Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TEROLON
My shelshi slept for three days and nights.
When I couldn’t rouse her the morning after our first mating and discovered her flesh was cooler than it should be, panic sent me racing first for my Izaelon medical texts, with a plan to rush with my mate in my arms to the hidden forest home of Stosior the wizard if answers couldn’t be found among the pages.
In the second volume of texts, in the deplorably short section on human-serpentae relations, I found my answer. With Hazel clutched to my chest, I read the passages no less than five times.
Because of our mating and my bite, my lovely shelshi was undergoing a metamorphosis.
Her normal body temperature would decrease to a level somewhere between that of a serpentae and a human. The process would be gradual, likely requiring several days, during which she would also undergo other changes—some visible, and some not.
According to the text, my mate might grow some scales.
The most likely locations for this phenomenon were along the sides of her face, on her upper arms and thighs, and on her sides.
She might develop keener senses of taste and smell over time and crave the warmth of either the sun or radiant heat, especially if she were with basilings.
And it was that final passage I studied the longest, because this change meant she could conceive and give birth to a clutch of up to three basilings. What had seemed like a distant possibility had suddenly become a reality.
She’d said quite clearly that she wasn’t sure if she would want to have children, now or ever.
I wasn’t certain myself. But the image my mind conjured of my love, my light, lying in my coils with a beautiful rounded belly sent a quiver down the long length of my spine and heated my sartras and my seed pouch.
Finally, I closed my texts, left them on the shelf, and carried my sleeping mate deeper into the mountain, to the heated cave that was my winter haven.
In the circular depression I’d worn into the rock over many years, I made a nest of all the softest cushions and fabrics in our home and settled my sweet mate into its center.
The air in here was quite warm and moist thanks to the hot springs, and if I must let her out of my arms for any amount of time, at least I could be sure she wouldn’t be chilled.
Back in the summer cave, I found her tea blend in a jar by the fire pit and brewed a cup as I’d watched her do every morning for the past several weeks.
She’d never told me why she drank it daily, but I knew the purpose of the herbs she collected to make it.
A similar blend was commonly sold throughout Izaelon.
As it steeped, I set a pot to simmering over the fire to make a hearty meat broth. The text’s instructions, while sparse, were at least clear: she needed warmth, frequent sips of water and broth, and my constant care as her body adjusted and transformed.
But staying busy didn’t prevent me from despising myself for not knowing the consequences of my instinctual bite during our mating. I could only pray to the goddesses that my sincerest apologies would lead to forgiveness someday.
Losing my shelshi would leave me a broken male. But if by my own actions I drove her away, I would simply curl up outside in the garden and let winter take me.
For three days, I tended to my sleeping mate with tea, water, broth, and long soaks in the hot springs.
I left the winter cave only long enough to mind the cooking fire and carry mugs back and forth.
I didn’t hunt and I got little sleep, but serpentae by nature could withstand hunger and wakefulness much longer than humans.
I simply could not leave her side or take my eyes off her for more than a few minutes.
On the second day, the first petal-soft scales appeared along Hazel’s temples and on her shoulders and hips.
They began as a lovely coral color with a silver sheen and flowed into a breathtaking lavender tint.
My hearts nearly sprang from my chest when parts of them darkened to nearly match my own crimson belly scales.
By the third day, her body temperature settled and her scales stopped spreading.
On her face, they were faint along her hairline and disappeared at her jawline.
Another set crowned her shoulders and continued down her upper arms almost to her elbows.
The final set began along her ribs, curved down her sides over her hips, and ended mid-thigh.
All of them were buttery soft even at their edges where they met her human skin.
I prayed the goddesses of the serpentae didn’t think me blasphemous if I looked upon my beautiful mate as the embodiment of their divinity.
It was late that night as I lay half dozing in the deepest of the hot spring pools with my mate in my arms that the rhythm of her breathing finally changed.
I snapped to full wakefulness in the space of a single heartbeat as she inhaled deeply and let out a sigh.
“Hazel?” I murmured, brushing damp strands of hair away from her lovely face. “My shelshi, can you hear me?”
