Page 52 of King of Serpents

“I believe she has realized this,” Buosoa quietly interjected. “She made an error in judgement in trying to choose a way that would not destabilize the entire shinara. Slengral’s hostility was already widely known—among females and males alike. The hunters saw him as an example and abandoned us rather than mend the rift. That you know. What you do not know is that it caused considerable unrest. Females began to look at the males with distrust, imagining that they needed to keep them under stricter control and confinement, which led to one particularly docile male poisoning his mate. And several juvenile males within the haga attempted to assault a lone female while they were out attending their duties. And this is the chaos that Queen Zathexa had to answer to every day.”

“Slengral just wished to protect his mate and live in peace,” Therxian argued, but he knew it was a weak argument. While it was true that this was his brother’s strongest desire, it was also true that his brother would have had no problem destroying the shinara completely—and not without reasons of his own. “Anyone would do the same.”

Jathella inclined her head, her gavo rising slowly before snapping firmly in agreement. “Anyone would,” she agreed. “But Buosoa is right. His presence brought chaos to our door because what they saw in Slengral was a male who defiantly opposed the shinara in every way. And would do so violently if necessary. Furthermore, he was a male who broke free of the social system that regulated our mating habits for so long.”

“These habits are antiquated at best. In the Vehal—”

“You are not in the Vehal,” Jathella sharply reminded him. “Unlike you, he did not return because he wanted to heal the people but on the charge of assault on a noble female.”

“Who assaulted him!”

“Granted, but this case had not been determined. And rather than humbling himself in some manner so that the Queen could find an angle to support him and his choices against the wishes of the council, he aggressively opposed her wishes in public at every opportunity. In private, Zathexa never spoke ill of Lori. Only ceaseless worry that the council would find a way to kill her. When the maiden trial was suggested, it appeared to be the best solution to give Lori the benefit of proving herself— so that everyone would see that her presence was there to add to the strength of the shinara rather than destroy it.”

“That is not what Slengral said,” he muttered.

“Naturally. He blamed her and angered her—so she allowed him to believe the worst, because he would anyway. He would never believe that she did not discover what had been intended until afterward. She had hoped that by allowing him to make her the villain if it would rouse him from his grief and open himself to mating again, not only for the welfare of the shinara but also to distract him and fill his heart in some way.”

“I knew her approach would not work,” Kitanara sighed. “Zathexa took a mate when she was young, before she became queen. Your father, Therxian,” she added. “She never loved another male again after his death, and took care not to create a pheromone bond with those she welcomed into her bed in brief encounters to breed with. Slengral is too much like his mother to agree with that. Or perhaps she did know that, and it was why she forced the issue.”

“Has her temper too,” Buosoa huffed. “He thought that she had released Payeri and her mother, Shalyia. He was only partially right. For her transgression, Payeri was subjected to a slow, painful death with her own mother as witness. Shalyia was stripped of status and released before being exiled to a far corner of the shinara to grieve for her fallen mother-line and the loss of her daughter. Vekatha is fortunate that she is only suffering imprisonment.”

“Speaking of Vekatha,” Jathella murmured. “That brings us to why we are here.”

Therxian’s gavo lifted inquisitively. “You did not come simply to yell at me?”

“I came to congratulate you,” Buosoa purred. “I knew that the meat would push you to act.”

“Indeed,” Jathella murmured as she peered at her younger sister in annoyance. She huffed and redirected her attention back to Therxian. “But that was just an additional benefit. I came to inform you that I have arranged for you to meet Vekatha tomorrow in the early hours. Be ready.”

“I shall be ready,” Therxian rumbled, his tail coiling in anticipation.

Chapter 37

Alex hummed a song under her breath to entertain herself as she bounced on the balls of her feet while following a meandering path through one of the overgrown corridors beyond the residential quarter of the palace. There was only so much “stay put” she could handle. Her mate’s heart was in the right place—and she snickered quietly to herself as a giddy shiver rushed through her at the reminder that he was most certainly hers now—but passing every day within the confines of a royal nest had long since exhausted its fascination for her. She was too accustomed to being busy to be able to just lounge and enjoy the princess-treatment—such as it was. It hardly seemed fair when Therxian was out there investigating in the thick of things.

