Page 50 of Serpents of the Night

“This is a good place, Lori,” Sara continued, as she looped her arm with Lori’s and began walking with her along the simple road comprised of packed earth and stone through the small town. “Although there are larger cities, the naras of the Vehal, small outposts like Zirnara are what I prefer. Life is quiet here. And the Vehal—while they had problems earlier in their history when so many of the females went below ground, they have grown over the generations to be a healthy and balanced society. And the humans who live here are treated with the same equal respect as anyone else. It is a good life. The community is close-knit, and there is plenty for everyone here since the entire community cooperates to take care of each other. Even our offspring are raised together with love and attention from all the adults of the community.”

“It does seem peaceful,” Lori agreed as her eyes lifted to dark trees with veins of lavender running through the bark.

They had to be what the wooden structures of the houses were made out of. Although there was considerable stone working like what she saw in the shinara, wood seemed to dominate when it came to personal homes to a degree that everyone in the colony would be jealous of. Fragrant flowers grew in thick clumps and on heavily laden vines and bushes that grew in lush masses between the trees. Voosheths sang from where they were perched in the trees and along the village walls, throats expanding and trembling with their warbling chirps that sounded eerily like bird song coming from the winged reptiles. The hum of various insects droned, their bodies and wings were splashes of color in the air as they darted from the mists of the mountain forests over the village clearing. Nestlings giggled and took to the air after them, their wings beating rapidly to carry their small bodies sinuously after them at neck-breaking speeds.

Lori stared after them in concern, but Sara giggled. “Don’t worry, though they may put on an act for sympathy like any other child, they are by far hardier and less fragile than children of our species. The Vehal evolved differently, I think, than those of the caverns who have had to compete for resources for generations,” Sara said, as they lingered near a group of males and females working cooperatively to repair and sharpen the velkats. Song rippled between them as couples sang together, their bodies pressed closely as they worked. Sara smiled and waved as a female looked up and grinned over at them, her hand lifting in a greeting that they returned. “But obviously, I really cannot do an accurate comparative analysis considering the relationship between the two offshoots. But among the Vehal, the nestlings seem nearly indestructible, which is a good thing since they are quite mischievous, as well as being too curious and adventurous for their own good and disaster-prone. So, there is no need to worry too much in most cases.”

Nodding in relief, Lori allowed herself to be walked through the village as Sara continued to talk her ear off. Lori didn’t mind. This had quickly fallen into a norm for them and as long as Lori didn’t bring up the comm, she had an eager companion at her side. Sara had been eager to help her become accustomed to the daily life of Zirnara and the environment of Zir mountain.

Now that she thought of it, it was strange that a plush that was so green and lush had no visible rivers though occasionally she would hear the trickling sound of tiny streams beneath the rocks. She had quickly come to discover that the groundwater and the mist satisfied the needs of both the Vehals and the wildlife on the mountain. There was almost a carefully maintained symbiotic relationship that she was seeing taking shape for maintaining a balance with their resources. But it was not without its technology. Although there were some familiar things that she recognized from the shinara, there was also quite a bit of solar-chargeable human tech readily available that had to have come with the human women living there from their respective colonies.

And there were a number of human women. Although there were no huge population disparities as there was in the shinara between males and females, there had to be at least a dozen females there living peacefully among them with their mates. They gossiped with the other villagers as they worked together, the nestlings weaving and fluttering around them. Over fire-pits situated just outside of the village on open rock, various animals were spit and roasting, their fragrance lifting into the air as smaller fires maintained inside the village center were utilized to cook other food. Lori’s stomach rumbled at the tantalizing scents and Sara hugged her arm companionably.

“It is a good place,” Lori agreed quietly. “I wish my mates could see it.”

“Perhaps soon they will. If they are like the Vehal, they won’t leave you here,” Sara assured her as she gave her arm a squeeze and they continued walking.

Sadly, as they days wore on, Lori feared that her mates would have no choice.

Chapter 41

Slengral’s patience was at an end. As the days continued to pass, he could feel the confinement slowly crushing him. He couldn’t breathe much less fly. All due to his mother’s cruelty. He brushed his fingers across the bag hanging around his neck where the preserved dishana rested, his claws scraping lightly over the embroidered hide.

Soon. Jathella said that it would be soon. Kehtal and Daskh had already escaped, throwing the entire shinara into chaos. Some praised the males while others reacted with shock at the males’ open defiance of the queen matriarch.

He smiled grimly. His betrayal would cut far deeper.

