“Soon.”
It’s not the answer I want but I nod again anyway. Curling his tail up, he shifts away to the wall behind him and gathers the many weapons there, hauling them into his arms. My anxiety spikes. “Do you plan on killing me?”
He tosses the weapons into the pool.
I jump, scared by the sounds of their loud splashes. They sink out of sight and into the semi-clear water beneath. I shiver while I watch, spooked; I don’t like water in any amount larger than a small basin. It only took one slip for me to nearly drown once, on a mission gone bad, fleeing through a particularly expensive suite that had a faux garden and pool built in. Until then, I didn’t even know it was possible to be killed by so much water.
His entire tail unravels before he heads back toward me. “No.”
“So you will let me go eventually?”
“No.”
“You can’t keep me,Titanoboa. I’m a human being,” I say, playing to his obvious morals. He didn’t like seeing me hurt, after all. “I have a home… people who will miss me…”
Will anyone miss me? I think about Annora, Weston,Tata, and Mickie, their faces flashing through my mind, and frown. They’ll miss me as much as they’ll miss Blat...
Feeling abruptly less hopeful that a rescue is going to come, I strengthen my reserve for the fight ahead and give the naga my full attention.
He dwells underground and inside somewhere, with only a few streaks of light coming from above to illuminate his… home. If one could call it that. Yet I’ve seen worse, lived in worse. He has a nice big bed, that counts for something. It’s clear he’s resourceful, if primitive. Not unlike those that were born and raised in the deepest slums of the colony ships.
I glance at the white ball again.
I shouldn’t assume anything.Until I know more about him, all I can really put to fact is that he’s big, blueish-gray, and not human.
“That issss where you are wrong, human,” he says, closing the distance between us, looming over me. “I will keep you if I have too. It is too dangerous to trust you.”
“I haven’t seen anything, I promise,” I whisper, standing and rolling out my shoulders to pretend I’m at ease. “I won’t tell anyone about you.” I should be reeling that I’m up against an alien naga, yet I can’t claim to be too surprised. I have a history of unluckiness. “Are you afraid of us? Of being taken? I’ve seen your kind before, a few days back…”
His chest puffs out and my lips part in awe, once again taken aback by his size. No ship could ever hold a being like him. Not him.
Maybe the other naga.
But not him.
“Taken?” he hisses, and it’s dark and menacing. “Afraid?”
Swallowing, I shake my head. “I didn’t mean it like that.Only that if you’re afraid of something like that, I’m not involved or interested?—”
“You will not take anything!”
I lurch back, the blood draining from my face.
He darts down and grabs something, then rises quickly back to towering over me. I spy the rope in his hand. As I start back up, he stops me with his tail, sliding it behind me and cutting off my path. “Please don’t. I’m not your enemy. I think there’s been a misunderstanding. We can work this out, I’m sure of it,” I protest, but he grabs my arms and spins me around. “Please!”
“You will stay like this until I return,” he growls, taking my wrists and retying them at my back. “Then you will tell me what you mean to take from me. Depending on your ansssswer, human, it may or may not mean your death. I do not want to kill you, but I will if I do not have a choice.”
Pulling the knot tight, he releases me and I fall forward onto my knees. With a scowl, I listen to him leave, waiting until I no longer hear him. Then I shoot to my feet and head up the stairs, hoping it’s my chance to escape.
I end up in another partially collapsed room below another, even larger room. Peering up through the broken floors, I glimpse the sky. The sun beams through a wide crack in both floors and into the space below as well, where the naga’s nest is. This room, though, is entirely empty except for a few small crates.
Seeing no easy way up, I sigh and head back down. Next I check the exit on the far wall from the nest, where the weapons had been, only to find it blocked off by chunks of concrete and rubble farther in. Turning back for the tunnel posed between the first two exits, I peek inside, trying to see as much as I can. There’s a bunch of rocks piled on top of each other, much like the farthest wallbehind the pool that runs the length of the space. Ascending, the tunnel bends to the right; I can’t see any deeper without going into it.
I debate my chances, knowing he went up that path minutes ago.I don’t know how long I have.
Deciding against it, I walk to the white orb and tap it with my boot. It rolls over to reveal a small hole with a lens in it. A holographic projector maybe. I get on my knees and lean closer, hoping to discover how it turns on and gets used. Neither voice command nor my clumsy backward touch works: the orb remains lifeless.
Hearing the naga returning, I head back toward where he left me, meeting him standing when he appears from the tunnel.
