Page 5 of King of Serpents

The captain nodded and slid away from the throne toward him, her sister Buosoa descending from the opposite side. The females positioned themselves on either side of him, their velkats, the long double-headed lances, held firmly in their hands. Jathella’s gaze scoured the room with a hard glower as she leaned in to speak quietly to him.

“The queen predicted this might happen. Please come with us.”

Therxian inclined his head and dropped back, rolling off his coils to follow Jathella as Buosoa took up position behind him, her velkat held high in front of chest in warning. To his surprise, none of the matriarchs dared to come nearer. Truthfully, they recoiled away from the large females even though they continued to spit venom and hurl insults in his direction. Whatever power the matriarchs had, it clearly respected the boundary that the sisters—who were larger than the average Seshanamitesh female—presented. This was worth noting, so he studied the reaction of the matriarchs as they passed through their midst.

He glanced over at his mother briefly, only once, noting that the queen rose rigidly upon her tail in front of her throne, her hands fisted at her sides as she faced the court. Her gaze shifted to him, and he was surprised to see a flicker of what appeared to be regret in her gaze before she resolutely looked away from her, her back stiffening. His gaze dropped away and shifted to Jathella as they exited the clamor of the throne chamber. Somehow, with his absence, the voices were getting even louder so that they followed them down the corridor as they made their way to the residential part of palace.

He studied the female in front of him. Although, unlike Slengral, he had never been a playmate of Jathella and her sisters when they were young, as he had already been of age to dwell with the rest of the young males in the haga, he trusted his brother’s assessment of the females’ loyalty and willingness to assist him for the betterment of the shinara. He had been warned that they would not oppose the queen directly, but Slengral assured him that they would be open to helping Therxian as they had helped him.

He had to admit that an alliance with them was a good choice. Seeing them in action proved they were indeed formidable allies. He had little doubt that this alone had greatly improved Slengral’s chances of success in escaping, and ensured Lori’s own survival. Given their rank and their close association with the throne, garnering their assistance would be to his advantage. There was only one small drawback. Jathella and her sisters were all distinctive in appearance due to the pale blue patterning of their scales. It made them easy to spot anywhere within the Great Nest or any place within the shinara. While it would work in his favor in some ways, he could not ignore that anything they did on his behalf would not be without notice or scrutiny.

But how to open dialogue with the sisters? He considered the matter as peered at Jathella. She would be the one to approach. It seemed that she took the lead and Buosoa followed. Would Kitanara? Proceeding would be tricky, however. One did not just openly ask another to form a rebellious alliance against the nobles and queen. He frowned contemplatively as Jathella led him into a room, but it was the sound of Buosoa following them inside that made his gavo twitch with surprise. He stopped and rose on his tail as he turned to look back at the other female until Jathella’s voice broke the silence, drawing his attention back to her.

“Calm yourself, Therxian.” The female gave him a hard smile as he turned once more to face her. “We have been waiting for this moment. We knew that somehow Slengral would find you and send you here in his stead. To do what must be done.”

It seemed that his brother had left him an opening without even realizing it.

Perfect.

Chapter 4

Pain pierced Alex’s head, and a muffled curse escaped her as her hand went up to shield her eyes from the sun beating down on her. Soft sand cushioned her and blew over her skin in a constant glide that scraped a raw path across the places where her skin was exposed. That was not even taking into consideration the red, blistering patches of flesh that had sustained direct damage in the crash. At least none of her burns appeared to be too serious. All the same, she felt like an idiot.

She knew she should have worn her TRS. The thermal regulatory suit was damn near indestructible and would have protected her from the worst of it all. Unfortunately, her simple jumpsuit was in tatters. The torso was holding together well enough despite a few rips, but the left sleeve was in ribbons and the right sleeve completely missing. As for the legs...they were a complete loss.

Sighing, Alex bent forward and tore away the fluttering bits of fabric. No sense in leaving them in place when they would just get in her way and possibly trip her. She promptly tore off what was left of the left sleeve as well. She looked properly ship-wrecked now. Except this wasn’t an old story where sparkling sandy beaches led into a shady jungle with pools of fresh water and a hidden treasure. She was in the middle of the red without supplies or any hope of rescue. She couldn’t complain too loudly, though, because it was honestly a miracle she had survived. But how the fuck had she ended up outside the flyer?

The flyer... fuck, what a mess that was going to be to explain.

Speaking of messes—she grimaced, wincing as she studied the mottled bruising already popping on her exposed arms beneath the angry red hue already setting in from the scrape of the sand and the sun rising higher in the sky. She gave her body an experimental twist and hissed when pain blossomed deeper over her back and torso. Although most of her body was still covered for the most part with what was left of her jumpsuit, she was pretty sure that her entire body was a tapestry of bruises. At least nothing appeared to be broken, by some miracle.

Groaning, she slowly pushed herself up. Her arms were wobbly, and she felt weaker than a newborn kitten, but she forced herself into a seated position on the sand. Her head swiveled from left to right as she took stock of her surroundings. Her eyes widened as she stared at the wreckage littered across the sand.

Crap. The wreckage of the ship was worse than she had thought it would be. The entire flight deck had been ripped apart by the storm, and there was no sign at all of what was left of the passenger cabin. Vi. Eshash.

Fueled by panic, she lurched to her feet only to stumble across the sand. “Vi! Violet Harris!” she shouted.

Alex kicked a large metal plate jutting from the sand to dislodge it. It rocked and slid in its sandy bed before falling away. Her eyes scoured the surroundings of the wreckage. Nothing. There was no sign of the passenger hold, nor of Vi and the Seshanamitesh.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered under her breath as she turned in a slow circle, her hands raised to shade her eyes.

The dark crest of the Zir seemed further away. Had the storm fractured the flyer and flung it across the desert? The wall had been of massive scale. There was no telling where the rest of the flyer might have landed.

As she turned again, she froze when something moved abruptly over the sand.

“H... hello?” she called out, her hand immediately dropping to her thigh where her registered blaster was always secured. Her hand slid over the torn material of her jumper, and her heart sank. Somehow, she had lost it in the crash.

The sand stirred as something whipped rapidly, sending a line of sand spraying into the air as it moved toward her. Alex stumbled back from it, her heart jumping up into her throat.

“What the fuck,” she croaked in a half-whisper. Please don’t eat me. Just go away.

Whatever it was, it paused, and the sand settled back into place as if there were nothing there at all. It was spooky as fuck. Almost clever as if it were reacting directly to her words and intentionally trying to deceive her.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a hell no for me. That shit’s not going to work,” she muttered, taking another slow step away from it, and then another. “I knew I shouldn’t have slept during the wildlife brief, but fuck all of this. I’m not that stupid.”

The sand suddenly began to ripple with a shrill trill, and Alex didn’t stick around to see what it was. With a scream that hurt her own ears, she turned and bolted for the largest section of the wreckage. She heard the sand spray up behind her and the distinctive sound of the creature whipping forward at a fast speed. Pain stabbed deeply through her chest with every labored breath she dragged into her lungs, but she didn’t dare slow down. With all of her remaining strength, she leaped onto the tilted side of the flyer. She fell forward the moment her feet hit the side, but she grabbed onto a segment of raised metal before she could slide back down to the sand.

The sharp edge of the metal bit into her hands, but she ignored the sharp pain as she pulled herself up, her feet scrambling against the smooth metal side as she reached for the next handhold. Sweat poured down her back, but at last she dragged herself to the top and slowly turned herself around so that she could look down at her pursuer.