Chapter 20 #3
The hiss the matriarch of the Clan let out was nearly completely silent as she smoothed out her angry features for a more pleasant expression.
Faking a calm I doubted she actually felt, she addressed the gathered crowd, offering many platitudes and assurances that she would do no such thing.
Zathar stayed in place, holding me tightly in his arms but watching what was going on with a much calmer expression.
I took that to mean that he knew we’d won and I dared to hope.
“Let us talk privately, son,” the queen said at last, turning back to us now that the crowd had settled down.
It was a little scary to see the smooth politician side of her in action, it was far too alike to my own mother.
Maybe that was why Zathar and I were meant to be because we had shared experiences that helped us understand each other.
Talking privately didn’t actually mean a conversation with just the Queen.
It just meant that we were urged back inside the little building with no walls.
Astrexa and the guards that Zathar had fought had all been dragged away but several Naga females settled themselves on the pillows around the perimeter once more.
One female in particular was staring at us with barely restrained fury, almost vibrating where she had coiled her long, slender tail.
That one reminded me far too much of Astrexa, including the many claw scars that slashed across her body.
The Queen didn’t return to her dais to lord over us, she remained standing, raised high on her tail in the center of the room.
Zathar moved us right up to her until the two could bend their heads together and speak without their voices carrying.
I was possibly the only one close enough to hear what they said.
“What does it take? To receive this dire news from you?” Zathar’s mother urged in a whisper.
She didn’t like to humble herself but apparently, she had enough sense to know she couldn’t spit any venom at us now.
She would have let him walk away without hearing what he had to say if not for the fear the villagers felt. Now she had her back against the wall.
Zathar curled his lips at her. “Free passage on Thunder Rock land for my mate and me, for all the humans, and for any outcasts that chose to join me. You will let us live in peace beneath Ahoshaga. A truce that can grow into trade and peace.” I was impressed, Zathar was demanding things I hadn’t even considered, things that would benefit us in the future.
He was safeguarding our right to live in that abandoned village, opening up a possibility for trade.
He was talking about other outcasts, not just Corin and Iave, did he have a plan?
The Queen looked like she was about to swallow a lemon whole, thoroughly disgusted with the terms her son was laying out for her.
“You are asking me to give you a part of my territory, your news can’t be worth that.
” I didn’t miss how she considered it her territory, not the Clan’s it was a subtle hint in how she thought of everything. She really was a self-entitled bitch.
“A part of the Clan lands that nobody wants, the hunters won’t even go there.
It wouldn’t be missed,” Zathar pointed out.
His eyes flicked from his stare down with his mother to me, and I spotted a glint of mirth in the azure depths.
Oh, he was actually enjoying watching his mother squirm.
Yeah, I would probably love it too if I had the chance to see my mother put on the spot.
She glared a little fiercer, but Zathar just waited until she was done fighting the inevitable.
When she conceded to his demands, it wasn’t with any grace but that was all right.
My emotions soared with elation, we’d beaten the odds yet again.
Zathar was amazing and in a few minutes, we’d be out of here, finally free to live our own lives.
“Fine, I agree to your terms, now tell me what you know.” Zathar made her wait just a few seconds longer, just long enough that she started to hiss, and then he explained the threat of the Bitter Storm Clan waiting for them in the mountains.
He provided as many details as possible of their numbers and the weapons they had amassed.
Willingly staying as long as needed to answer any questions, then repeating it all again when his mother called in the leaders of the hunters and the scouts.
Khawla didn’t meet my eyes the entire time he took in Zathar’s news, then simply melted away to gather his best men to verify everything Zathar just told him.
When we were finally free to go, I was filled with the same nervous energy that Zathar had to be feeling.
Dawn was streaking across the horizon. What if we were about to get trapped down here with the Thunder Rock Clan when Bitter Storm came sweeping down the mountain with their charge?