At least he no longer had to chase females from his sleeping chamber. After the fifth, or sixth—he had not cared to keep an exact count—his mother stopped sending them. He no longer had to contend with females trying to test his pheromone bond or attempting to seduce him into mating. Now, at Queen Zathexa’s orders, he had pheromone-drenched cloths brought to him by the males sent to serve him.

He gritted his teeth, his nose wrinkling in distaste, as the newest cloth was set before him under the disapproving frown of his mother.

“This would not be so unpleasant if you would just cooperate and choose one,” she argued for not the first time. “It does not matter whether you find it appealing or not, Slengral. Eventually, you will come to enjoy the company of your mate once the pheromone bond with that human has finally dissipated. You might as well make it easier on yourself and accept what is to come. The shinara depends on us—and it is now depending on you most of all to provide for its future.”

“I do not have to accept anything,” he hissed darkly. His hand curled around the bag hanging from his neck and tightened around it. “I have told you that I will not mate with any other female. As far as I am concerned this maternal line can die with me unless you can coax one of my brothers to return.” A bitter smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “And I wish you luck with that.”

Zathexa’s wings rattled angrily as she swung from him. “Ungrateful creature!” she spat. “Have you forgotten so quickly that it is I who nested you, even as the shinara that cared for your every need and the haga that trained you?”

His gaze narrowed on her. “You mean a mother who pushed me off onto nest tenders so that she could shower her attention upon her youngest—her daughter? A shinara which rejected me and cast me out as an adult, and a haga that made every rotation of my youth within its confines a life of endless misery?” He scoffed angrily. “Did you never wonder why I did not return with offerings of the hunt for the shinara? Why my brothers never returned? Why more and more hunters have abandoned the shinara with each successive generation?” He cocked his head, his smile turning hard. “It is quite interesting. I had never before realized how many males had abandoned the upper caverns of the Aglatha to choose more hidden locations within the cave system until we gathered at the human colony.”

His mother whipped around to face him, her gavo rising in a fan of multiple crests over her head with her fury.

“You dare to speak in this manner to me?!”

“I dare,” he agreed smoothly. “Even if my mate rests among the dead for dozens of revolutions, I will still continue to reject everything to force upon me.” His own gavo rose aggressively. “Keep sending the servants in to bait me with pheromone laced cloths and see what happens. Sooner or later, I will break and when I do, I will begin killing everyone that carries the scent of an unwanted female. I will give you no nestlings to fill this palace with your joy for you are responsible for the death of the only nestling you would have ever gotten from me. All I shall bring to the palace now is death.”

Zathexa’s mouth parted in surprise and despite her greater size, she drew back from him on her coils as she regarded him. She inclined her head stiffly, her gavo rising above her head authoritatively.

“We will see what you do when the bond breaks,” she hissed. “And you will see what measures I will take. You will breed, my son. You are of my nest and your bloodline belongs to me! Even if I have to sedate you and bind you with such strong stimulates that you will not have a choice but to extrude for whatever female I put in front of you.” Her gaze pierced him with the weight of her anger. “It will be better for you to mate, fulfill your duty, and be respected within the shinara for continuing the bloodline than a male scorned and restrained, forced to breed multiple hand-selected females who will happily leave their maternal lines to join the royal nest to fill the palace with heirs of my line.” Her hand slashed the air. “Forget about the human and your abomination offspring. Higthar was right to destroy them upon the sands before they could pollute this nest!”

He glowered back at her, not even bothering to hide his hatred. He had almost believed in her sorrow for Lori’s loss at first, but he had ceased believing it days ago.

“It was not Higthar’s hand, though, was it?” he rumbled. “I had thought Payeri had betrayed all of us by abandoning my mate and leaving her for the dead, but that is not the entire story—is it?”

His mother stirred, her gavo dropping slightly as it fluttered. “What do you mean?” she demanded.

He scoffed again, his disdain flowing through him like a violent current. “It occurred to me,” he replied as he moved forward, closing some of the distance between them, “why would Payeri test the displeasure of her queen matriarch? Yes, she is of the same mother-line as Vekatha, but she was raised within a mother nest of a noble matriarch and was reared with devotion to the orders of the queen. Vekatha was an acceptable sacrifice for her misdeeds, but it kept everyone else within their mother nest safe even as you utilized the female against my mate like a weapon, forcing her into a corner while you were allowed to play your role of a caring mother so that you could manipulate me and the whole of the shinara best.” His eyes narrowed speculatively. “I imagine that the noble matriarch Shalyia has already been permitted to return home with her eldest daughter, abandoning the younger to her fate to satisfy your plans.”

The lines of his mother’s throat stood out with the tension that had caught ahold of her. “Sacrifices must be made for the greater good of the shinara,” she rasped.

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