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“I agree,” Fiona said, still whispering behind the shield of her hand. “But it doesn’t mean that our mountain man over there is gonna like it.”
Gahn Thaleo’s eyebrows were drawn downward, the scarred one slightly lower than the other. His jaw was stonily set, but otherwise, his face was largely unreadable. One thing was clear, though – he definitely wasn’t happy about any hurdles he or his men would face in getting a human mate.
He inhaled quietly, then turned to Valeria once more. “I have not forgotten your terms.”
We all waited, expecting him to say something else. When he didn’t, Valeria stood. Grim quickly followed, rising to his huge, scaly feet. The Deep Sky people gawked, as if they’d forgotten how huge he was while he’d been seated.
“Well, thank you so much for this meal,” Valeria said stiffly. “We’d better be-”
“You did not get to experience our heated pools.” Gahn Thaleo’s words sliced through Valeria’s. She pursed her lips, casting her eyes down at those of us still sitting. When her eyes met mine, I shrugged. Yeah, the previous conversation had been a little awkward, but I wasn’t itching to get out of here yet if we didn’t have to.
“Please, pleeease, let us stay and see the pools,” Fiona begged, clutching her hands together in a dramatic, prayer-like position. “I am sonotready to go back out into that chilly night.”
Tilly nodded in agreement, and Nasrin, like me, just shrugged. Taylor also piped up that she wanted to see the heated pools, and Tok growled that he’d go wherever his mate wanted to be.
Valeria was clearly mulling over the options. But she obviously knew what we all did. We may have been in Gahn Thaleo’s mountain, but with our Sea Sand guards, her guns, and especially the Bitter Sea men escorting us, we wouldn’t be in any real danger. It wasn’t like Gahn Thaleo was going to be able to hold us hostage until we all agreed to be mated to his men or something. Besides, even a Gahn couldn’t decide who should be someone’s mate. Only the Kell, the Lavrika, or the Vrika out here, could do that.Although, the Vrika doesn’t exactly seem to have the best track record for this stuff, I thought sourly, remembering whom it had apparently chosen for me.Is there, like, a Vrika supervisor I can speak to? A 1-800-my-mate’s-kind-of-a-dick hotline to call? Who do I complain to about this?
“Alright. Thank you. We’ll use the heated pools. And then-”
“And then you’ll stay the night,” Gahn Thaleo finished for her. Valeria’s mouth dropped open, but she closed it, recovering quickly.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said, frowning.
“You propose that your party undresses, bathes in the warm water, gets comfortable here, only to go back out into the cold night, heading for a settlement that as of yet, does not even really exist?”
“When you put it like that,” I murmured.
Fiona nodded eagerly beside me.
“I vote for the alien sleepover,” she said in English. Valeria sighed, casting her eyes over our group, once again taking a quick tally. Nobody had any strong objections about staying the night here. We’d have our alien guards, Valeria’s weapons, and the shuttle just outside if needed. And honestly, the idea of getting warm and snugly in a bed of some kind sounded fantastic right now. Gahn Thaleo was absolutely right – getting all lovely and warm in the pools only to trudge back to the cold dark caves sounded awful.
“It might be worth staying here a few days,” I said suddenly. Valeria looked at me, surprised. I explained. “It would be worth collecting data about the environment and weather systems here to compare to other areas. The storms have been worse on this side of the mountains lately, right?”
“Correct,” Gahn Thaleo answered.
“We have all the equipment in the shuttle. We can do some work out here, get acquainted with the mountains, then set up the settlement and continue our work there,” I said.And the fact that the longer I’m over here in Gahn Thaleo’s mountains means the longer I can avoid Gahn Errok is just the cherry on top, I thought to myself. Gahn Errok had said himself he needed to get back to his own tribe and territory. If I stayed out here for a while, maybe I could avoid dealing with him for a little longer.
“Let’s just take this one step at a time,” Valeria said. “For now, yes, we will stay one night. We can reassess in the morning.”
She turned to the Sea Sand warriors who were now standing.
“Vaxilkai, you and Bariok run down to the shuttle and get our packs from the shuttle, would you?”
The two of them grunted before striding away. Gahn Thaleo flashed a silent look to Warrek, who trotted after the other two, escorting them back down the tunnel.
A little niggle of worry started to poke at me as the minutes ticked by without Vaxilkai and Bariok. I started to get paranoid that maybe this was some kind of trap after all. But my suspicions were dashed a few moments later when the two warriors returned, carrying all our backpacks as well as some extra bedding hides. Warrek brought up the rear, and Gahn Thaleo turned to us.
“You have your things. Now follow me.”
His commanding voice made me shiver. Even though we were his guests, his words felt less like an invitation and more like a command.
But then again, who really cared? He was taking us to a heated spring after a long day of travel. No commands were necessary.
We all followed Gahn Thaleo back out into the tunnel we’d come from. I cast a glance backward as we left, finding all the Deep Sky people’s sight stars trained on us as we departed their hall. I smiled backwards, mouthing a quiet “Thank you,” at them, hoping we hadn’t made their dinner too weird. I didn’t have much hope for a response, but just before I turned forward once more, a young Deep Sky woman caught my gaze and smiled hesitantly, but warmly, back at me.
That soft smile quelled my nerves even more. Yes, we may have been in an alien world, but there were always connections to be made. Always relationships to forge, things in common to find.
Even with Errok?
