Chapter 32 The Others Underneath
THIRTY-TWO
THE OTHERS UNDERNEATH
Krellix
I wait as long as it takes for Commander Graft to appear, long after Julia has walked away and been led into the camp.
Beyond my reach now, she is behind the walls of the barricade and safe.
Safe from becoming a victim of the forest, or befalling a worser fate…
one I nearly lost her to with Sada. If I ever see the Boa again, I will not hesitate to end him. He gets one life from me, not two.
But, if nothing else, almost losing Julia that way was a good reminder why she was left to stay at Zaku’s all this time and why I had avoided her. No matter how much I want her and want to be with her, it will never be as much as my need for her to be safe.
The weary old human male that leads this encampment stops several body lengths before me. He eyes me like I am an oddity, one he is surprised to see again. His messy uniform is even messier, and has not changed since the last time I saw him. Inhaling his scent in the air, he smells worse too.
“So you brought me another refugee, another human woman even. A soldier, one of my men tells me. You’re not like the others of your kind, are you?”
“No. I am not… but then we are all different. Will she be safe here? Taken care of?”
The Commander tilts his chin up, briefly flicking his gaze to my tail.
Coiled under me, I keep it primed, ready to block any weapon that might be used.
The other soldiers, the few that stayed behind to guard me while waiting for their Commander to arrive, keep their guns aimed at me.
I pay them no mind, having answered their silence with silence of my own.
As long as they do not openly attack me, I will not threaten or initiate violence against them. I am not a fool.
Humans, like nagas, are quick to action.
“She will be safe and kept away from all of this,” —he waves his hand at the forest and me— “as long as she stays out of trouble, but that’s for her to decide, not me. Is that why you wanted to speak to me, why I had to trek all the way out here? So you could make sure the latest refugee is safe?”
Yes. But I do not tell him that. I am not certain that our former alliance will do Julia any favors with her own kind. “I've brought you four of your people,” I remind him instead.
He squints at me, his lips twitching downward. “Four? I only remember the girl and her.” He points his thumb behind him and at the camp.
“There were two males, Benjamin and Quinton.” I had not thought to inquire about their well-being, I just assumed they made it. The nagas haunting the outskirts of the camp would likely not have been interested in them.
“Ah, yes. Those two. Why do you ask? Are you suggesting I’m indebted to you?”
This time it is I who tilts my chin at him. “No. I simply mean to demonstrate that I can be trusted. That we do not have to be enemies.” It is hard for me to say, especially knowing this male is standing on land that Copperheads once ruled. But I must make certain Julia will be okay.
His eyes narrow further. “As opposed to the barbaric others of your kind? The ones that hang around my camp’s walls threatening my soldiers?
Or how about the ones that try abducting our women?
I can trust you, you say—because you know the others of your kind are giving you a bad name.
Hah. I don’t trust anything I can’t throw, and I sure as hell can’t throw you. ”
I stop myself from hissing at him, letting him continue after he shakes his head.
“This might be our second time talking, naga, but I’ve talked to others like you, others demanding things, things that I’m not willing to give.
I have an operation to run and you’re beginning to waste my time.
So what is it that you want? Because I know you want something if you’re trying to establish trust,” the Commander says, practically grimacing with annoyance.
“At least I can surmise you’re not after one of the women. ”
What I had planned to ask him falls from my lips. Suddenly no longer interested in the information he could possibly provide, I straighten until I tower over him and meet his glare head on. He does not frighten me. But the implication that he may trade away the females in his care…
“All I care about is that Julia does not come to any harm,” I say.
Commander Graft’s brows drop. “So, that’s all?”
“You have a bad opinion of my kind, and with that, I cannot argue. We have not been kind to each other, let alone to the few humans that have ended up here. But there are some of us that only wish for peace. I only wish for peace and for the safety of the females I have given you.”
He squints at me. “Why didn’t you keep one, if you care so much?
And no, we have not been kind to each other, and despite this conversation I don’t see that changing.
You're lucky that my men and machines haven’t opened fire at you, that I’ve deigned to speak to you at all, risked my life and the lives of my men to open communication between our species. ”
“Will Julia be safe here or not?,” I snap, irritated by his insipid posturing.
The older male shakes his head, his expression morphing into one of disbelief.
