Page 7 of King of Serpents

Therxian reclined on his cushions as he drank from the shallow drinking bowl. The small male who had served had nervously fled shortly upon delivering his food and drink. It seemed that he was to be a captive within his rooms for the time being. A well-treated captive, but a captive, nonetheless.

He plucked a small morsel of meat from the plate in front of him and eyed it before popping it into his mouth. He savored the familiar flavor. It had been long since he enjoyed the delicacies that were only found deep within the cave systems. He reached for another piece of meat but paused when he saw Jathella enter his nest from its entry hall. His hand fell away from his plate and his gavo rose curiously at the grim yet determined look on her face.

“Jathella. This is a surprise. I did not expect you,” he murmured.

Her jaw tightened slightly, but her mouth briefly twisted in a small smile. “I did not see a need to announce myself, given our unique relationship.”

His eyes narrowed on her speculatively, but he flicked his gavo in agreement. He did not know what she was up to, but he knew that he would soon be finding out. Jathella was honest. She would not keep him waiting long before she revealed what she wanted. Her expression did not change to reveal even a hint of what she was thinking, however, as she moved closer, her tail winding in a highly alert fashion.

“It is our relationship that I wished to speak to you of,” she continued in an even voice. His gavo rose higher with caution.

“In what sense?”

Another faint smile brushed Jathella’s mouth before disappearing once more. “Would you not agree that, in this relationship, my sisters and I are taking on considerable risk for our collaboration?”

He snapped his gavo warily. Jathella smiled in truth and inclined her head in acknowledgement of his agreement.

“Would you say that it would be fair if we asked something of you that would require a small amount of risk on your part?”

That was fair but also highly suspicious.

“Exactly what is it that you want me to do?” he asked, cutting directly to the point. Did she seek to gain something from their arrangement? If she was about to demand some sort of mating alliance—

“We need you to hide a female,” she replied, and he stared at her blankly in shock.

That... was nothing like what he expected.

“Repeat that,” he demanded as he rose curiously from his cushions.

The female had the grace to grimace as she turned toward the entrance. It was only then that he saw Buosoa there. She waved to the female, but it was not just Buosoa who entered, but the remaining sister also followed her in, her wings curled protectively around herself. It wasn’t until she neared that she unfurled them to reveal to him the prize that she was carrying. A small human, smaller in stature than any other human he had met, was unconscious in her arms.

He eased forward, at once both curious and entranced. A sweetness trailed through his senses beyond anything he could define as he marveled at her angrily red features and the sprinkling of brown pigment across her nose and high on her cheekbones that stood out against it and the obvious blistering from burns. Her full lips were chapped, and her short hair of pale gold stuck up at weird angles where it was not plastered against her head from dried sweat.

“Hide her or bury her? She looks dead,” he observed. No, not dead. Despite how she looked, nothing dead had ever smelled quite so intriguing.

The third sister—Kitanara, if he recalled correctly—gave him a disgruntled look, her wings snapping around the female protectively as she aimed an accusative look at her sister.

“I told you that this was a terrible idea. He is a male. Slengral aside, what male knows how to care for a female? Especially one as sick as Alex.”

Alex. So that was the little female’s name. It bore similarity to the name of the first human female to arrive at the nara. Was it fate or coincidence?

“We cannot hide her in our nest,” Jathella argued. “She would be discovered far too easily. Someone would notice if we took extra supplies to adequately feed and care for her. Therxian always gets all the food he desires, so few would even take note of it if he were to demand more. We at least need to make sure that she has recovered before Queen Zathexa learns of her presence.”

“You mean the noble matriarchs,” Buosoa countered drily, her arms crossing over her chest.

“Same difference,” Kitanara muttered. “The moment word reaches the queen, the spies of the noble families will alert the matriarchs within a short time.” She gave Therxian a stern look. “We need her presence to be kept a complete secret while she recovers, Therxian.”

He considered the small female thoughtfully. It was true that his nest was of a spacious design. It was clearly selected as the place where he was intended to breed the next generation of royal females. That gave him a certain level of autonomy rare among males. Because of that, other than bringing what he needed, none of the palace servants were inclined to linger long. They were right to assume that he could easily hide her within the nest without anyone noticing so long as she remained quiet and followed his lead.

He coughed in silent laughter. When were human females ever that cooperative?

Hissing quietly to himself, he rolled back on his coils and flicked his gavo. “You may place her over here,” he muttered as he led them to his sleeping chamber.

The dugout bed filled most of the room, and a large segment of it was concealed behind several erected screens and the natural rock formations of the cliff-side that the palace was built into. Selecting a well-hidden part of his nest that would not be readily visible from any other point in the room, he arranged numerous pillows and cushions to form a comfortable spot for the small human to sleep. Satisfied with the final result, he gestured to it.

“She can be put there,” he instructed.

Kitanara gave it a critical look, but it seemed to meet her satisfaction because her gavo flicked in agreement before she glided past him with the human in her arms. He tried not to watch with too much interest as she placed the human on the pillows and arranged her comfortably there, but he could not quite quell the unexpected gratification he felt having her there within his nest. It took every bit of self-control not to steal a glance at the small human before she was covered entirely with the blanket that he had produced for her.