Chapter 10
Zsekhet
Cosima was feeling conflicted, which I didn’t like, but still elation was the biggest emotion that currently filled my chest. She had reached out and taken my tail, she’d finally confronted what we both knew, that we were mates.
With her taste on my tongue and her aroused scent still perfuming the air, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just conquered the world.
We were in search of the next charcoal mark but I was starting to get worried that we wouldn’t find it.
Pausing again, I pulled free the map that Artek had brought.
I peered at the drawn warren of tunnels but could not figure out where we were, and what the exit was that we were supposed to head to.
Cosima was staring at the map with more optimism, taking it from my hand when she realized I had no clue how to read it.
“I’m more used to aerial maps of the above-ground,” I said in defense.
She laughed, the sound warming my heart, “Sure you are. I think this is the room where that asshole held me.” She pointed a finger at a circular spot on the map and I hissed, wishing I’d made that bastard suffer longer for what he’d done to my mate.
I should have made him pay twofold for every bruise he’d left on her flesh.
Cosima traced her finger along the suede surface of the leather map, following several tunnel lines.
“I think we went like this first, that means this is probably the exit we want, don’t you think?
” She hesitated and glanced up at me, her soft gray eyes made me want to lean in and flick my tongue along her cheek.
I wanted to pick up where we left off a moment ago, and pin her against the wall so I could give her more pleasure with my mouth and my cock.
She smirked and patted my shoulder, “It’s okay, I’ll figure it out.
Don’t worry about it.” She might very well be insulting me with that last comment, questioning my map-reading skills like that.
I couldn’t care less, I loved how confident she was about her own ability, and how she didn’t hesitate to speak her mind. She felt at ease with me.
“Okay, this way,” she said just as the skin on my back prickled.
She pointed a slender hand down one tunnel but I caught it and yanked her close, pressing her against the wall behind my back.
My heart was racing, my hands already reaching for a pair of daggers strapped to my chest. “What the fuck! Zsekhet!” Cosima muttered but she froze when she saw the shimmer of a knife. “Someone coming?” she whispered.
I nodded, willing the jubilant glow of my sigils to die down so we could better hide.
They just would not, lighting the tunnel with each pulse of my heart.
Shouting for anyone to see that I was protecting my tiny mate behind my back.
We were in Thunder Rock territory—barely—according to the map, but I had a feeling that those I heard approaching were not going to be from the blue Clan.
“Bitter Storm,” I said quietly to my mate.
They were coming from several directions, we could not outrun them, not in here, where I was completely out of my element.
Not long after the words left my mouth the first warrior rounded the corner, his red scales glowing with a faint hint of yellow and black in the light of my scales.
“Yessss,” the warrior hissed in response, “Bitter Storm. You are intruders, you will be punished!” He leveled his spear my way, baring a set of fangs, the row of upper teeth between filed to sharp points.
All of his ivory was painted black, a shocking, disgusting sight to see that made my scales itch.
What kind of darkness had this Clan succumbed to?
“Wait, Sentinel Sra,” a second intruded. A younger Naga but still a full-fledged warrior in his own right, this newcomer came out of another tunnel and was followed by several more. “You know we have new orders. We’re to take intruders captive and bring them to the King.”
That sounded better than having to fight half a dozen warriors in these tight quarters.
My daggers were much more suited to that kind of close combat than their spears, but it meant Cosima would be far too exposed.
Not a risk I wanted to take. But the word ‘King’ gave me pause, since when did a Clan have a king?
Such a thing was unheard of. Usually, it was Queen consort.
At the most, a male could be a prince, whose mate could assent the throne.
The older male hissed but he lowered his spear just a tad.
I sighed. Okay, now what? With the element of surprise on my side, I could take them.
As soon as that first warrior turned his back, I’d jump him.
I braced my muscles, my tail curling protectively around my mate.
But the sound of more warriors approaching held me back.
Damn it, their numbers swelled to nearly twenty, they crowded around us and started urging us to move with angry threats, barely held in check by the more reasonable male out of the lot.
The one who insisted we needed to be brought to the King.
I guess we’d be visiting this King. I wondered who it was, but Krashe was not the most forthcoming male, he rarely talked about people from his old Clan.
The most I knew came from Naomi, who’d let slip after my implants had been inserted, that the Queen of that Clan had had some serious problems with her and Krashe’s mating.
If anyone dared to call my mate an abomination, they would not live to tell the tale.
“Don’t be scared,” I murmured to my mate, “It will all work out. I promise.” If Ses was here, I’d take my chances with their numbers.
This was why I really hated being underground, you got used to always having the power of a dragon at your fingertips.
If there was one thing I was sure of, Ses would protect my mate with his life, without question.
Cosima tilted her head to lean it against my bicep, her whisper even softer than my words had been.
“Oh I’m not scared, I think I’m stinking mad.
It’s not like we wanted to intrude on their territory.
” I smirked, curling my arm around her shoulders and tugging her even closer.
That was my girl, fiery like the flames she carried in her hair.
I knew she’d been keeping all that fire banked inside the moment I’d laid eyes on her, and now she was finally letting it out. She was perfect, and adorable.
It felt like we walked for hours without a break, one endless tunnel after another.
With no handy marks of charcoal to leave behind, we were never going to find our way out on our own.
The Shaman’s map had only included a portion of the tunnels in Bitter Storm territory.
We’d have to take some local hostage to be our guide.
Not my idea of a good time, but very doable, I reasoned.
My mate was getting tired, her pace slowing the further we traveled.
She’d already been through a lot, with her abduction, with the passion and the mate bond between us.
I swung her into my arms without a word, ignoring the spears being leveled at me and the angry growls and hisses.
Cosima snuggled against my chest, her eyes large in her pale, freckled face.
She was tired but not sleepy, all her senses on high alert. Good, we’d need that.
The huge cavern we entered not much later took me by surprise.
I hadn’t realized caves could be this large, and it boggled my mind that you could be indoors and Sesethul might even fit with room to spare.
A whole village lay inside it, hundreds of houses packed together in a labyrinthine maze.
The wooden roofs and thick clay walls spread a lightly herbal scent from the trees that had been used to make them.
The hubbub of voices had sounded like the murmur of a river before, but now that I saw the source I was a little awed.
Serqethos was only a small Clan so I had never before seen this many people crowded together in one place, it was mind-boggling to see.
So many red Naga darting along the pathways, a whole crowd of younglings chasing after a ball.
As soon as they saw us, voices started going up, people staring and pointing.
Mouths pulled into angry snarls or glares.
Many of the bared sets of teeth I saw were blackened in the same way as the warrior that had found us first. Wood smoke curled through the air, carrying with it the scents of cooking meat.
I wondered how much risk there was of a fire outbreak, these wooden buildings were all built so close together they leaned crookedly into one another.
“This place is a firetrap,” Cosima hissed, echoing my thoughts.
“We need to get out of here. I don’t fancy going up in flames because someone forgot to turn off the stove.
” I grinned, finding humor in the situation, what were the chances that right as we arrived, everything burned to the ground?
Many of these homes were old and crooked, they looked like they’d been here a long time.
But stove was a strange word that I struggled to attach a meaning to, did she mean a cooking fire?
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” I spotted a tunnel in the far distance, the edge of it just visible above the roofs. It was lighter there, a way out. I wondered how high up on the mountain we’d find ourselves if we left that way. Would Ses be able to find us and fly us home? To Haven?
Knowing my companion he would start scouring the mountain flank in search of us when he thought I took too long to return.
But it would be sheer luck if he happened to be close to us when we left.
He had an uncanny knack for finding me, but I was sure that ended when I had traversed underground. There was no scent to follow.