Page 31 of King of Serpents

Alex tipped her head back a bit more and squinted at him. “Are you saying that it isn’t pitch dark where you are taking me? I hope that is what you are saying.”

The corner of Therxian’s mouth lifted faintly, but he inclined his head in agreement. “You will see.”

While that didn’t tell her much, it at least gave her some hope of seeing more than a deep gray-scale beyond what her companion’s bio-luminescence provided. Although she’d had a bad moment when the light from Therxian’s wings and gavo provided just enough light to tell just deep and dark the pit he flew over was, she looked forward to being able to properly see her surroundings. Or at least to some degree. And if it was provided by galthie, all the better, especially if that reduced her dependence on Therxian. Though she understood why the Seshanamitesh found the singing crystals more convenient, being plunged into darkness every time he was gone long enough for the singing crystal’s light to wane stunk.

That the tunnel was so empty and barren of light did give her some hope, though. Did that mean that the elder shinara didn’t use singing crystals? Fuck, she hoped so. The frustration of needing the right growing conditions aside, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about the flowers betraying her need to see after a short period of time.

“I take it that these singing crystals weren’t used during the time of the elders,” she prodded hopefully.

His gavo twitched again, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “That would be an incorrect assumption, but I believe they depended on them less. For whatever reason, the conditions of the lower cavern provide a better ecosystem for the flowers,” he replied. He tipped his head to the way ahead of them, and Alex lowered her head to gaze curiously at the tunnel that expanded suddenly before them. She felt his breath on her neck as he lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “Watch,” he murmured.

It wasn’t much of a warning. It didn’t prepare her at all for what he was about to do.

Therxian’s wings snapped wide, and he lunged forward into the air so suddenly that Alex wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him with a squeak of surprise that she hoped no one at the colony would ever catch wind of. The guys would never let her live it down if they knew she was clinging to Therxian like a frightened, helpless maiden while he flew through the corridors at a neck-breaking speed. His bio-luminesce bounced off the cavern walls, casting rainbows upon the black rock in a flowing river of light as they whipped past it. Gradually, however, she became aware of a shimmer upon the stones that was far too steady to have anything to do with their passage.

The glimmer on the stones intensified until the rocks sparkled with it, and Therxian’s wings tipped as he rounded a bend into the sweetest light that was strong enough to momentarily blind her. Unaccustomed to that degree of illumination, Alex’s eyes streamed with tears as she blinked them hastily in an attempt to adjust her vision. there was a brief stab of pain that went straight into her head, but she could have wept with relief of being able to clearly see if not for the fact that she was already weeping from the unexpected intensity of the light.

Flowers of colors crowded the cavern, their glow as chaotic as a child’s crayon box with zero symmetry in their color arrangement. But perhaps that was to be expected from plants that were, generation-upon-generation, growing naturally within the cave system, undisturbed. Undeniably, there was a certain beauty to all of it, and she stared at her surroundings with wonder as Therxian dropped to the ground again and folded his wings behind him before very gently setting her on her feet. Alex stumbled a little, a bit dizzy from the flight, and gaped as she caught sight of hidden little rivers flowing in carved-out passages nestled between thick clusters of flowers in the walls. It was like some kind of magical garden. She half-expected to see something whimsical appear at any moment.

“This way,” Therxian rumbled, and she frowned at his back as he headed for an overgrown passage. “I will show you to your nest.”

“What’s the hurry?” she sighed, though she quickened her step to catch up with him. She balked a little, however, when he began to head toward a narrow corridor choked with galthie blooms. “Uh, Therxian, are we really going in there?”

The male glanced back at her, his gave rising slightly, half-mocking. “Are you frightened, little human?”

“Frightened? Me?” she scoffed, but glanced around warily. “Perish the thought.”

She was a mechanic and pilot; she laughed in the face of the danger and challenges that working on new colony planets provided her. Flying into the unknown and thinking quickly on her feet is what Darvel recruited her for. What was there to be afraid of? A tangle of flowers... that could be hiding monstrous bugs? She shuddered a little as she followed Therxian, clutching her blowgun as she scrutinized the entrance. She didn’t see any insects, but that didn’t mean anything. Her eyes lifted higher, drifting over the blooms before freezing. There, on either side of the entrance, half-hidden faces of Seshanamitesh stared down at her as if daring her to enter.

