Chapter 43
GILLIAN
I’m not entirely sure how I got here, but I’m sharing a platter of snacks with three Sarkarnii females, and they’re swapping war stories about the times males have gone into rut for them.
“There was this one warrior…” Dyris chortles, reaching for one of the savory crackers and swiping it through a white colored dip which tastes alarmingly fishy. “He was adamant he was in the rut for me. You know the usual things, sweating, growling…”
“Attempting to mount you in his Sarkarnii form,” Dyanii adds, to which they all nod sagely.
“Attempting to mount me just about anywhere.” Dyris shakes her head and laughs. “Then when I reached into his pouch, what did I find?”
“No!” Dyoti’s eyes are huge. “It wasn’t?”
Dyris shakes her head. “He’d never been in rut before. He didn’t realize having a hard cock was part of it.”
“So, he wasn’t in rut?” I ask, somewhat confused.
“He had space pox,” Dyris says. The other two laugh so hard I think Dyanii is going to choke to death. “There are some symptoms the same, but it’s not the rut.”
“So, all that…all that…humping…and nothing to show for it?” Dyoti wipes at her eyes.
“Nothing at all.” Dyris laughs. “I nearly envenomated him, but then I took pity on him instead.”
“Should have envenomated him,” Dyanii says, her chest heaving. “Might have cured his space pox!”
The three of them are helpless with laughter, Dyoti on her back, her arms waving in the air.
I consider whether I could make a run for it. Then I have a pair of eyes staring at me.
“How did you meet your Sarkarnii?” Dyanii asks.
“I was fighting in a pit on a dusty planetoid, and he grabbed me.”
“For a wrestle?”
“To save me.”
“Did you need saving?”
“Probably not. But also I didn’t want to stay in the pit.” I shrug. “On balance, his intervention was appreciated.”
Dyoti stares at me for a while. “But he has danced for you, hasn’t he?”
“Danced?”
“The ceremony? The dance. A male in rut is expected to dance for his female,” Dyanii says. “He is in rut for you, we know.” She sniffs. “We can smell it.”
“He smells?”
“You both do,” Dyris says. “Mating pheromones. Makes other Sarkarnii stay away.” She offers me a plate with some sort of cheese. I take a slice.
“Didn’t work with you lot, did it?” I say wryly.
They exchange glances.
“I didn’t think we’d see another male after Deus left.
We thought he’d gone forever,” Dyris says quietly.
“He said he was going for help, for the rest of the fleet, but…” She gazes up into the sky.
“He didn’t return, not for a long time. When he did…
” She swallows. “When he did, he said nothing about what was on the other continent. He was so broken finding his mate gone. We had no idea there were any Sarkarnii on this planet other than us.”
“For what it’s worth,” I say. “I am not condoning his behavior, but he lost his mind long before he came back here. I am so sorry he didn’t tell you what he had found.”
There are more pointed looks between the three Sarkarnii.
“It doesn’t matter.” Dyris sighs. “Dyana wants what she wants and she’s going to get it.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants a breeder and she’s chosen Dalox,” Dyanii says.
My stomach falls to the floor, ice gripping around my heart.
“But…”
“He’s mated to you?” Dyoti says, her eyes fever bright. “Dyana doesn’t care. She wants a male for our clan.”
“And how exactly is she going to get Dalox to, um, perform?”
Dyris takes my hand.
“I’m sorry, Gillian. She’ll use you as leverage.”
“She will make Dalox mate with her to stop her doing anything to me?” My voice comes out as a squeak, and I hate it.
Dyanii and Dyoti look at each other.
“It’s not right,” Dyanii says. “Not if they’re mated. The mate bond is sacred. It is something blessed by the ancestors.” She shakes her head.
“Mating shouldn’t be messed with,” Dyoti growls. “Males have a rut for a reason. Even if we don’t want them. Fate is offering us both a chance to find our forever one.” She gives me a look I can only attribute to hope. “It has to be the reason you are both here.”
“I agree with Dyoti, and that’s not a selection of words I ever thought I’d use,” Dyanii says. “If Dalox is mated, Dyana cannot force him to mate with another.”
Dyris looks around us. She draws in a breath and the place is silent.
“I’m Dyana’s second,” she says. “We’re supposed to be bringing the female to her. What you’re saying is treason.”
“It’s not treason if it’s true,” I add, studying my nails, which are filthy, until I fix them all with a gaze. “You wouldn’t want this to happen to you or a friend of yours. How is it different if it’s me and Dalox?”
The three Sarkarnii also study various parts of the vegetation around us before, one by one, they lift their eyes to mine.
“No,” Dyris says. “I would not want it. I don’t believe in it. Not anymore.” She purses her lips, a color blooming across her scales in a way I’ve not seen on the male Sarkarnii.
Dyanii sees my interest.
“Oh yes, of course.” She laughs. “If you’ve not met a female Sarkarnii, you’ll not know.”
“Know what?”
“We can change our color,” she says. “Depending on how we feel.”
“And,” Dyoti adds, “depending on the background.”
Slowly, all three of them disappear, rather like a fairytale, even leaving their smiles behind, sets of fangs which hold there until they’re gone too.
These females have the ultimate in defense. They are invisible.
I clap my hands together and laugh. Finally, finally, I feel like there is a way out of this.
That there is a way back to Dalox.