Page 59 of King of Serpents

Jathella frowned. “If anyone was interfering with Zathexa’s ability to produce a female, then why allow her to breed sons? Why not just render her barren?”

“Because the males are still vessels of the legitimate royal line.”

“Then why endorse Vekatha to go after Slengral? She is certainly not the daughter of Yilada. I was a nestling myself when she hatched but I do recall it perfectly.”

“Unless she never intended to actually fully mate with him, but to lure him in and secure him for someone else,” Alex supplied.

“It would be difficult to avoid a pheromone bond, but if she could capture him and join with him and then immediately separate herself from him, it is possible,” Therxian replied. “If that is the case, any of the noble females coming to me could be aligned with the daughter of Yilada, or be her, or even her own daughter. She would be old enough to have a daughter of age if she also mated early like her mother before her.”

“As no one has successfully been able to get close enough to accomplish anything, there is no way to know,” Alex observed. “Gareiia could have just as easily knocked you out or drugged you if she hadn’t been frightened away.” A shiver ran up her spine. Everything was starting to make an odd kind of sense. She leaned closer. “Didn’t you say that Zathexa had many sons? Where are they? Wouldn’t females have ‘courted’ them too, or even mated with them? Surely there must be records following their departure from the haga.”

Jathella inclined her head slowly. “The haga keeps exceptional records, and unlike common males, those of the royal family would have been selected and kept within the shinara for their political breeding value alone. This would also have been recorded within the royal family ledgers. Only those of the royal line have direct access to them,” she added as she looked at Therxian.

The male snapped his gavo sharply in agreement. “I will make a point of looking at them. Such records should also have notations regarding the future queen’s health and development.”

“Correct. Vorahna’s own mating would eventually have been registered there.”

“But she conveniently suddenly succumbed to her sickness while she clearly had an ongoing relationship,” Alex whispered.

Therxian’s mouth tightened. “It would seem that this is also interconnected. Perhaps even the deterioration within the haga is likewise connected to this same drive. I will investigate.”

Alex’s lips thinned with worry. “Be careful. If anyone suspects that you are poking into things beyond some mild curiosity and reading, the backlash could be immediate and beyond our current capability to control.”

Therxian grimly met her gaze as he and Jathella solemnly snapped their gavo in agreement. It seemed that they were finally at the precipice. There was no going back and retreating to safety now.

Chapter 42

Therxian skimmed the shelf, his attention distracted by the two other Seshanamitesh in the library with him. Over the last several days, he had made a point to be seen in several places throughout the palace so as not to rouse suspicions, but invariably he always ended back up at the library with a demonstratable air of boredom. His hope was that anyone watching would assume that he was just whiling away his time in what little activity was directly available to him while restricted within the confines of the palace.

Being seen in the early part of the day also assured that few poked too much into his absence the rest of the day. Much of that was thanks to the efforts of Jathella, Buosoa, and Kitanara. They were able to use their position to keep the curious at bay. Especially the females who were allowed nowhere near him by the high queen’s orders. Unfortunately, there was little they could do about the harmless mated males of the noble families, which was why he was routinely forced to deal with the small lavender male who had suddenly made it his mission in life to latch himself onto Therxian.

He was not so foolish as to believe that the male’s interest in him was innocent. He did not know which of the noble families had sent him to spy on him, but he was not inclined to be tolerant or amused with their newest game. And while under normal circumstances he might have at least felt inclined to indulge the bottomless well of questions that the male appeared to have about his time in the Vir mountains, these were not normal circumstances. He could not have the male continuously around while he was trying to covertly conduct his research. Beyond the occasional clipped response, he had no intention of acknowledging the male’s presence so as to not encourage any further interaction. He refused to make a tool of the nobles feel welcomed or comfortable around him. Therxian certainly was not going to give him anything that he could use. The quicker he understood that and left, the better.

Unfortunately, the male was persisting to ignore every cue to leave, and it was rapidly dwindling what patience he had.

“Are you certain that you do not desire company? Word is that until recently you remained in your nest for several days, with few managing more than a glimpse of you,” the male observed as he casually picked up a scroll that Therxian discarded. “And now that you have emerged, you appear especially restless with your confinement. It might have been better just to get it over with. Then you could have at least had your freedom by now. Still, I imagine that we can find something more entertaining to do than... this.”

“If I desired company, I would seek it,” Therxian coolly replied as he returned the scroll he had been reading to its carefully stacked pile.

There was only one individual whose company he craved, and she was currently far outside of his reach while he was confined to making an appearance in the palace and carrying out his research. He craved her with a desperation that made his scales itch uncomfortably. This male was a poor substitute.

“All the same,” the male countered as he whipped around to face Therxian at an angle beside the shelving unit, “isolating yourself is not healthy for any male.” From the corner of his eye, Therxian watched as the male leaned in as his voice dropped to a confiding whisper. “I have heard that Queen Zathexa has even blocked the eligible females of the families from much of the palace.”

“It does not concern me,” Therxian rebutted, as he turned slightly on his coiled tail and angled his body away from the male with the pretext of studying another shelf.

“But... how can it not?” The exclamation was delivered with so much of the proper amount of male horror that it drew a resigned sigh from Therxian.

“How could it possibly,” he grumbled in reply. It was becoming abundantly clear that he was not going to leave. It was an annoyance that he had hoped to avoid. “Listen... “

“Dehv,” the male replied with a bright and hopeful smile.

Therxian squinted at him. He appeared incredibly young. He was about the age of some of the younger hunters. Not a juvenile, though smaller than the males of the upper caverns and those in the Vir, but also not a male old enough to be a mate to one of the Matriarchs.

“Dehv,” he echoed as he picked up another scroll. “I do not recognize you. To which family do you belong?”

The male’s smile faltered, falling just enough for Therxian to see a hint of vulnerability behind it before he managed to regain control. “Forgive me. I am not accustomed to the proper etiquette of the palace,” Dehv replied in a faintly strained voice. “I am of the eighth family, recently promised to the maternal line Shel, the first noble family.”

Promised to the first noble family. Therxian frowned at the terminology. Old enough to have been taken from the haga, but unmated. He had never heard of a male leaving the haga as one promised to a family collectively rather than chosen by a female for her mate. With his light lavender hue, he would certainly have been highly desirable. So why was he merely promised to a family? Odd.