Page 34 of Serpents of the Night

Lori swallowed and gave a small nod of her head. As much as the grievances needed to be addressed, this was definitely not a good time to do it.

Eyes brittle with anger, Zathexa turned toward Jathella. “You know your duty and our laws. Seal Vekatha with her mother and sister in the lower palace tunnel for bringing forth false accusations and attempts to unjustly entrap a hunter of the upper caverns.”

The commander tipped her head again and gestured to her sisters under her command with her velkat, summoning them to assist her. The females closed in quickly around their quarry and removed them amid the many cries and enraged shrieks from their captives. Lori winced at the sound and wiggled an ear. She didn’t envy them being subjected to all of that noise all the way down to the lower palace tunnel... wherever that was. She certainly didn’t have the luxury to dwell on it or even enjoy the moment of victory. The queen matriarch’s eyes fell on her with a chilling intensity that she was only just barely able to summon the fortification and courage to meet.

“Despite Vekatha’s many false words, there is one thing she spoke of truthfully that I had not considered,” she pronounced. “By our laws you are not considered an adult. You have not undergone trial, nor have you earned the right to mate. This causes a legal discrepancy in your mating that any female within the shinara would have right to question.”

“Queen matriarch, this is not so insurmountable,” Payeri offered as she pushed way out from among the audience. “Completion of a maiden trial should be acceptable among our females. If she succeeds, she will have proved her worthiness by our laws to have a mate. If she fails—then neither she nor Slengral have reason to complain that we offer only equal opportunity and not special treatment.”

A trial?

“What does this trial normally consist of among Seshanamitesh?” Lori cautiously queried.

Payeri’s wings fluttered excitedly as she turned and faced her. “It is not so terrible. We all secretly look forward to it when we come of age. It is treated as an adventure for most of us. The female is carried out to an isolated cavern system and must find her way back, evading predators, hunters who have free reign in the caverns, and other obstacles. It shows her strength, cunning, and determination.”

“I see,” Lori replied. “There is just one problem with this: I cannot fly or navigate in the dark on my own. My biology is not suited to such a test.”

“The maiden trial can be altered to suit your biology as a wingless species while maintaining the spirit of it. Navigating your way across the surface back to the Aglatha should be good enough,” Zathexa grudgingly offered. “It is not a bad idea, but a female always has a maiden at hand to assist her so that unnecessary danger does not befall her. Failing or succeeding should not be a matter of life and death.”

“Allow me and my brothers to go,” Slengral insisted but the queen matriarch dipped her chin toward her chest in the negative.

“Males are not permitted within the maiden trial,” she rebutted.

“Permit me to serve as maiden at hand,” Payeri offered, surprising Lori at the sincerity in her voice.

Zathexa’s eyes narrowed on her suspiciously. “Why would you offer? Are you not related by blood to Vekatha? I will have no more chaos from that maternal nest.”

Payeri lowered her head submissively, her gavo flattening. “Vekatha’s actions brought shame to our maternal nest and mother-line. It is a small thing to offer in the hope of redemption for our line. And to make amends for my own mistake in accidentally injuring her mate, Daskh. It would be appropriate for me to be of service.” She glanced over at Lori hopefully. “If you would permit me?”

They were really expecting her to walk across the desert with no one but a female she didn’t know for company. This mating business in the shinara was getting more complicated by the moment. Worse, there was no way to get out of it without verbally revoking her mated status in the shinara and thereby losing every privilege she enjoyed with her mates there.

Damn it all to hell.

Chapter 28

Slengral’s wings and gavo puffed out angrily. They dared? His mother truly wished to send his mate onto the surface of Seshana without any protection other than that provided by a female unknown to him. It was beyond consideration. He would take Lori and his nest brothers and return to the surface immediately. Let them come after him. He already proved himself against Vekatha’s accusation. He no longer cared about the fate of the shinara beyond that or its relationship with the colony.

A warm hand settled on his forearm, the slender fingers curling over it. He glanced down at it and then over at his mate who gave a faint shake of her head as she drew in closer to his side.

“We don’t have any choice,” she whispered. “We are going to have to follow the customs of the shinara to get anywhere.”

“To the depths of the Aglatha with customs,” he hissed in return. “I will not accept this. I am a hunter of the upper caverns. You are human. No one chooses for me nor for my mate who is not bound by our customs.”

She shook her head in frustration. “We are responsible, however, for not disrupting the peace between the shinara and the colony. It is the whole reason we came. If we refuse, then we will be not only insulting the queen matriarch and noble matriarchs governing the shinara but disregarding their laws entirely. Humans also have laws regarding mating, but nothing that I was prepared to demonstrate in a way that would satisfy them. And we can’t give up now and just run away or else we will not only be guilty of all of the above, but it will make our time here meaningless.” Her lips tightened at the corners for a moment before she sighed. “Besides, even if we wanted to leave, we couldn’t. Not with Daskh unconscious. It would take both of you to carry him any distance.”

She was correct, and that fact sat bitterly within his stomach. Slengral scowled, his eyes raking over the crowd speculatively watching them before settling on the female pushing her influence on his nest. She had not only harmed Daskh but was now putting herself in the position of being alone with his mate in a dangerous environment without his protection or that of either of his nest brothers.

“You are asking too much of me to trust this Payeri,” he spat as a stream of venom arced to the floor in the female’s approximate direction.

His mate snorted quietly as her gaze flicked toward her. “I do not trust her either, but what choice do I have? It is not like there is an abundance of volunteers coming forward. The fact of the matter is this all proceeded a lot easier than it should have. Even with the evidence, Queen Zathexa could have drawn this out a lot longer if she chose to investigate further into Vekatha’s claim. She clearly doesn’t approve of me, but I don’t think she believes I will succeed in this trial before giving up. In this case, even without considering Payeri, we can’t ignore that all matings between hunters and humans will be judged based off what we do here and now.”

His nostrils flared as he regarded his mate. “You are not concerned about Payeri at all?”

Her small flat teeth tugged at her bottom lip, darkening it around the pale indentures of where they pressed. “It’s more that I think she is the least we have to worry about. Vekatha has already been seized by the queen matriarch, so there is little Payeri can do that would directly benefit her. And if it’s revenge that she has in mind, there are a lot easier ways to get that without putting herself on the surface. Especially considering that females rarely venture there, and never alone.”

His gavo twitched with displeasure, the movement causing the webbing to softly rattle. He stiffened, his gavo stilling even as it lifted further when his mother’s gaze finally swung to him and fastened upon him.

“I assume from your expression that you have finished discussing the matter,” she queried in a flat, emotionless voice. Despite that, he knew his mother well enough to sense the impatience stirring under the surface. The signs were evident in the way she held herself and the abruptness of the question directed at him.

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