There was no reason that she could not conduct her own investigation. And it would have the dual purpose of also giving her something to do. And it wasn’t like Therxian had expressly forbidden her from leaving the royal nest in so many words. So long as she remained safe, then no-harm, no-foul.

Besides, she was curious about the palace. Despite the damage and disrepair in the main entry tunnel from the palace above, the elder palace appeared to be far more ornate and fashioned with far greater structural superiority. She didn’t know architecture, but from what she saw of the residential corridor of the upper palace, she was of the opinion that it possessed a significant contrast to the elder palace. It was almost as if it were carved out hastily from a wall of stone that possessed a weaker composite, as she hadn’t noticed any small fragments rolling from the walls of the elder palace. Not to mention that the outer face wall of his nest and the residential corridor itself appeared to suffer enough structural weakness to require forged support beams that they attempted to blend into the décor—something noticeably absent within the elder palace despite being older.

Alex skimmed her fingers along the smooth wall that was barely visible beneath the dense overhang of galthie flowers. Come to think of it, even the galthie flowers seemed healthier in the elder palace. Perhaps it was because their roots were better supported by the shelf-like bands carved into the wall. The leaves were larger, plumper in form, and brighter in pigment. Even the size and brilliance of the flowers put those of the upper palace to shame, making them appear almost wilted by comparison. Pausing, she ran a fingertip along one broad, glowing pink petal thoughtfully before her eyes dropped down to the stone band it rested on. Was there also a continuous water source for them being provided? She didn’t know how it would work but it certainly seemed plausible given their health and the fact that the sound of water never seemed to completely diminish no matter where she was in the palace. There was just a continuous soft cadence flowing in the background.

Interesting.

She didn’t recall any sound of water in the walls of Therxian’s nest. Did that contribute to one of the major differences in the design of the palaces? It had not taken her long to work out that the residential level in the elder palace—the royal nest and connected residential chambers—was part of the upper level, with all corridors leading downward. Outside of the access corridor between the palaces, that was. An access corridor that appeared to have been carved out of what once was some kind of royal garden connected to the residential area, now that she really thought about it. Although the galthie grew thickly in the palace, no part appeared to be anywhere near as overgrown.

“Like the old solariums and health rooms in history,” she mumbled aloud.

In contrast, the upper palace appeared to have been constructed with the residential area on the ground level. Perhaps it was because the upper palace only had a singular water resource there. Conversely, the position of the residential chambers in the elder palace suggested that there was a downward flow of water accessed by the entire palace. Which would certainly be another mark in favor of the elder palace in terms of superior design.

So why had it been abandoned?

And was there a collection point where the water exited the palace? It seemed that there must be.

Alex pursed her lips as she resumed her trek down the winding corridor. If the palace was tapping a natural reservoir of water from above, relying on gravity to supply the entirety of the palace with water, it would stand to reason that somewhere there would be a visible termination point for the water where it would pool and exit. If she were correct, then it should be at a lower level.

“Given its breadth, I will assume that this appears to be the main corridor,” she continued. She knew it was unnecessary to talk to herself, but in the silence of the elder palace, it made her feel better. Less alone. “I guess I will just keep following it downward. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Perhaps not the wisest of sentiments, but her route was as uneventful as she surmised it would be. There was no monster making a nest in one of the lower chambers. Indeed, she had glimpsed into many chambers connected to it and even glanced down through a few of the side corridors that suddenly branched off it, and saw little more than the same quiet, slumbering shadows of the abandoned palace. Every exquisitely carved wall, every carefully and strategically vaulted ceiling that retained the stability of the ancient palace seemed more haunted by memories of the past than by a dangerous predator. They were lonely, glowing softly in the gentle light of the carefully spaced galthie that, despite being somewhat overgrown, seemed to maintain the quiet dignity of the spacious rooms.