“Sazzie, escort them out,” Zathar’s mother said, and the female that reminded me of Astrexa rose from where she had remained on her pillows the entire time.
With a glare for Zathar and a huff, she flounced ahead of us, leading us through the village without a word.
Everywhere around us chaos had erupted as the elderly and the young were gathering supplies to head to a hideout for safety.
Warriors everywhere were sharpening weapons and fireproofing buildings, livestock was being herded out of a gate in the other direction, their bleating and mooing far too similar to Earth cattle.
“You were magnificent in there,” Zathar murmured against my ear shell.
His split tongue flicked out once, tasting me behind the back of my ear and I shivered in response.
“I saw what you did to Astrexa, seems those blunt little teeth of yours are a better weapon than any of us thought. You cut through her scales!”
I felt a little sick thinking back on doing that and recalling the taste of her blood in my mouth, I hoped she didn’t have any diseases that I could catch. I vowed to rinse out my mouth a dozen times over as soon as I had access to water.
“She’s never going to live that down, it’s lost her all her status in the Clan, beautiful,” he added gleefully. I could well imagine that the scarred female leading us from the village was going to be usurping her place. She looked just as mean and vicious and I doubted it would be an improvement.
The Naga female ignored the mass of activity near the gates as we exited, leading us into the woods which was well beyond what I expected her to do.
She paused once we were all out of sight to gaze at us both and I was startled by the marked change on her face.
She didn’t look so mean now, she looked young and vulnerable.
“Sazzie,” Zathar murmured, sliding me down his body to settle me on my feet.
Reaching out with a hand, he offered it to the Naga female, palm up.
She stared at it for a long moment, almost as if she was uncertain what to do but finally, she placed her own hand in it and let Zathar give her clasp a gentle squeeze.
“I know we are years apart, but I realize now that I should have spent more time with you when you were growing up, I’m sorry for that.
” Oh, she was a sister of his. Now that I knew that, I could see the resemblance.
She had the exact same azure eyes he had, with the same shape of her nubby brows arching over them.
“Msera was regaling the hunters with stories of how she bested him, is that true?” Sazzie asked, her eyes going to me.
She was much taller balanced high on her tail and her scaled arms while slender were defined with muscle beneath the many slashes of her scars.
I could imagine that she couldn’t wrap her head around my tiny shape beating a big hunter.
Her azure eyes were piercing, the slitted pupils contracting when she focused them on my mouth.
I laughed, baring my so bafflingly blunt teeth at her.
“Yup, that was definitely me,” I said and though she couldn’t understand me, she seemed to know what I’d told her, her eyes growing wide.
They shifted away from me, back to Zathar and when he nodded, confirming what she thought I’d said, she offered me a wide, fang-filled grin.
“Good luck beneath Ahoshaga, I heard it’s haunted,” she said as a final parting and then she turned and slithered away.
Her darker scales blended in the semi-dark, making her figure hard to spot beneath the trees.
Zathar stared after her with a thoughtful look on his face, his brows lowered and his shoulder-length blue hair in disarray from his fight.
“She helped me in the Pagoda, putting a coil in the way of one of my opponents and making him trip. I thought she’d be as opposed to our mating as the others… But it didn’t seem that way, did it?” He was still mulling that over when he lifted me back up in his arms.
“Don’t you think she’s just taking care of her competition?
Astrexa?” I said and he made a laughing noise that he quickly muffled against my hair.
I shivered as his warm breath ghosted over the skin at the back of my neck.
As soon as we were back in what was going to be our home, I wanted to rechristen our nest, we deserved that after all this.
“I should have known there was an ulterior motive. Let’s get out of here before Bitter Storm arrives.
” With those final words, he moved into the woods with haste.
I left behind the Thunder Rock village with relief, but also a hint of worry.
Like Zathar I didn’t blame most of the people living there for how we’d been treated, some had been nice and the kids were definitely innocent.
I hoped they made it through the coming attack.