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He frowns, grunts, the shakes his head. Finally he lets go of my hands and stands up. He goes to the cabinet and pours a drink for each of us. He slices a piece of bread for me and places it on a plate. He stares at the glass in front of himself then rubs the back of his head.
“The leader of the lizards knows this?” he asks at last.
“Yes, so I was told,” I say.
He grabs the glass and tosses it back. He grimaces as it burns down his throat. I take a small sip and a bite of bread.
“They do not want to destroy us?”
I frown. “Yes and no.”
“That is not an answer,” he says.
“No, it’s not. They want to destroy you, yes. But he is willing to have peace too. If it is possible. He doesn’t believe it is, but the human leader, Rosalind, she does. And she thinks we need all of us, all the people of Tajss, to get ready.”
“Ready?”
“Yeah,” I say and now I take a big sip even though it burns like hell. “She’s the only person who’s been off planet and she says that there are other people out there. People who want Tajss for themselves.”
“The Star People,” Bhoja growls.
“Yeah,” I nod. “We were already invaded once. That’s why my people set off the big bomb. They were trying to hide the fact that Tajss has viable life. That it’s not a deathtrap or something.”
He nods.
“The Star People, the ones who brought the lizards.”
“I don’t know if they are the same or not, but Rosalind is convinced that we need to be preparing for war. All of us, not against each other, but against them.”
“The Shaman would never believe this,” he says with a musing tone to his voice.
“No, I don’t think so,” I agree.
He pours a new drink and stares into it for a long time. When he looks up the fire in his eyes has changed. Now it’s steel. Tempered and hardened, ready for war.
“Then we know what we must do.”
I bite my lip, wanting to hear him say it so I can be sure we’re on the same page.
“And that is?”
“Overthrow the Shaman. Save our Queen. Then present your truth to her.”
I nod and raise my glass. We clink them together then each take a drink.
“I love you,” I say.
“And I you,” he says. “My dragoste, it is now clear to me.”
“What is?”
“Why now. Tajss brought us together and I could not understand how or why. Why now when the world was about to end and there was no time for us. Now I do.”
“And why is it?”
“Because, my dragoste, it is on you and I to bring in the new world. Not in blood and death, but by destroying the Shaman, his Maulavi, and for the first time in our history uniting the Urr’ki and the Zmaj. This is why you humans are here and what we must do.”
I swallow my fear because I know he’s right. It seems so clear, so easily laid out, yet there is no denying the enormity of the task.
“At least we’re not alone.”
“Never again, never alone.”
We clink glasses and drink. Then we kiss and head for the bedroom. Saving the world can wait a little bit.
THE END
