Chapter 20
Cosima
I stood next to Zsekhet’s sister, Merish, as I watched Zsekhet and several more males from his Clan work to strap a large, hexagonal panel to Sesethul’s belly.
The dragon was watching the proceedings with some distrust but he was letting it happen under Zsekhet’s urging.
The panel was the most fragile, and hardest to source part we’d need to restore the greenhouse back at Haven.
The endless sand of the desert had actually protected well over a dozen greenhouse domes at Serqethos, still whole and possibly just a reboot away from fully functioning.
The panel was a gift from Alshara after we’d returned with our news of the once more functioning gate.
I didn’t really feel like it was my doing that had restored it, I’d just recognized the solar panels for what they were.
Zsekhet didn’t care, he was happy to tell anyone who wanted to listen that his clever mate had restored the ‘power’ of the gate.
“Poor Ses, that’s going to slow down the journey back.
Why do you need that thing again?” Merish asked but then she shrugged and shook her head when she realized she wouldn’t be able to understand my answer.
The panel was large, but it was not nearly as heavy as it looked, I was certain that Sesethul would be more hindered aerodynamically than weight-wise.
We’d make sure to shorten our flight hours each day so he’d get enough rest.
Once the panel was strapped up correctly and Sesethul knew how to grip the right loops for carrying, Zsekhet rushed to my side. He flung an arm around his sister for a quick goodbye hug, which she pretended to hate and wriggle out of. “Ready to go back home, mate?”
We said goodbye to Merish and Arakash, then passed a whole crowd of Clanspeople who’d turned out to see us off. The Queen was waiting with them, and Zsekhet detoured to give her a proper greeting too.
She was a smaller, elegant figure in a pale rose robe today.
It fluttered gently in the breeze, her long, muscled body glimmering gold and bare beneath the nearly see-through fabric.
Her scales were all the ornamentation she needed, no other jewels adorned her.
With her hair in many thin braids, which must have taken hours to complete, she looked exotic and esoteric.
Angelic almost, and yet, there was an undercurrent to her that I couldn’t place, something that made me feel on edge at seeing her today.
“Remember what Cosima said,” Zsekhet urged the young monarch. “The schematics she read make it imperative that we clear the roofs of as many ruins as we can. Don’t forget or there might not be enough food for all of Serqethos one day.”
He was referring to my interpretation of the blueprints of the city, the underground cloning and hatching facilities that bred the giant fish that populated the lake.
I should have known when I saw Sesethul gorge himself on the big fish that it was unnatural that the lake was that rich with food when it had to sustain a large population of dragons and Naga.
I didn’t know precisely what powered the hatcheries, they’d continued running so far, but they couldn’t risk it.
So clearing solar panels seemed imperative.
The Queen reached up to cup his chin, her expression soft until it flicked in a much harder glance my way.
“I won’t forget. Now go, before I change my mind.
” Chills ran down my spine at that look, despite the dry desert heat.
She wasn’t entirely in control of her more volatile instincts today, that look said it all.
She didn’t like that I was taking Zsekhet away from her.
Once we were up in the air, Zsekhet’s arms snug around my waist, and Sesethul’s warm scales beneath me, I relaxed.
We were going home, and it really did feel like that, like returning to Haven was like a homecoming, a real one this time.
I couldn’t wait to see the girls again, to train with Kalani and banter with Min-Ji.
I was even wondering about what Corin was up to, and the irrepressibly excited and cheerful Xorare, next to his stoic partner Aks.
“The first thing I’m going to do when we get home is take a really long, warm shower,” I announced to Zsekhet, fully expecting to get a flirty tease back.
At the very least he’d make a double entendre.
When he said nothing I glanced at his face and realized that he was staring with complete focus at a place below and behind us.
Ses wasn’t flying fast, taking his time to build height so he could coast as much as possible considering the extra luggage he was hauling.
We’d only just left the oasis and could still see the details of the tents, the trees, and the impressive construction of Serqethos’ version of a yakhchāl. The Nylarashé with its long shade wall.
A handful of dragons sat perched in a row on the edge of the village, the focal point of Zsekhet’s focus.
