Page 4 of King of Serpents

“Alex!” Vi shouted, but her voice was drowned out, and the comm connection terminated completely with the sudden, ear-shattering shriek of metal being torn apart.

The flight deck vibrated violently, and the flyer rolled, tossing Alex from the seat into the wall. Her head fell back, striking the control box. Stars exploded behind her eyelids, and the world pitched around her in an endless roll that dragged her off the wall before throwing her into another surface.

Over and over again the flyer rolled, somehow easier than before, and the wind sounded louder and angrier as sand swept inside and scraped over her skin. Every blow against her body drove deeper into her until she was tumbling limply with the force of the flyer’s roll. Everything felt surprisingly weightless, even as her skin burned and wept from its punishment. Agony screamed through her, unable to escape from breathless lips, until, mercifully, the flyer came to a sudden, violent stop. She dropped like a dead weight, her head cracking against something hard. Pain shattered through her temple, but a sigh of something almost like relief escaped her as she sank into a black abyss within her mind.

Chapter 3

Therxian met his mother’s sharp gaze with a hard stare, refusing to let his carefully cultivated mask of indifference slip. Her lips drew back from her sharp teeth in a silent hiss, but he maintained an affable expression of disinterest before slowly shifting his gaze away from her to some spot in the distance.

Let her threaten. She was trying to intimidate him so that she could bend him to her will. She would now see that she could not control him so easily. At length, her features smoothed, and she reclined once more into her throne as she regarded him coolly.

“Still disobedient,” she observed, her nose wrinkling faintly. Her long, golden tail twitched on the floor, where it was coiled around the throne. “I suppose that is to be expected. Despite his many revolutions as a dedicated hunter, even Slengral strayed when it suited him. This just seems to be the male nature.”

Therxian’s jaw clenched. It was no surprise to him that his mother simply glossed over her own involvement in the events that had led to his younger brother abandoning the shinara. She was baiting her trap, after all—even if it displeased her that she was forced to use him.

He fought back an urge to smile disdainfully at her barely restrained expression of disgust. He relaxed his gavo and peered back at her calmly. “Do not blame me just because you found a way to cheat yourself out of being surrounded by future nestlings.” He allowed his gavo to flick minutely. “So you did not like his choice of mate—which among us is to care? It is a pity that such things are to only be entertained by the mated couple.”

“The Vehal has ruined you,” she angrily retorted. “Is this what they are teaching their nestlings—that mating is a decision of youthful fancy rather than one of serious, long-term alliances?”

“Yes,” he replied, dropping the word succinctly. He shifted his coils, stretching out the cramp that had steadily been growing under her scrutiny. “Moreover, among the Vehal, we have seen a healthy population boom and stronger hatchlings than ever since expanding our bloodlines by welcoming humans into our fold. Something that you should think about further, Mother. How many hatchlings are born healthy and strong in the shinara? And if our ways are so excellent, then why did over half the hunters abandon the Aglatha?”

Zathexa froze, her expression unreadable. Despite that, he knew from experience that behind her calm exterior, her mind was busily working as she analyzed everything that he said. Though she was as backward as all the females raised to take on the mantle of authority within the shinara, and had made terrible, unforgivable decisions for what she had been led to believe was the best for the shinara, she was not truly evil or stupid. But would she be resistant to change with the noble matriarchs continuously whispering in her ear? That would have to be the first thing he dealt with. Afterward... her time of reign would come to an end. It was his hope that it would be one of peace.

“Perhaps there is some truth to what you have said,” she finally conceded, her coils shifting in betrayal of her restlessness. He had hit a nerve. Good. “But I will remind you that Slengral did not stay and fight for these things that you speak of. He abandoned us.”

He barked a dry laugh. Is that what she thought?

“For good reason. Do you truly imagine that he would return with Lori after you tried to kill her?”

For an instant, something like surprise, and perhaps relief, flickered in his mother’s eyes. “Lori... the female, she is alive?”

He snapped his gavo in the affirmative. Very slowly, she sank back into her throne, some of the tension leaving her powerful body as her gavo flattened completely. Her wings quivered slightly, but a long, weary sigh escaped her.

“He took her and their nestling away,” she murmured. Her eyes darted to him wearily with sudden comprehension. “They went to Vehal to nest.”

He gave her an incredulous look and only just barely restrained himself from laughing in mockery. “Really, Mother? You conspired with your court to kill her, tried to forcibly breed him... and this is what you have to say?”

From her post to the right of the throne, first commander Jathella met his eyes and shook her head, pleading with him, but he ignored her. His eyes scanned the females reclined within their throne chamber, their sharp gazes trained on him, hungry for what he represented for their maternal lines as Queen Zathexa’s son, but hating him for what he otherwise was.

Zathexa dragged her hand over her face tiredly. “It is not so simple. This is something both you and Slengral fail to realize. The well-being of the shinara is more complex than a small Vehal nara or the easiest route to satisfy your own personal desires and ambitions. Your brother was not only completely antagonistic when it came to his responsibilities but obstinate.”

“And what would have satisfied you?” Therxian asked. He genuinely wanted to know what was so important that his mother—despite being detached and cool toward them as her responsibilities and role as queen demanded—would plot against her own offspring.

His question appeared to give her pause, and she shifted uncertainly, her attention drifting around the throne chamber as she considered her words. His lip curled faintly before he pressed it once more into a thin, hard line. The noble houses of the matriarchs were definitely a problem.

“We must consider our traditions,” she managed at last. “It is the body upon which the governance of the shinara has been established for generations by the blessing of Shangla. It allowed us to survive.”

“And what if the humans and Slengral’s encounter with the human was not also a blessing of Shangla?” he asked, his voice flat and uncompromising. “Perhaps Higthar, her heavenly mate, brought his Lori to him. Perhaps he brought all the human females who now mingle their blood with ours.”

The tip of his mother’s tail curled uneasily and something unreadable flickered in her eyes. Was this something that she had already considered? He considered continuing his argument when a female rose angrily from her cushions, her vibrant blue body showing the first signs of silvering with age.

“Nonsense! All life comes from Shangla. We do not require the bloodlines from other worlds polluting our own.” She sneered at him, the multiple fans of her gavo rising angrily. “The males of the Vehal have corrupted your thinking. You consider your own selfish desires. It is no wonder that the first mothers descended into the great caverns, abandoning all males except those most faithful to protecting the daughters of Shangla. Only those males were worthy and trusted to honor the gifts of our great mother. Shangla cut off the Vehal from her nurturing coils for the violence and disregard of their males, and now they—along with the hunters of the upper caverns who deserted us—insult her further to their own peril!”

A murmur of agreement rose among the council, the natural acoustics of the throne chamber amplifying their voices in a way that might have been intimidating to a lesser male. Therxian just ignored it, however, and bestowed the female a cold smile.

“And the naras of the Vehal have been thriving these last few years since interbreeding with the humans, and the relationship between the males and females among us is peaceful, nurturing, and supportive. Whatever the sins of the past, the nara has surpassed the shinara by a hundred-fold!”

Fury ignited among the females as they rose, hissing, their shouts drowning all else out in the room. Even his mother could not quiet their anger, though she shot furtive glances of something that seemed oddly like worry in his direction. He did not wilt and cower beneath their collective fury. In that moment, he comprehended the strength and threat of the houses of the noble matriarchs fully. Though his mother was queen, she was one against their considerable weight. He would not bow beneath their fury. He rose higher on his coils, but it was the quick, speaking glance his mother gave Jathella—prompting the female into action—that kept him from showing further aggression in his own immediate defense.