Chapter 25
Alex wasn’t losing her mind. She heard it again!
She had been hearing it all day since she woke up.
The splashing didn’t happen all at once, and was often subtle, but it was noticeably present before moving once more beyond the boundaries of her nest. Was there something prowling on a lower level beneath her?
If so, it seemed to be primarily in another area and only periodically returning to the vicinity of her quarters for reasons she couldn’t fathom.
“Fuck, that would be just my luck,” she whispered aloud, breaking the silence with the weak sound of her voice.
Clutching her blowgun tightly in one fist, Alex paced uneasily at the end of the corridor, staring uncertainly into passages she hadn’t yet explored.
Truthfully, other than going to the food preparation chamber, she didn’t venture far from the royal nest where Therxian left her.
She never considered herself to be particularly cowardly, but from the main corridor there seemed to be a complex network of corridors that extended further throughout the elder palace.
At least with the thick overgrowth of galthie blooms lighting them, they were well illuminated rather than dark tunnels descending into hell.
She drew a deep breath and slowly expelled it.
She wasn’t going to get anything accomplished standing there anxiously.
She could either go back to her quarters and pretend like she didn’t hear or see anything and pray that whatever it was lost interest and went away, or...
or she could pick the corridor that seemed to head off in the general direction it went.
Alex licked her lips nervously. That was one hell of a decision.
“For the record, I never once complained about my life being boring,” she muttered to whatever native deity, or deities, who might be listening.
“There was absolutely no reason to just keep making it increasingly ‘interesting.’ Throwing strange sounds and possible unknown predators into the mix is just rude.”
Not that she hadn’t complained about other things that came with the territory of being a non-gratas assigned to Darvel Corporation.
The shoebox of a room she slept in, the bland food offered at the canteen, the endless work-shifts being among those which she had muttered about from day to day.
Being able to take a flyer out on the odd assignment was one of the few pleasures she had that allowed her to escape the flight deck and hangar where she was assigned.
Granted, she had been too tired to enjoy her last flight, but now it seemed that something out there possessed a grim sense of humor by relieving her of all her complaints about the colony at once in the most potentially life-hazardous way.
She couldn’t believe that she was actually beginning to miss the grease and grime of her workstation.
At least there was no question of the vermin that managed to find their way into the hangar making life even more unpleasant by trying to eat her.
Half of them were in there due to being drawn to the smell of fuel and oil, as several species seemed to like the taste of it.
Better something that craved the flavor of fuel than slavering over her.
Alex grimaced as the thought immediately conjured an image of a monster drooling as it looked down at her asleep in her bed. Yeah, that wasn’t going to work for her.
“So let’s just check things out a bit and make sure that there are no easy open access points into the palace,” she mumbled.
At least Therxian had been considerate enough to close the main doorway that connected the elder palace to the corridor leading up the shinara, securing the main entrance into the palace from the upper corridors.
There was less risk of anyone—or more importantly, anything—just stumbling in and catching her unaware from that direction.
Especially from the broken corridor that opened directly into the abyss below.
“Or at least get this place locked down and thoroughly sealed up,” she amended.
It had to be possible. It stood to reason that there would be other parts of the palace that would likewise possess heavy doors that could be closed and barred.
Wiping her sweaty palms on the very worn remnants of her jumpsuit, Alex crept down the unfamiliar, alien hall, her skin prickling anxiously.
She was pretty sure she heard it—whatever it was—move in that direction.
Brushing a large clump of trailing flowers out of her way, she ventured deeper, her ears straining for any hint of sound beyond the whisper of shifting leaves and flower petals beneath her hand.
Although the water sounded louder in this direction, she didn’t hear any sound of splashing no matter how much she strained to listen.
The shift of the flowers, of course, had an eerie effect.
They created moving shadows within their bright illumination, and for a moment, she imagined that something was there, watching her within those shadows.
Her steps slowed as one of the shadows took the vague form of a face, and she swore that she saw glowing eyes piercing her out of the shroud of blooms. She forced herself to continue toward it, her heart hammering in her chest. Rather than becoming more indistinct as she got closer, the shape of the face seemed to be more defined as it pressed against the leaves and blooms. Studying her approach.
It didn’t move, but it seemed to lurk there as if ready to pounce on her.
Coming to a stop just in front of it, Alex’s hand trembled as she reached for the thick patch of flowers.
Without allowing her a moment to second-guess herself, she tore them away and drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the carved face staring back at her.
The expression on the face was forbidding.
It had the appearance of a male glowering angrily at her with a bearing of some importance.
She let out a sharp, brittle laugh.
“Fuck,” she whispered. “More stonework. The artistry in this place is going to be the death of me.”
“Or your lack of awareness,” a voice replied drolly from behind her.
Alex yelped and nearly tripped over her own feet as she spun around to face the female frowning back at her.
Although the features were similar, it wasn’t Kitanara.
This female’s features were broader. But it wasn’t the larger, bossy one either...
Jathella. Her lips pursed as she tried to recall the name of the third sister. She had only met her briefly and—
The female huffed in annoyance as she drew back on the coiled length of her tail, her wings adjusting behind her with the movement. “Buosoa,” she said, correctly guessing the direction of Alex’s thoughts.
Alex gave her a faint, apologetic smile. “Right. Buosoa. I didn’t hear you.”
The female studied her with a pained look. “That much is clear. Your mind appeared focused elsewhere. I do not know what your home-world is like, but that can be very dangerous on Seshana. You must take it seriously if you wish to survive.”
“Right,” Alex mumbled again as she looked at the carved face that now appeared to bear a trace of mockery in the light of the galthie blooms. Surviving did seem to be the issue when everything on the planet seemed determined to kill her.