Riders sat atop their backs and at least one of the dragons was as big as Sesethul, a mature beast. I did not spot the bright pink dragon that belonged to Arakash, but I did see a deep blue one whose rider looked suspiciously like Zsandex.
“That’s not a good sign, is it? What’s happening?” I asked. Zsekhet’s arm around my middle tightened for a moment and then his hands started moving with rapid motions, tugging on each buckle that held my riding harness in place on my body or attached to loops on Sesethul’s matching set.
“Not good. Keep looking, if they take off, warn me,” was all he said and then he was unhooking his own harness and coiling himself down Ses’ back with agile, practiced moves.
As big as a passenger airplane, Sesethul’s bulk seemed to defy gravity, an impossible sight to see winging through the air.
On the ground, Zsekhet was large and imposing, but against Ses’ huge scales, and gargantuan form, he seemed far too small and fragile for my liking.
I didn’t know what my mate was doing, just that I didn’t like how he was moving himself along hooks on Ses’s body with far more speed than safety.
My heart ached with fear that I might lose another, that we were about to find ourselves in so much trouble that Zsekhet could end up hurt or dead while defending me.
Doing as he said, I kept my eyes on the dragons, counting them fervently and measuring their dwindling size against Ses’.
Would we outfly them? Could Sesethul take them if it came to a fight?
I didn’t want to believe that was about to happen, but Zsandex hadn’t liked any of the things we’d said or done at Serqethos.
His dislike of outcasts had instantly transferred to Zsekhet when he’d declared Haven no threat.
The blue dragon was by far the biggest, but a deep brown one, and a shimmering white one sat on either side of it.
Their combined bulk would still match Sesethul, and add that lighter lavender one and they must have the upper hand when it came down to it.
I didn’t like our odds, and when they suddenly shot up into the sky, one dragon after another soaring after us, my heart leaped in my throat.
“They’re coming!” I shouted, my fingers clenching around the neck spike in front of me as I twisted to look at Zsekhet.
He was hanging from straps on Sesethul’s side and now I understood what he was doing.
He’d moved to where the straps held my precious piece of the greenhouse to Ses’ body.
He raised his eyes to mine, his expression grim, and I understood.
We needed to drop that thing so that we could outfly them, with it, there was no doubt they’d catch up to us.
I didn’t care more about some stupid piece of architecture, I cared about Zsekhet and Ses getting out of this unscathed. Despite my excitement—and my determination to bring this thing home—the choice was simple. I nodded, “Do it! Do it, Zsekhet!”
If I’d had a knife or some weapon on me, I would have offered to cut the straps myself.
Anything to get out of here before Zsandex and his buddies caught up to us.
Had that Queen approved of his actions? Or was he acting on his own accord?
I’d only spend a short few days at the Serqethos camp, but I’d relaxed because people had gotten used to me.
Just like Zsekhet had told me, and I hadn’t seen that oversized guard hound for the Queen even once since that first meeting.
They were closing in and Zsekhet was still fiddling with straps, not using one of the daggers strapped to his chest to cut but patiently unbuckling things.
What was he doing? He kept glancing over his shoulder to check the progress of the dragons chasing us but he was taking far too much time.
Now he was scampering along Ses’s side, disappearing under the dragon’s freaking belly.
The precious greenhouse part was dangling, untethered on one side only.
Ses lurched when the hexagonal piece swayed wildly.
I was flung back and forth in the straps holding me to the beast and panic seized me for a brief, hearth-shattering moment.
Was Zsekhet okay? Had he fallen? I leaned out as far as I could to get a look but there he was, clinging to Ses with determination, unbuckling the last strap while his tail was partially curled around the harness holding the greenhouse piece. What was he doing?
The dragons behind us were closing in, I could hear the blue one in the lead roar, and when one of them belched flames, I swore I felt its heat.
Sesethul was steadily dropping down to the desert floor, lower and lower.
When we were nearly to the ground I finally caught on to my mate’s plan and I wanted to curse.
Idiot! That thing was not more important than our lives, than his or Ses. Why was he doing this?