galthie flowers strategically anchored in neat rows provided just the right amount of light. The stone itself had an almost transparent, luminous blue coloring in contrast to the raw black stone that made up the shinara.

It was also definitely very open in ways that would have made her concerned if it was located within a human settlement, but the vague and minimalist allusions to privacy didn’t bother her after living among Seshanamitesh. Although her mates were understandably uncomfortable, she knew that it was highly unlikely that they would have to deal with an intruder within the shinara. The females may not have the same territorial nature that the males possessed, but the sanctity of the nest was something that was clearly respected, given that no one even seemed to fly anywhere near the entrance to another’s nest, much less make a direct approach.

That didn’t stop her mates from taking turns vigilantly guarding the nest. When one of them wasn’t coiled in a hidden spot just inside the narrow entrance, they were attentively listening for any echoes from disturbances. It made her miss the casual peace offered by a locked door. She’d forgotten how cautious and tense day-to-day life was in the Aglatha cave system. That they were within the supposed safety of the shinara didn’t seem to matter to her mates as they were as alert and aware of the subtle changes in the nest as they had been in the upper caverns.

All in all, however, their provided quarters were comfortable, and they were left undisturbed as promised. Lori was somewhat surprised at the courtesy and trust being extended to them. If all they had to do was show up for the feast, then they could certainly manage that without incident—she hoped.

Lori glanced over at Slengral as she drew on a billowy, knee-length tunic over her leggings. Cut in a dressier fashion, the long sleeves were full and scalloped and the scooped neckline complimented her figure. Taking a long sash of deep purple fabric several shades darker than the lilac fabric of the tunic, she tied it just below her breasts, emphasizing the nestling growing within her womb just in case anyone had any intention of doubting her maternal state.

“Are you sure of the time we must return to the palace? I don’t want to be late.”

Slengral snapped his gavo in affirmation and drew a deep breath, his upper chest rising and expanding in a way that let her know that he was filling the long organ, his ethin, that, according to the medics, ran like a long band beneath his clavicle bones. Expanded with air, a hard, white ridge rose between the bones. Holding his breath for a moment, his gavo rose slightly before he expelled the air from his organ with a soft hiss. He inclined his head.

“You still have some time,” he assured her. “The feast does not start until the suns drop.”

She raised an eyebrow at him as she ran a comb through her hair. “I didn’t realize that the sun played such an important role so far down in the caverns.”

He smiled in response, displaying his abundant sharp teeth endearingly. “Humans are not the only ones who track the measure of time by the sun. Aside from knowing when it’s safe to hunt, we would not be able to organize our efforts if we could not determine the passage of time by ganda, units of vapor within the air at a given time.”

Lori returned his smile. “A built-in timekeeper. That certainly sounds a lot more convenient than having to wear a comm everywhere.”

Daskh chuckled from the corner where he was reclined with Hashal draped playfully over the girth of his upper tail, his head angled toward the entrance. The feathered webbing of his ear shifted regularly as he listened for any sounds coming down their nest’s tunnel. “It is not so convenient for a nestling learning how to do it. But they begin to learn young and catch on quickly. Hashal already knows his gandas.”

Her little son thrust out his small chest proudly. “I do! = My first father made me practice every day. I knew my gandas before I could fly from the cavern.”

“For safety reasons as well as general well-being,” Daskh explained. “We learn this before we are even of age to enter into the haga. Not only do we have to know when it’s safe to surface from the caverns, which we start doing at that point in order to learn how to scavenge and hunt, but the haga has set times for all meals.”

Kehtal sighed as he surfaced from where he lay coiled within their sleeping nest. “The shinara itself is run on a rigid schedule. Even the hours in which a male can present his offering to the shinara, and likewise himself to any females watching, is highly controlled.”

Slengral grunted in agreement, his eyes following her movements as she continued to get ready. “We do not break it down as minutely as humans, but it certainly plays an equally important role in our world.”

“I guess I’ll just have to trust you three to make sure we are where we need to be on time because I can’t tell any difference,” she retorted with a small, inward sigh. It was really a good thing that she didn’t have to play ambassador without them. Any human without a Seshanamitesh sharing a nest with them wouldn’t have fared well.

As it was, she still wasn’t entirely sure what she was stepping into. As much as Slengral had tried to give her a crash course in etiquette, there was still so much she didn’t know, and she was acutely aware of the fact that she was going to be interacting with a room full of females for the first time when everything she learned was from a male. She didn’t know anything about the social norms of a female Seshanamitesh. As it was, she was styling her hair into a short braid to give a small sense of familiarity to the females as it seemed to look almost like a lowered gavo.

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