Page 30 of King of Serpents

She leaned closer, humming as she wafted her wings subtly, dosing him with both her frequency and pheromones. Therxian’s head instinctively jerked back at the assault on his senses, his entire body stiffening warily even as he sneered in affront at her. She was so brazenly certain of her own status and capabilities that she had no compunction when it came to coercing him in public. Even the guard at her side angled her body away with noticeable embarassment so that she did not have to stand witness to Ferinia’s indecent tactics. They were not necessarily unlawful, but they were considered conduct that shamed and made a spectacle of a male since they were within a public setting. Did she not fear the anger of the high queen? The council’s plan was insulting enough, but to assault a son of Zathexa within the halls of the palace was an insult to the high queen herself.

He wanted to repay her insult. He hissed in warning as she attempted to entwine her tail with his, and he snapped his tail away so that his secondary sant was nowhere near her lower copulation vent. He was not being forcibly hooked by her within the corridor and in front of her guard and any other Seshanamitesh who may pass. His wings flared to make himself appear bigger, and it seemed to give her a pause for a moment as she peered at him. Although female Seshanamitesh significantly outweighed most males in the shinara, he was larger by far than even the average Vehal, and like all males, possessed a significantly more expansive body to wingspan ratio than the female counterparts of their species. Puffing up was a suitable warning because a male could strike with those wings and deal crippling blows if they landed effectively. Few males actually tried it, since the repercussions for harming a female could be swift if he was determined to be out of line and his dignity unharmed, but Ferinia was giving him every reasonable excuse to defend himself.

Was she dimwitted? From what he had described, even Slengral’s assailant had the sense to hunt him within the cavern tunnels.

Therxian glanced over at the guard, silently bidding her to do something but she bowed her head away, and shifted her body so that she had her back turned to them completely as she stared out into the main corridor. He gritted his teeth angrily. There was nothing there that required her attention. She was intentionally abandoning her responsibilities to satisfy the council, regardless of her own feelings on the subject. There was not even a single Seshanamitesh approaching them.

The few who drew near, the guard quickly waved them away until anyone who might have approached turned and headed in a different direction at the sight of the guard blocking the residential hall. Now there was no one at all moving through this part of the busy corridor for the guard to occupy herself with—he blinked, his gaze shifting upward so that he was looking past the guard into the corridor and studying the empty space. There was no one to be seen anywhere immediately within view of the royal residential hall. No one to immediately take note of any source of disturbance that might strike the main corridor from there.

It was the opening he was looking for.

Evading another grapple from the female, he feinted to the left, angling his body, his wings splayed wide, so as to obscure Ferinia’s view. The female’s heavy body collided with the wall, and Therxian used that opportunity to deliver the signal to Alex with two rapid taps of his tail against the wall.

He felt it the moment she made her move. Her hand slid across the back of his wing, dangerously and unintentionally distracting him from the aggressve female in front of him preparing for her next launch. It was nothing more than the lightest of touches at first, but it rapidly shifted into a steady, warm weight when Alex leaned against him, supporting her body weight against his wings as she sent the small sphere rolling. Therxian tracked its movement even as he brought a wing sharply down, striking sharply across Ferinia’s breastbone. Her angry shriek echoed as she rolled back onto her coils away from him, but the guard continued to be deaf and blind to everything. He thought he caught a hint of amusement on the female’s face, but it was fleeting before it was replaced once more with the guard’s deferential mask. Whatever her duty toward serving as Ferinia’s escort, the guard clearly disliked the matriarch and was not going to be quick to defend her if the situation allowed it.

And this situation certainly allowed it.

Ferinia coiled up and lunged again, and once more he struck her with a crossway strike, driving her off him, cutting off her attack. He shrilled venomously at her, covering the sound of the sphere clattering as it rolled over the roughest part of the stonework. The guard turned and looked their way at that moment just as the sphere rolled by her. He grinned inwardly, pleased with how it all turned out, but then cursed when Ferinia made contact with his wing, her sharp teeth piercing its muscular limb. He shrieked and hissed at her. Pain shook him and was quickly followed by anger and a good portion of disbelief.

She actually bit him!

The female smiled triumphantly around her hold on him, her saliva dripping across his wing as he tried to wrench it away from her. Half of his attention followed the faint sound of the sphere as it rolled and bounced its way down the corridor, its sound growing fainter until it stopped. His heart seemed to cease beating for a breath as everything grew still in the space of the smallest moment before the corridor shook with the blast that tore through it.

Fire flashed, and the cavern shook with the hollow roar of the explosion, knocking loose stones from above so that they came crashing down. Ferinia glanced up and dropped away from his wing to avoid a crystalline cluster falling from the ceiling. Therxian did not give it, or the female, a second glance. He was aware of the guard springing into action, the massive female gathering Ferinia close and whisking her out of the residential area and into the main corridor as it flooded with panicked Seshanamitesh. Allowing himself a moment to smirk at the chaos, Therxian stretched his wings and gave them a leisurely flap before drawing back from the wall and turning to the human hiding there.