“Safe? Nowhere is truly safe. You try fighting a losing war, naga, like we are. You’d find out real quick what truly matters and what doesn’t when the losses start to hit.
You can’t count on tomorrow. Only today.
” He looks up at the sky and sighs before throwing out his arm to indicate to the few soldiers around him that it is time to leave.
Without another glance my way, he turns on his heel and trudges back towards the encampment.
The soldiers slowly lower their weapons and back away, soon turning around themselves and following their leader. Their machines trail after them from above.
For a time, I stay where I am, gazing past the ships and to the camp—to the many smoke trails rising into the air. Julia will be nearing one of those fires and I will not know which one…
But it is for the best. She will be safe. As safe as she can be, anyway. From my kind, especially. There is no group of nagas big enough to attack and take a camp as large as this one.
It is not until I slowly loosen the fingers of my right hand that I realize my fists have been clenched.
I run it over the shaved side of my head, feeling the hair she cut for me, the soft evenness of the strands.
Pressure floods my core and I hiss. No matter that my mind knows better, my body only knows want.
Still…
Commander Graft’s words will not leave me.
Nowhere is truly safe.
Shifting my gaze from the smoke trails to the flying robots guarding the camp’s perimeter, a pit in my stomach threatens to form. I have to believe she will be okay. I have to believe that we are making the right choice.
I knew she did not want to say goodbye, at least the goodbye I forced upon her. But I could not linger over it… I could not bear the pain. Perhaps that was selfish of me…
I frown at the bright sunlight beating down on me from above, heating my scales.
Reluctantly, I return to the shadowy forest, where I immediately hear a hiss come from within the thickest group of trees.
Approaching the location of the call slowly, the same mixed-breed I spoke to last time appears from the branches and climbs down.
The male’s light brown eyes peer at me questioningly as he makes his way to the ground.
“Are you trying to gain their trusssst, Krellix?” he asks as he straightens.
I slip by him deeper into the forest. “No.”
“You have delivered two human females. Women many of our kind would kill to have. That seems to me like you are trying something.”
I turn on him. “What’s your name, mixed-breed?”
The smaller yet still muscled male coils his tail under him and rises on it. “Nepsh.”
“You have been watching the entrance to the encampment, Nepsh. Why?”
Depending on his answer, I might let him live.
He eyes me with more wariness. “The humans are interesting. I find them entertaining.”
“You are not here to steal a bride?”
His eyes narrow and mine narrow back.
“If one came upon me, and wished to be mine,” he says carefully, “I would not refuse her. But no, I am not here to steal anything. I came out of curiosity and I stay because…”
“Because?”
He lifts his hand and pushes his brown hair over his shoulder. “It is less lonely.”
Less lonely… “Good,” I respond, pitying him. “I will let you live, then.” He is not after an unwilling female, and will pose no risk to Julia.
Nepsh laughs softly. “Or perhaps it is I who will let you live.”
He makes a joke to ease the tension—something I, myself, am only getting used to doing—because all nagas know that mixed-breeds are often weaker. While that does not mean Nepsh is no match for me, it is safe to assume so. But perhaps he can be useful…
“The female I just brought, she is important to me. If you are already here watching, then watch for her too.”
Nepsh stops smiling, eyeing me with a serious glint in his eyes instead. “The dark one? And if I see her? What would you have me do?”
“If she is ever outside the gate, keep her safe. Make sure nothing happens to her, and you will be rewarded. Otherwise stay away from her, because if you try anything, I will know, and I will find you and kill you.”
Having another naga keep an eye on her when I cannot seems like a good idea. Though I do not know if Nepsh can be trusted, I also do not think Julia has anything to fear from him.
“What do I get out of it?” Nepsh unwinds his tail and begins to climb back up into the tree he’s under.
Looking down at me while holding onto the branches above his head, he waits for me to answer, flexing his biceps—a show of strength.
Something white whizzes toward his head and he lets go to catch the orb in one hand, curling his fingers around it and bringing it to his side.
My gaze darts from the white ball and back to him. “Information. Whatever you want to know that I have information about, it is yourssss.”
One thing I have learned from experiencing a nomadic lifestyle myself, as many of the mixed-breeds live: the more one travels, the more one learns, and the more one learns, the more one wants to know.
Nepsh’s smile slowly returns. “Deal.”