Chapter 14 #2
Cosima was cursing up a storm as I settled us into my usual seat and started hooking up the right buckles along my body to secure myself.
“I do that all the time, don’t worry. It was perfectly safe!
” I assured her when she fell silent and finally relaxed her death grip around my neck a little.
She was staring over my shoulder, her legs hooked around my waist. She had to be able to see all our passengers clinging to Sesethul’s wide back, lined up neatly along the spines between his wing roots.
“Hi,” she said, and I could feel her hand lift from my shoulder in a wave.
“Everyone okay back there? Anyone injured?” And then she gasped and her hand brushed along the broken shaft of an arrow which had lodged itself in the fleshy part of my shoulder.
It was not a bad injury, though it was going to hurt when that thing got pulled out.
“Damn it, Zsekhet! I asked if you were hurt!”
I grinned and patted her back, pressing her a little closer to make sure she stayed warm against my heat. “You asked if I was badly hurt, I am not.” I raised my voice and twisted my spine to look back at the now deadly silent crowd behind us. “Anyone else here need immediate medical attention?”
Joxra answered with a glum no, and then he asked how long it would take for us to get to Haven.
I cast my eyes forward and scanned the mountain range.
I hadn’t needed to give Ses any direction, after spending months at Haven, that was the instinctual direction for him to return to.
Already, he was soaring over the arm of a mountain and coasting down into the next valley.
Another hour and we’d be there, cutting short a several-day-long journey by foot.
An hour was still a long time to be up this high in the cold when my mate’s fragile skin was exposed.
I had no thick furs to cover her with, and I didn’t want to take what little supplies the ragtag little group had that clung to Ses’ back like drowned little Arayals.
Carefully coiling my body around her, I made sure she could neither fall nor get cold, and the upside was that I got to snuggle with her the entire ride.
Leaning in close to the pink, round shell of her ear, I flicked out my tongue and licked the edge.
“So, do you like the flying any better this time around?” I really hoped my mate would enjoy flying with Ses as much as I loved being up in the air.
Right now, the dragon was just flying at a steady pace and making use of thermals for efficiency.
If it was just us, Ses could show off some real acrobatics, it was a lot of fun.
“Well, I’m not cold this time,” she said pensively.
“So I guess so? I really need to get my own riding harness, like yours.” She reached up to stroke the dark strap of leather that crisscrossed over my chest, it went in bands all the way down my tail, with a long strap connecting them all along my back to help keep them in place.
Not all Naga managed to get used to wearing the harness, but I found that any discomfort was well worth the payoff for bonding with a magnificent animal like Ses, and flying with him whenever we felt like it.
“You’d look so damn sexy,” I said, “Once we get to Haven, I’ll improve on the ones I already made.
” I already had ideas in mind on how to tweak my previous design, working the leather to make a harness for a creature with two legs was a very different kind of proposition from how I usually fixed up my riding harness.
“Once you’ve got one, I’ll strap you to Sesethul’s back and show you some real flying,” I promised her seductively. She laughed but then settled against my scales, leaning her head against me as she gazed at the landscape below us.
“Are you really sure you’re going to be okay until we get to Haven?
Corin can heal you…” Yeah, the crafty pale blue Naga could.
I’d seen him break out his own healing device whenever he felt the situation warranted it.
I’d seen him dote on all the females, healing every scrape and bruise without ever being asked by their mates.
He wasn’t nearly so generous with that device when it came to the Naga males present, but an arrow tip lodged in my shoulder definitely called for it.
“Go sleep for a bit,” I said, “I will be fine. We’ve been through so much in a short time.
Rest. I will watch over you.” She settled further in my coils, her gaze still on the landscape but she was definitely letting the crash after the adrenaline carry her off.
My tiny, determined mate seemed to be fighting the urge to sleep which was cute.
“We can’t forget to let Artek know that we’re alright. And we need to call a meeting as soon as we get home… Zathar and Krashe must know about this new stuff with Bitter Storm.” She mumbled out the words sleepily, her intelligent mind still spinning. “And you need to come clean, mister.”
Yeah, she was right. I did need to have a proper talk with Zathar and Vera, the joint leaders of Outcast Haven.
They deserved to know what Serqethos thought of them, and where my loyalties lay.
My eyes lingered on Cosima’s pretty face, soft and freckled, and now slack from sleep.
She was adorable, and she was all I ever wanted.
I was fairly certain they’d already figured all of that out, long before Cosima had realized she was mine.
When Ses passed over the last mountain ridge and Ahoshaga came into view my stomach still tied itself up into knots.
Fitting in at this place had become far more important than I ever thought possible.
I didn’t want to screw things up, especially not when it mattered so much to me that Cosima had her friends, her Haven, here on Serant.
Shouts went up from both in and outside of the wall that closed off the pass toward the cave entrance.
Usually, Ses roosted on the cliff to one side where he could catch the best sunlight all day.
Today, I let him come in for a landing on the stretch of purple grass in front of the statue-framed entrance.
People were rushing outside, raced to us from the training area, and I spotted Corin ducking out of the now-finished drying shack we’d been building.
It was Zathar who reached Sesethul’s flank first, his mate hot on his tail.
“You brought back Bitter Storm warriors?” Vera exclaimed with surprise followed by, “Oh, there are children.”
Cosima shook herself awake in my coils but I couldn’t help myself, too eager to show off that I now understood the other humans because we’d mated.
“Yes, Joxra and his kin helped us escape. I do believe they are in need of a safe Haven.” Vera didn’t seem at all surprised and too late I realized that I’d also had that strange implant installed.
They didn’t realize yet that Cosima and I had consummated our bond.
Unhooking myself, I was the first to dismount, my mate in my arms. She instantly went to Vera and the girls, talking rapidly as she started explaining everything that had happened.
So I focused on helping Joxra and the three warriors that had come with him down from Ses’ back, along with the two small younglings, not old enough to have started their third molting yet.
“Welcome to Outcast Haven,” I said, “Ah, there’s Krashe and his mate.
I’m sure you’ve met.” I grinned as I waved at the stoic former Warlord, and his mate waved back eagerly.
She was holding onto his arm but carefully walking on her own, and her gait had already improved much since the last time I’d seen her; only a few days ago.
It did not surprise me that Joxra looked rather stunned at the sight, but then the baby in his arms wailed and everyone started fussing over it.