Chapter 4 #2
Now what? What were they planning to do with me?
And where was Krashe? I instantly hated myself for thinking about him.
He wasn’t the good guy. He was one of my captors just like the rest of them.
It was definitely Stockholm syndrome talking to think he might help me in here.
I had zero evidence to base such an assumption on other than that he’d been sorta nice to me so far.
And ‘nice’ really was a stretch to describe how he’d treated me.
The Naga on the throne had risen to a more upright position and her belly was protruding over her hips and coiled tail.
Talking with hisses and growls, her voice held this captivating, insidious tone that made me want to pay attention even if I couldn’t understand a word she said.
Everyone in the room seemed to be her eager audience, listening as she talked and pointed at me, sneering along with her when she bared dainty fangs my way.
I was pretty sure she was declaring my inferiority and announcing my coming execution.
Even more sure when the crowd started to cheer and clap their clawed hands together.
Not again… Were they going to drag me out into that clearing and do it right away?
I wet my dry lips at the thought, racking my brain to see if I remembered anything like gallows or a guillotine out there.
The one in charge had gotten closer, rising all the way on her tail and coming to the edge of her raised platform.
The two guards that had already been there were clenching their jaws, glaring down at me to warn me not to do anything.
While the two that had brought me here had pulled swords and aimed them at my neck.
“Seriously?” I demanded half under my breath.
“Like I’m a threat to any of you.” I rolled my eyes at the fat lady Naga towering over me.
Without a weapon, I wouldn’t be a match for her in any way, even if she was pregnant.
She was twice my size at the torso and her tail was triple my length.
As soon as she wrapped me in her coils it would be all over.
She tilted her head down to shoot me a glare, probably because I had talked right through her impassioned speech.
Her eyes were freaky, an orange starburst circling her pupil that faded to dark red on the edges of her iris.
Her glare was formidable too, and I fought the urge to roll my shoulders into a hunch.
No, I wasn’t going to let her see how much she intimidated me.
I didn’t want to spend my last hours alive cowering in fear.
I wanted to go out feeling proud of myself.
A commotion behind me had her snap her eyes up and I twisted to have a look.
Relief surged through me that I tried very hard to squash when Krashe burst through the door and into the throne room.
He wasn’t saying much, just looked fierce.
When he pushed through the two guards with their swords aimed my way he sent them both tumbling back into the crowd that filled the room.
I had only a brief second to compare his huge shoulders to those of his male brethren and conclude that he was definitely the biggest. Then I was suddenly wrapped up in several coils of his tail, my arms pinned to my sides. “This is dangerous!” he said, “Don’t you know what she is?”
He wasn’t dressed the same way as before.
Or rather, he was actually wearing clothing this time, as opposed to just a few belts that crossed his upper body.
A robe was tied around his waist, sleeves covering his arms all the way down to his wrists.
The black fabric was molded to his flesh, not leaving anything to the imagination and it made him look more threatening.
That could also be due to the firm collar that stood up around his neck, kinda like a certain count.
Stuck in the thick coils of his tail, I was suddenly flushed with his warmth.
I hadn’t even realized that I’d gotten cold, but my skin felt icy against his warm scales.
Had I gone from the frying pan into the fire, or was he actually here to help me?
My mind was telling me one thing, but my body definitely thought Krashe was here to rescue me.
My flesh was heating, my nipples growing hard and achy.
“She is from the heavens! She came with a sky-ship to Serant. Are you all fools? Parading her in here, endangering the Queen?” Krashe roared rather than spoke.
Everyone inside the building cowered and trembled beneath his rage.
The guards when they crawled back out of the crowd looked all shame-faced and shocked.
I was raging inside but I bit my tongue this time.
I couldn’t believe he was saying those things.
As if I was the danger here, the threat.
That was just ridiculous. And why the hell was he saying all that in English?
Why did it seem like everyone could understand his words? That made no sense at all.
The pregnant Naga lady was watching his display with a vague smile on her face.
It felt sharp and mean, conniving, and I didn’t trust it one bit.
“Aw, my sweet Warlord. What would I do without you? It looks so tiny and helpless… Surely, it is no danger to me?” Her voice was a sibilant drawl that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
English again, her words making perfect sense…
Had I lost my mind? Why could I understand her?
Krashe’s coils around me tightened as he moved me closer to where he rose above me on the base of his tail.
He had his giant sword strapped to his back just like before, I could see the edge of the black blade gleaming at the side of his hip where it stuck out.
He hadn’t glanced at me at all, just held me tight in the loops of his tail so I couldn’t go anywhere.
I should have felt trapped, but I felt safe instead.
See, I was completely deranged at this point.
“And what if she has mind gifts? Powers? What if this weak appearance is just a ruse? You are our Queen, we cannot risk you! We are on the eve of war, let that be your focus while I take care of this abomination!” Ouch, abomination huh?
Was that what I was to them? No wonder they looked at me with so much hate.
What could have possibly happened to them that made them fear creatures from ‘sky-ships’ the way they did?
The blue Naga I’d met when I’d first woken up on the planet didn’t have any such issues…
At least I could take satisfaction in seeing the smug Queen’s face grow paler along the cheeks, her eyes growing round with worry.
“You are right, I should consult the lorebooks to discover what this creature is before we interact with it.” Then her eyes narrowed on me, on my head and shoulders which were pretty much the only part of me visible beyond Krashe’s coiled tail.
“Maybe we should just kill it right now. What do you think?”
“Consult your lore, my Queen,” Krashe rasped back, leaning his body closer to her over the crossed bars of the spears her personal guard were holding.
“We must make sure we do it right on the first try,” he hissed at her in a conspiratorial whisper.
His words made her eyes narrow at me even further while she nodded.
My warlord captor didn’t waste another moment, he turned around, snarling at the crowd behind us, and the curious faces leaning in through the open door.
His tail moved and then I was freed from his coils but instantly yanked up in his arms, cradled tightly against his chest. One arm pinned my arms to his body tightly, my legs dangling down without ceremony.
He moved fast, speeding from the Queen’s throne room while people had to dive out of his path or risk getting crushed.
I was pretty sure most were as scared of being touched by me as they were of being in his warpath.