Chapter 10
Alex snatched the metal tube up gleefully and lifted it to the light of the glowing crystals to examine it carefully.
It was constructed exactly how she had asked.
Long and thin with a slightly flared and rounded end to fit comfortably against her mouth, it was surprisingly lighter than she had anticipated.
Given that it was clearly made from some sort of dark metal, she hadn’t expected the lack of weight to it.
The metal had to be incredibly thin. She squeezed her finger against it experimentally, expecting it to have a slightly soft give like hammered tin. Nothing.
An excited grin spread quickly across her face as she promptly loaded one of the long needles, whirled around and took aim at the insect crawling up the wall.
She expelled a sharp burst of breath, and the needle shot out, causing Therxian to recoil with a whip of his long tail as the needle slammed into the insect with a dull thud.
The nest was completely silent as they stared together at the alien beetle as its long wings slid out and twitched momentarily before it tipped to its side and dropped to the ground.
Clutching her blowgun in her hand, she crept toward the insect and bumped it very quickly with the toe of her boot.
It rocked with the force but otherwise didn’t move.
Not even its long, spiny legs. They didn’t so much as twitch.
Her smile returned triumphantly as she stared down at it, but it disappeared quickly when the Seshanamitesh suddenly reached forward and plucked the blowgun from her fingers.
“This is what you had me request for you?” he demanded in a hard voice. “Do you have any idea the sort of trouble we will both be in if my mother, or any of the matriarchs from her court, finds out that I provided a human with a weapon within not only the shinara, but the palace?”
Alex winced a little. When he put it like that, it did sound a bit risky.
On the other hand, what was the alternative?
To sit in Therxian’s nest completely alone without any means of defending herself?
She had to be suicidal to agree to that.
Alex snatched the blowgun from his hand, startling him enough that his wings snapped open and he visibly recoiled in a sharp, whipping motion as his tail rolled upward around him defensively.
He peered at her warily from within the protective coils of his tail and his widely spread wings until he seemed to realize that rather than attack him, she had taken the opportunity to liberate her weapon from him.
What was more, he clearly had not expected that.
Therxian had anticipated being attacked, that much was clear—and even with her comparatively diminutive size, he was obviously incapable of controlling the instinctive response to protect himself.
What he did not expect was having her contraband weapon yanked from the loose grip of his hand.
It was kind of sad, and she had to admit that it tugged on her heartstrings a bit, but she was not in a position where she had the luxury to feel sad for him.
His brows lowered in a pointed scowl at the blowgun, but she deliberately ignored it.
“Alex...” he hissed, advancing toward her with a fluid whip of his tail.
Clutching the blowgun resolutely to her chest, she shook her head as she backed away from him. She scowled back at him as she studied his hardening expression. It seemed that his wariness was once again forgotten as his determination to wrestle the contraband from her rose.
“Alex, be reasonable. If someone discovers you with that weapon, you will be in grave danger. I will be incapable of saving you. There are too many lives that depend on me. I cannot sacrifice them to satisfy your whim.”
She bit her bottom lip guiltily. It wasn’t that she was unreasonable.
But she hadn’t lived for so long by just trusting her safety whole-heartedly to anyone...
and certainly not to someone who was absent more often than not.
Initially, she had wanted the blowgun more for her own amusement, but she had not anticipated just how sharp or powerful the needles would be.
Nor that Therxian’s concern about her having it would inspire such a strong reluctance within her when it came to parting with it.
Her hand tightening around the blowgun, she glanced rapidly at her surroundings, her mind working frantically as she half stumbled as she scurried out of his reach. “What if we come to a compromise that would make us both feel more comfortable?” she fired off rapidly.
The Seshanamitesh paused, a thoughtful look quieting his features even as his gavo rose slightly with his curiosity. “A compromise?” he echoed. His eyes narrowed as he spoke, and she detected a strong note of suspicion.
She nodded hastily. “Let’s face it, I am all alone here for long stretches of the day—anyone would find that not only boring but really unsettling given the circumstances.
Not only do I not have anything to help me keep active and reduce stress, but if it came down to a life-or-death situation where I absolutely had to protect myself... well... I would be screwed.”
A look of confusion descended over his face, and she mentally cursed—no human idioms!
She braved a step closer to him, despite the fact that it put her within convenient grabbing distance. Someone was going to have to extend the olive branch of trust... and that person seemed to be her since Therxian seemed hellbent on protecting her in the least convenient way possible.