Okay. Creepy. Yeah, she usually laughed in the face of danger, but at this point she was willing to admit that it usually wasn’t quite so up close and personal. She opened her mouth to say something to Therxian but noticed that the alien was already moving ahead toward the tunnel without her. Hissing an expletive under her breath, Alex rushed to catch up and dropped into step directly behind him. Perhaps she was a bit closer than usual, but she wasn’t taking any chances. If there were Indiana Jones caliber traps waiting for an off-world intruder, then he was going to get nailed first by anything coming at her. She was so close to him, in fact, that she was practically dancing behind Therxian in an attempt to remain out of the way of his tail sliding across the floor. His wings occasionally opened slightly and rippled when he paused, as if it were an unconscious, contemplative action, but each time he did so, it obscured her view of the tunnel ahead of them completely.

It was for that reason that she was completely unprepared when his wings closed and he glided out into an open cavern, leaving Alex to stumble out after him. Her eyes swept around her surroundings, and she slowly straightened as her mouth dropped open in shock.

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

Everywhere she looked, she was met with visions of beauty beneath the overgrowth. Statues rose elegantly from intentionally crafted—if somewhat overgrown—topiaries and planters of some sort, the light of which carried around the room in a gentle glow that danced off the statuary and the small passages leading from the main cavern into what she guessed was the rest of the nest, each entrance framed with carvings within the stone and galthie climbing in elegantly entwined clusters. Therxian didn’t stop there, however. He led her down to the hall which opened into a massive sleeping chamber dominated by a sunken bed loaded with cushions and furs as the galthie light reflected off the carved stone of the naturally formed pillars that rose around the bed, ornately framing it.

Everything looked so comfortable—to the point of being purely luxurious as far as she could see. It certainly was a huge improvement on Therxian’s room within the palace above. Not only that, but the room was unusually warm—to the point of being comfortably warm despite being so far below the surface of the planet. She glanced around, curious as to the source, and froze. From the center of the room, she could see an adjacent chamber which barely had the space to hold the pool filling it. At its epicenter, someone had carved a stalagmite to resemble a Seshanamitesh reaching upwards to some unknown heavens beyond the confines of the cavern. The fingers of the statue grazed the perfectly smooth, polished surface of the ceiling, reflecting the galthie light, and Alex sighed with unrestrained pleasure.

“Ok, I’m never leaving. At least not until we work out a route back to Raza Colony,” she quickly amended at the tiny pinch of guilt in how easily her loyalty was shaken. She still needed to get back to the colony.

“Naturally,” Therxian murmured, obviously not noting anything amiss in her statement. “This should prove quite suitable for you. I would not abide leaving you within a nest that is less.”

No... he wouldn’t. She swallowed sharply at the unbidden thoughts and feelings rising suddenly within her. He was always so considerate of her. If only he knew just how conflicted she was feeling. Not only about her surroundings but about the male who had taken her in and cared for her. He could have stuck her anywhere, but he gave her all... this. Warmth spread through her chest in response, but it was immediately followed by a sense of unease that crept through her. It wasn’t just what he had provided for her, making sure she had everything she needed both in his nest and in the elder palace, evident from the furs and sahguin blankets piled thickly for her in the bed.

And what of the relish she felt whenever disrupting one of his “matches” among the females? Even now she was feeling a tightness through her skin at the thought that he would soon return and would no longer have her there to help foil his efforts. Was she becoming too attached to him?

“Naturally,” she echoed. Fuck.

Chapter 22

Therxian hesitated, surprisingly reluctant to leave the female within the nest he had secured for her. He was enjoying her curious exploration of the space and soft exclamations of delight over its beauty carved out by his ancestors and the small comforts he had supplied. His eyes followed her as she walked around the perimeter of the bathing pool, her eyes fixed on the surface that rippled gently with the flow of water that fed directly into it from a natural spring. The water was a clear, vivid blue; the color intensified subtly by the minerals contained within the black stone and glowing faintly. Crouching by one side, she reached down and skimmed her fingers across the surface and gave a little shiver that sent a response of heat streaking through him to plunge low into his belly.

“It’s a bit cool,” she observed.

“But easily warmed,” he replied, nodding toward the small fire stove at the pool’s side.

She looked down and brightened. “Oh! Well, that’s useful!” Withdrawing her hand, she glanced up at him with a smile. “Does the palace above have rooms like this?”