Alex stared at him wide-eyed from her crouched position. She clearly hadn’t risen but had watched the path of the sphere from where she had hunkered down behind him to send it on its path. Her mouth parted and rounded in an expression of surprise.

“Whoa,” she whispered.

Grinning down at her, Therxian opened his arms for her and scooped her stunned little body up from the floor. “Hold tight. This is going to be fast and messy.”

Snapping her mouth shut, she swallowed and nodded uncertainly as she wrapped her arms around him, clinging to his body tightly. Tucking his wings around them in a protective posture that covered much of his face and torso, he tightened his wings across her back and bottom, providing additional support while also carrying off the simple protective posturing that the fleeing Seshanamitesh adopted.

Satisfied with his secure hold on her, Therxian bolted out into the chaos. His heart hammered as they dove in among the panicked Seshanamitesh fleeing the palace, but it was exactly as he had anticipated. Not one Seshanamitesh, neither male nor female, gave him notice as he slipped among them, heading for the hidden passage. None except for Kitanara, who grew still upon catching sight of him. Her eyes followed him for a moment, and he paused in the midst of the crowd rushing around him, wondering what she would do. Though she had brought Alex to him to hide, the female was still a loyal servant of the palace and was therefore unpredictable. Jathella must have spoken to her, however, because the female lowered her eyes and inclined her head to him in passing.

The message was clear. She saw nothing and would cover his escape. And he needed no further encouragement to plunge into the dark abyss of the palace’s and shinara’s great past.

Chapter 21

The shrieks of alarm filled the caverns, echoing in a deafening layer of noise that had Alex shrinking against Therxian, grateful for the barrier of his wings wrapped around her. His wing shifted momentarily, allowing a small, brief gap in which she could see Seshanamitesh hurrying through the caverns, their wings clasped around themselves similarly. Some carried obvious bulges encasing wriggling young within their wings, while others simply protected the vulnerable parts of their bodies and their lower faces with the thick membranes from the clouds of dust and smoke in the air. Some of the tension that she’d been holding released at the sight. She was so dizzy with the sudden relief rushing through her body that she only just barely restrained a nervous giggle.

Of course! This had to be exactly what Therxian intended. No one saw anything amiss with Therxian having his wings folded around himself because this was a common protective and defensive position for the Seshanamitesh escaping the tight confines of the palace corridors. With their wings tightly wrapped around their upper bodies, they bore an even closer resemblance to serpents as they bobbed and weaved chaotically in their attempt to fit into the tightest spaces, and even on top of each other, in their attempt to flee. Even their angry hisses at each other seemed amplified momentarily, lending more to the atmosphere of confusion before being cut off abruptly by Therxian’s descent into the lower corridor.

The air in the lower tunnels was cooler. That was the first thing she noted. Not for the first time, she deeply regretted not having a TRS beneath her jumpsuit. That was a decision that was guaranteed to plague her, especially now that she was starting to shiver with the damp cold that seemed to settle into her bones the further Therxian descended into the abyss. The only thing that was truly keeping her from freezing was the sahguin cloth wrapped around her torso and limbs. Although the cloth was overall warmer than the TRS as protective clothing, its protection was limited and not quite as thorough, especially not while in flight where the cold air could work its way into the natural gaps in the material. She pressed into his chest, grateful for his warmth and the cocoon of his wings tightened around her, as if in understanding of her discomfort.

“It is just a bit farther,” he murmured, his grip adjusting around her to hold her more firmly against his chest.

She was about to question the reason for it, but the cold air stung her as he spread his wings wide to launch them over an endless dark pit that yawned beneath them. Alex clutched him in horror, her nails digging into his scales and her eyes straining against the darkness as she stared into the void. The tunnel must have collapsed and fallen into the descending abyss, but its depth made her skin crawl as Therxian passed over it. It was like a place where monsters might ascend, and there was a very faint, distant sound of water rushing, echoing from some great depth, but it was cut off when his wings angled slightly and they glided into another tunnel.

“That was fucking horrifying,” she whispered between her teeth, and Therxian hummed in agreement.

“No one ventures this deep within the lower caverns; it stands to reason that the access points into the elder shinara are in ill repair.” His gavo twitched with the twist of his head as he took in their surroundings. “Do you notice that there are no galthie blooming here, and no singing crystals? The way has long been abandoned and forgotten.”

“That’s not convenient,” Alex muttered in reply. “Some of us need a bit more light to see by and lack sonar capabilities.”

His gavo twitched again with a tiny vibration, and she got the impression that he was silently laughing at her in his own peculiar, alien way.

“It will not remain so for long,” he assured her, wrapping his warm wing once more around her. “There may have been galthie in this segment of the tunnel, but the collapse likely made this particular part of the cave system inhospitable. Galthie are truly fickle. They only grow in enclosed caverns. To be persuaded to grow elsewhere requires considerable work. This is why the palace and many parts of the shinara utilize singing crystals.”