“Sorry. I mean to say that I would suddenly be in a very bad situation with no way out if I had no means of protecting myself in a dangerous situation,” she explained as she anxiously studied his face, praying that her explanation would get through to him.
Gradually his expression relaxed little by little, the muscles of his jaw unclenching, but there was a new light of concern within his eyes that gave her some hope as he considered her words.
“If you harmed another—even if you believe your life is in danger—it would still carry consequences, and I would be powerless to save you from them,” he rumbled.
“Kitanara would not soon forgive me if Queen Zathexa was pressured by the council to deliver a death sentence in order to ‘protect the shinara and its governing body representative of Shangla.’”
Alex grimaced. That was a fair point that she couldn’t argue against. If worst came to worst, she would truly be on her own.
But in her experience, what could be done to a person when caught in a vulnerable state could be infinitely worse than the potential of execution.
She had seen women, and some of the more vulnerable men, die inside—the light within them extinguishing completely—after being cornered by someone who held significantly more power. She refused to allow that to be her.
Even in Raza, she always kept weapons stashed within reach—but especially beside her bed, so that she always had protection around her in her most vulnerable moments.
It was only her dumb luck that she had somehow lost her registered blaster in the crash.
If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have been stuck sitting on the wreckage.
She would have been able to make her way back to the colony and never would have become something akin to a prisoner within the shinara.
“I understand that this puts you in a difficult position. I truly did not intend that when I asked you to have this made for me. I only wanted something with which to amuse myself and deal with the creepy insects that plague this planet. But now that I have it—I would be willing to face any consequence than be completely vulnerable and incapable of protecting myself when it matters the most. I don’t want to be anyone’s victim.
I will answer to any consequences to prevent that. ”
Therxian studied her, and his eyes darkened with understanding.
His tail rolled back, and he sighed heavily as he retreated a slight distance—enough to communicate his reluctant agreement and surrender.
She wanted to shout and jump into his arms and squeeze him tight out of gratitude, but she managed to hold herself together, even if she was biting her bottom lip hard and was about to start bouncing on her heels at any moment.
“Very well,” he hissed begrudgingly. “It is not unreasonable to wish to protect yourself from violation and great harm. If you are willing to shoulder the consequences, then I cannot argue against it. What is your compromise?”
She licked her lips as she worked to keep a tight rein on her enthusiasm. Being too over-excited would just come off as suspicious, as if she were up to something, rather than the genuine relief that she was feeling.
“What if I... hid it?”
His gavo rose slightly, betraying his curiosity. “Hid it?” he echoed, and she quickly nodded.
“Outside of occasionally playing with it to relieve boredom and murder some of your less than pleasant wildlife—it’s not like it needs to stay out in the open where anyone could find it.
So... what if I hid it? That way no one needs to know it is here unless I absolutely feel like I am in immediate danger.
” She quickly lifted her hand in a solemn salute as a wary look crept back into his eyes.
“I swear. I will only use it as a last resort. I would really rather not do something that might lead to potential execution if I can avoid it.”
Though reluctant, his gavo snapped loudly in agreement. The sound startled her into jumping, but she felt such a simultaneous sense of relief that she couldn’t even be mad about it.
“That is an acceptable compromise,” he muttered as he withdrew further from her. His eyes dropped back to the blowgun, but this time with unmistakable interest.
Alex lifted it to him in invitation. “Do you want to try?”
She was so certain that she saw a look of yearning creep into his eyes, but he blinked and in the next moment he was gone as he dipped his head in the negative.
“It is unnecessary,” he muttered. “I need to return and see what other duties my mother has planned for me today. Just find a good place to keep it—someplace convenient to you but where it will not easily be found.”
She nodded and continued to clutch the blowgun to her chest as she watched him retreat and leave the nest through its tunnel entrance.
Her heart felt oddly heavy as she watched him go.
It seemed that he would deny himself everything—even a moment to satisfy some idle curiosity for pleasure’s sake—all because of the weight of these so-called duties.
It made her heart ache oddly. She was a non-gratas who had to fight for everything she had all her life.
She shouldn’t ache like this for a prince raised in obvious luxury. But oddly, she did.
Shaking her head, she lowered the blowgun and looked down at it. She would not be ungrateful for what he did for her. She would not betray his trust in her over this matter. Now, where to hide it?
Her eyes slid along the room, but a slow smile curled her lips as her eyes caught on a small crevice to the side of the dug-out bed that appeared to be nothing more than a natural part of the shaping process and yet it was a conveniently large enough, and deep enough, groove to serve as a hiding place for the blowgun. Perfect!