Her eyelashes fluttered.
For a moment, I was transported back to our first encounter in the ravine. What would I see when her eyes opened? What would her reaction be to me and her new body? I didn’t know, and fear gripped my chest like a vise and squeezed until breathing took effort.
When her eyes opened, they were still that perfect blue with golden flecks, but they had a soft amber ring around her round pupil.
“Terolon,” she murmured.
Blinking drowsily, she reached for me. I moved her higher so she could more easily rest her palm on my jaw. We were both warm from our long soak in the pool, but her touch seemed to spark on my scales.
“How long have I been asleep?” she asked, her gaze searching my face. “It feels like a long time.”
“Three days,” I said. My voice sounded rough and strained, even to my own ears. “It has been an eternity.”
A little smile turned up the corners of her lips. “I must have been tired.”
“It was more than that, my light.” I drew her closer so I could kiss her forehead. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Shall I make you a meal?”
“No, I’m all right.” Her hand slid down my neck to my chest over my hearts. She didn’t seem afraid or angry, only confused. “Tell me why I slept so long.”
I said a silent prayer to my goddesses, and I told her everything.
She listened quietly as the words came out, halting at first and then in a torrent. Every time my voice caught, the words please forgive me perched on the tips of my tongue, but there would be time for that later once she knew the truth of the matter.
She ran her hands over the scales on her sides and legs as I talked, exploring the new textures with tentative touches that became more experimental as she discovered there was no pain if she poked and prodded at herself.
When I ended my explanation with a description of the adaptations in her womb, she pressed gently on her lower abdomen and studied the pale, scaleless skin there as if she could somehow see through to the changes inside.
“I’ve been giving you your tea every morning,” I said when she didn’t speak. “A stronger brew than I think you’ve made before, but it seemed prudent given these…changes.”
“Thank you.” She seemed thoughtful rather than angry or grief-stricken, but her apparent calm did little to alleviate my trepidation. Her gaze went to something over my shoulder and then focused on my face. “May I see all of myself, please?”
Cradling her in my arms, I rose, glided up the shallow steps I’d cut into the pool to make getting in and out easier, and carried her to the full-length looking glass Aluc had delivered a few weeks earlier.
Carefully, I set her on her feet and steadied her when she wobbled on shaky legs.
She studied her reflection for a long time, turning this way and that and leaning forward to better see the fainter scales along her temples and hairline in the soft glow of lantern light.
When her gaze finally met mine in the glass, her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. My gut contracted, the pain worse than if I’d been kicked by one of my father’s prize stallions.
“I’m sorry, my shelshi,” I said, my voice little better than a croak. “I didn’t know—”
Hazel spun to face me, moving too quickly for someone who’d just woken from such a long sleep. She started to topple, but I caught her in my arms and held her to my chest, my body coiling around her instinctually with the need to protect and comfort.
She cupped my face in both hands as tears spilled from her eyes. Every single one was a stab in my hearts with a blunt blade.
“These are tears of happiness,” she whispered. “My scales are so beautiful. The Goddess has blessed me, Terolon.”
Shock rendered me speechless.
“How could I see you as the most beautiful male I’ve ever known and look at my scales any differently?
” She caressed my face. “If the Goddess brought us together, then nothing that has happened can be a mistake.” She drew me closer so she could look directly into my eyes when she said very firmly, “Shelshan, I love my new body. I love you.”
I sucked in a breath so ragged a tremor ran from my chest all the way to the tip of my tail. “I do not deserve you.”
“Hush.” She put her finger to my lips, then captured my hand and put it on her chest over her heart. “Do you feel that?”
Now that we were out of the pool, her skin had begun to cool, which made me uneasy. But I simply focused on her heartbeat and said, “Yes.”
“This heart belongs to you because I’ve chosen to give it.
It is my choice, Terolon of Izaelon,” she said fiercely.
The thin amber rings in her eyes seemed to glow faintly.
Or was that a trick of the lantern light?
“And right now it is my choice to ask you to take me back to the pool and make love to me in this new body.”