Chapter 9
Vera
Two days. That’s how long we’d been stuck inside this damn storage building.
I had not seen hide nor scale of Zathar during that time but Corin had come in a few times, with several Naga with spears as an escort.
He only came to treat the pilot lady and the goose egg on Reid’s noggin.
We had a bucket to do our thing in that was emptied once a day, and twice a day someone brought us a meal.
The rest of the time was spent in perpetual twilight, with nothing to occupy any of us except to talk or sleep on the hard-packed dirt floor.
I was starting to have this niggling doubt that Zathar was going to get us out of this mess.
His mother was the Queen of this whole Clan, why couldn’t he get us out of here, surely he had some kind of clout?
I had been a pawn in many high-stakes games before, mostly maneuvered around by my own mother or the men she’d wanted me to date.
Was this just another game like that and we were collateral?
“I saw the way he looked at you,” Reid said from somewhere to my left. He was rummaging through the many crates, always searching in the hope that he could find something useful. So far all we had been able to conclude was that we wouldn’t grow hungry, but that was it.
“And what was that? I thought you didn’t trust him, or me for trusting him,” I said. Nobody asked which ‘he’ Reid was talking about, we all knew he meant Zathar. Zathar was the only he my mind was filled with, and I’d asked for him each time our guards or Corin showed up.
Reid’s head popped out of the crate he was leaning over to look at me, his voice gentle when he replied. “I owe you an apology for that, I was just… reacting you know? To this whole situation, and I took it out on you. I could see that Corin and Zathar were trying to help us just as you did.”
I sucked in a breath and then nibbled on my bottom lip as I thought back to that evening. What a chain reaction of anger that had been, and Zathar deserved any of that anger the least, he had just been trying to help. And also trying to get into my pants at the same time.
From spying through one of the tiny gaps in the wall, we’d managed to observe the Naga as they moved about their day.
I had a better understanding of the relationships between the males and females, even if I still had many questions.
The females were very easily angered, they often fought with the other women.
While the males seemed to manage to work in a much more cohesive manner.
What had fascinated me was the pairings.
The males and females that formed couples were very sweet together, which was shocking considering how harsh the women seemed, even lacking much of a maternal instinct.
They let their male dote on them, which they did happily.
That’s what Zathar indicated he wanted with me, a mate, a bond.
If he wasn’t lying about that because I was starting to have doubts, considering how long I’d gone without seeing him.
“Apology accepted,” I told Reid, and I got up to pace around the shelves to stretch my legs and ease some of my nerves.
If I didn’t get out of here soon, I’d go absolutely stir-crazy.
I hated sitting still for so long, I wanted to do something, but we’d tried our best at the back wall to make a hole and all it had resulted in was a few gaps that barely fit my arm.
We had no tools to work with, and the clay and straw walls were much tougher than they had any right to be.
All of us froze when we heard the door to our prison rattle, the telltale sign that they were lifting the bar to unlock it.
I sat down with Cosima and put my arm around her shoulders, while Reid took up a place protectively in front of us.
Corin led the way though, and we all relaxed a little at the sight of the pale, silvery Naga.
He was carrying a flat basket with bread and fruit in it, the healing device he always used on the pilot dangling from his belt.
He had no weapons on him, and I suspected he was made to leave them outside.
His silver eyes were kind, as was the smile he offered us.
Reid accepted the food and Corin immediately bee-lined for the pilot.
She still hadn’t woken up, and Corin was very careful with her as he took care of all her needs. That alone assured me that he was solidly on our side, you weren’t that gentle with a prisoner, even if they were unconscious and unlikely to ever wake up.
Since the Naga that Cosima most feared wasn’t with the two guards watching us, I let go of her with a reassuring smile.
I sat down on the pilot’s other side so I could pretend to assist Corin with her care.
“Please, do you have any word of Zathar?” I asked him under my breath like I always did.
So far, he’d always responded with a minute shake of his head and a down-turning of his eyes.
He might not understand the question word for word, but he recognized the name of his friend and my intonation enough to catch my meaning.
Today, his eyes lingered on my face instead of dropping to his patient.
Then they flicked to the back of the storage shed, to the wall where we’d been fruitlessly trying to create a hole to escape from.
Did he know about that? No, that wasn’t what he meant.
“Zathar,” he whispered, and his eyes flicked to the back wall a second time.
Excitement rushed through me, did he mean Zathar was on the other side?
Could we finally talk? Was something happening at last?
I wanted to rush over immediately but I forced myself to stay put and simply work on the pilot like I always did.
I couldn’t draw any suspicion from the guards or this was all over before it even started.
Once Corin and the guards left, and the sounds of the bar sliding in place had faded, I got up and raced for the back of the shed.
Dropping to my knees next to the wall, I shoved away the crate and basket we’d piled in front to hide what we were doing.
“Zathar?” I whispered, peering out through the highest of the four holes we’d managed to create.
The palisade rose up in the distance, and three more houses were situated along it.
Daylight still brightened everything outside, the roofs of the buildings were nearly black but glinted dark purple in the light.
As I watched, at least three Naga males, armed with spears and blades passed right in front of me, packs with supplies weighing down their broad backs.
Disappointment filled me, it was too busy.
There was no way Zathar could linger at this wall to talk with me.
Maybe Corin meant later, tonight when it was dark.
Putting the crate and basket back in place over the holes, I returned to Reid and Cosima, their curious glances enough of a prompt to explain to them what I was up to.
Waiting was hard, I kept pacing along what little space we had, driving Reid and Cosima crazy with my restlessness.
When it got too much for me I’d check the holes to see if it was dark yet, to see if he’d arrived, and each time I was disappointed.
It got worse when it really was dark out, and quiet as a mouse too.
Why hadn’t he showed up yet? Had something gone wrong? Had I misunderstood?
I had almost fallen asleep, curled up with my head on the crate at the back of the shed.
Reid and Cosima were both fast asleep at the front; huddled together with the unconscious pilot to keep her warm.
“Veraaa,” a voice drawled softly. I jerked upright, blinking sleepy eyes and then rubbing at them to try and make them work better in the near complete darkness.
“Zathar?” I asked, my own whisper loud in the silence.
During my last attempt to locate Zathar, I’d moved the crate in such a way that just the top hole was open, all I had to do was lean over to peek out.
At first, I thought I was looking at a last sliver of sky, blue and warm in fading sunlight.
Then my eyes picked up on the finer details, the scales, the faint line of a scar.
He was with his chest right in front of me, if I stuck my fingers through the hole I could touch him.
Too tempted, and using the excuse of needing touch to even be able to understand each other, I slid my fingers through the narrow opening. I got stuck with the wider part of my hand but with a little wiggling and stretching, I could brush the pad of my middle finger over his scales.
He jerked backward, and then an eye appeared, azure and bright.
It lit up at the sight of me and then he was searching the rest of the wall.
I helped by shifting the crate again, freeing up the other holes.
The one almost all the way at the floor was the biggest, we’d managed to actually break some of the branches woven through the clay.
Or rather, Reid had with a few solid kicks but it had made quite the ruckus so we hadn’t dared to try again.
The slender tip of Zathar’s tail slithered through that opening as far as it could go and I reached for it with both hands.
“You’re here! What’s going on? Can you get us out?
” I whispered, leaning my cheek against the wall right next to the highest opening, straining to catch another glance of his face.
“Are you all right, Vera? You haven’t been hurt?” He asked at almost the same time, his tail twisting to curl against my fingers, gripping me back. I loved the sound of his deep voice, rumbling at me in a hushed whisper filled with concern.