The city was much changed from the day before. The hustle and bustle had died away, and the windows had all been covered with sturdy, metallic barriers. Few inhabitants were in the streets, and those who were seemed to be in a hurry to arrive at a destination, often running to get there.
After they passed through a tunnel leading out of the city, on a different side than she had entered, Mina saw why: the vast, treeless, uninhabited land surrounding the city gave an unobstructed view of the green-blue ocean. On the horizon, a greenish mass of turbulent clouds loomed, moving quickly toward them. Veins and clouds of electricity flickered in the dense mass. The sight of it struck primal fear in Mina’s chest, and she leaned toward the windows in her compartment to look forward, hoping to see a destination that would ensure their safety from the storm.
She sat back after a few moments of staring, heart thumping, into what seemed like a wasteland. White, sandy soil stretched in every direction except the shoreline, where the water was agitating more forcefully with each passing moment. She repeated to herself that Mozok would not want to die out here anymore than she would, so that she could pantomime a calm that she did not feel.
When an immense building appeared in the distance, she was relieved, even if she had no way of being certain if it was their destination. As they neared it, though, she assumed that it was. It stood, immense and alone, near the shore, surrounded by walls of white stone almost two stories high. Glass gleamed in the sunlight of the rapidly disappearing clear sky, and Mina wondered why Mozok had not fortified his own abode like the old city had. But she was certain it was his—it was the size of a small city, and though she did not know much about the building materials on Astrogoda-9, there was an air of luxury and expense about the structure.
The seawater was already crashing against a seawall before the fortress. Mina turned her head and looked out the other window, at the white sands, the distant mountains, and the last rays of light from the soon-to-be-obscured sun.
The vehicle never slowed as they approached it, and Mina actually had to close her eyes, fearing a crash. Instead, the light outside turned instantly to blackness, and a blue glow inside the vehicle replaced it instantly. Her heart kicked against her chest as she felt the vehicle drop rapidly, and she searched in vain for some sign outside in the blackness of which direction they were headed. She felt like they were descending into hell.
* * *
The door to the vehicle opened after some time. Mina was not even aware that the vehicle had come to a stop, so she threw herself away from the opening, not wanting to fall out. For a moment, there was pitch blackness, and a cool wind sucked at the interior of the vehicle. Almost immediately, however, the lighting began to change, and a dawn-like glow crept along the boundaries of the cavernous space surrounding the stationary vehicle.
Mozok appeared in the opening, expressionless and stately. “We have arrived,” he said in English. He gestured grandly to one side of his body. “Please dismount the vehicle.”
“Oh, you can just say ‘get out,’ Mina told him cheerfully, pulling her robes tight around her. “It sounds more natural than ‘dismount.’”
She was pleased that Mozok appeared momentarily thrown off his guard. But her pleasure was short-lived because he nodded solemnly. “I thank you for your input,” he said. “I shall allow your transgression to go unpunished for the time being, as I believe your interpreter has failed to disclose in full the conditions of our ritual.”
As he spoke, the Herstrakaa came to stand behind him, and Mozok held up a hand mid-sentence. The Herstrakaa stopped his approach immediately, as though he had chosen to stand there.
Mina’s eyes moved from one to the other, and she fought an internal struggle to maintain her calm. She did not want her voice to be shaky when she spoke, even though she was terrified.
“Damn straight, he didn’t,” she said, after considerable delay. She maneuvered carefully to climb out of the vehicle. “I’d like a better picture of what exactly it is that I’ve agreed to,” she said as she exited. When she was standing, she carefully straightened out her robe and willed herself not to teeter in the crazy shoes. “But don’t go thinking I’m going to back down, no matter what it is,” she added. She tilted her chin defiantly for good measure.
The alien’s response was chilling, but she managed to maintain her calm as what seemed like a very small smile appeared on his lips.
“I would be most disappointed, Miss Groza, if you did call an end to our arrangement so early in the game. No Human has yet agreed to Trothplight. We are all”—he looked up at the darkness above them, toward a vaguely visible domed ceiling— “venturers.”
A chill traveled down her spine, and she stifled an urge to correct his English. They stood on the surface of a platform without moving or speaking for several beats.
Unable to stand the suspense, Mina shrugged. “Well. Lead on, Sag Osolin.”
The Herstrakaa was ruffled, but Mozok again held up his hand. He spoke in a low voice, and in Herstrakaa, which Mina did not speak much of, to the alien behind him and once again the enormous beast settled. The memory of his hands on her skin percolated in her mind no matter how she tried to put it out of her consciousness, and Mina again felt a stirring low in her abdomen.
What, exactly, was her deal? she wondered.
Never mind. Get it over with and move on.
How bad could it be?
* * *
They walked for what seemed like an eternity through a labyrinthine system of corridors to an elevator, into which the three of them entered, Mozok and the Herstrakaa in front of her like sentinels.
Their backs were mere inches from her face. Mozok was smaller-framed, his skin an intricate weave of vibrant blue and green streaks, a bit like tiger stripes, taut over firm muscles. Mina knew that many Draquun had remnants of an aquatic heritage—barely visible patches of what were once scales—in places on their bodies, but she saw none on Mozok. He was disturbingly alien, but also very similar to a Human.
The Herstrakaa towered over the very tall Mozok, and Mina reckoned that he was nearly eight feet tall. Beneath his robe, she could make out the outlines of the bones that had once been great wings. His skin was rough-looking, and beneath it, his musculature was fearsome, invoking impressions of fierce, reptilian animals.
Their skin was very close to her face, and she was surprised that the scent of each alien was not unpleasant, in spite of its foreignness. Her eyelids felt heavier each time she inhaled, and she was surprised to find herself closing them as she inhaled more than she needed to. When she realized what she was doing, her eyes flew open wide and she ceased breathing. What the hell was she doing? She liked the smell, but she couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t like anything she had ever smelled before, and yet she felt compelled to smell it more.
Not only that, it seemed to enter her body and spread like a drug, tingling, stirring up the previously settled pools of desire in her lower abdomen.
She bit into her tongue to try to distract herself. She really needed to pull it together.
The elevator rose for what seemed like a very long time, then the doors opened, and the two aliens stepped out into a vast room with windows on all sides. The view directly in front of her was toward the sea. Mina was frozen by the sight of it: the green-black clouds had swallowed the sky, and it looked like night had fallen. Enough light was cast by the rapidly disappearing sun behind them that the white peaks of the stormy sea were visible.
