“Wow, Jaxin. There are so many of them!” I exclaimed in wonder. We had not reached the end of the tunnel yet, but I could feel them all around me. The press of their feelings: bright flames of passion, anger, sadness, happiness, and so much more. The signatures of children at play, one even throwing a tantrum, and a weary mother soothing them. Of old and young, gathered together or alone. We were in a village, no, beneath it.
The tunnel itself had already been impressive, with a straight floor and curved walls, tall enough to easily fit Taktak. Then there were the massive steps that led into what could only be described as a receiving hall. Pillars surrounded the stairs, and the walls were decorated with rich frescoes in each niche, light pouring down from a dome above ourheads. It was… well, frankly, it was a building far beyond what I had expected Taktak and his people to be capable of building.
“Clever, very strategic,” Jaxin murmured. “Narrow exits, a funnel, this is an excellent defense against invaders. A proper kill box.” I arched a brow in his direction. Of course he’d notice those features, and not the beautiful artwork or the inscriptions on the pillars. Feeling like a soaked Nia didn’t help convey the message to him, though. He gave me a sharkish grin that arrowed through my chest with a lance of pleasure. Oh, how it made me happy to feel what went on beneath the surface of him.
“Let’s see what our friend wants,” he said, and he took me by the arm as if he were an Aderian gentleman, not a mercenary. Taktak was waiting for us by one of the two, indeed rather narrow, exits of the building. He stood in it, but his body was angled sideways, allowing us to see past him into the cave beyond. I gasped in surprise to discover that it wasn’t just any cave, but a massive structure with many supporting pillars and beautiful stone houses. The ground was paved and painted, and green plants heavy with fruit had been cultivated everywhere.
Most impressive were the many Radin natives going about their business. They weren’t dressed in vines and leather like Taktak, but robed in rich blue or pale silver fabrics with many intricate folds and swirls. It was… definitely not the kind of fabric a species supposedly still extremely primitive should be able to make.
A school of children was receiving lessons in a square with a row of theater-like benches, their teacher writing in a foreign script with chalk on a massive board held up by acarved wooden frame. Merchants lined a street to my left, hawking wares from colorful stalls. In the distance, a domed building rose over it all; a ceremonial place, or a palace, perhaps. It was in that direction that Taktak began leading us.
“Are you okay, not overwhelmed by your gift?” Jaxin asked as we walked. We were receiving curious stares, but not nearly as many as I thought we would. Taktak was getting more attention. He was stopped in the road several times, greeted by a merchant or simply a person in the street. They’d rumble words at each other in their deep voices, and then Taktak would clearly excuse himself and move on.
It took me a moment to come up with an answer to Jaxin’s question. The truth was, this many people nearby would usually be very tough on me. Either Taktak’s people were not so intense on my senses, perhaps because they were a bittoodifferent, or it was something else. Iwasall right, though. I sounded surprised when I told him that, but he did not catch it. His focus was on our guide and our surroundings, and I knew he was intensely alert.
We were met with another giant on the massive steps of a building that towered over the rest. Its dome touched the cave’s ceiling, and it glowed with a golden light. At first, I was so distracted by the magnificence of the architecture that I did not realize something was happening. Jaxin slipped his arm around me and pressed me to his side, his other hand on his laser cannon, as if he were ready for a fight.
I did not sense any aggression, just curiosity. I had to admit, however, that the sudden appearance of more giants—who looked much like warriors or guards—did make me uneasy. They accompanied the male on thesteps who had gray in his long hair, and the ridges on his brow had turned white, just like his tail had. Despite that, I instantly saw the resemblance between this older giant and Taktak. They had to be father and son.
“Jaxin,” I said under my breath. “I think we might have saved the life of the son of their leader.” Taktak certainly seemed to be in control of the situation, demanding respect from those around him. He greeted his father with a bow and an embrace, then turned to indicate us, followed by a rapid rumbling of his voice as he talked. I couldn’t tell much from what was said, because we still didn’t have their language for our implants. I felt enough from them both to know that Taktak must be explaining what had happened.
“I hope he puts in a good word. I’d hate to have to shoot our way out of this one,” Jaxin said. Surprised, I looked up at him and discovered that he was making a joke. He’d taken up a defensive position, protectively holding me half-behind him, but he was not nearly as tense as I’d first assumed. Perhaps he sensed, as I did, that they didn’t want to harm us.
Once Taktak was done talking, his father spread his arms wide in welcome and gave us a very shallow, but polite, bow. That was it, no further words, no more talk. He turned and walked up the stairs, back into the massive building behind him, definitely a palace. Taktak grinned at us, then waved at a woman who came up from behind him, as if she’d been waiting in the shadows.
Her tail was much thinner, elegant and without a sharp point. Her features were also much more refined: her wide nose decorated with golden swirls, and her brow ridges edged with red. She gestured with a silver-robed arm for us to follow her and soon led us to a small nearby home. There,she left us beside a steaming tub of water big enough for a giant to sit in, and a massive bed with soft sheets made of a material similar to their robes.
“I guess these are the guest quarters?” I asked after the door shut behind her and we were left alone. Jaxin eyed the warm water in the tub with dismay, then looked at me, and his expression seemed to clear. I had a feeling warm water held no appeal to him, but it looked divine to me. “If you don’t want it, don’t mind if I do,” I said.
He grinned, and his shields seemed to come down around him. Warmth, mirth, heat, and possession; a claim in his eyes. “Yes, little one, bathe. I will watch.” Normally, I’d protest against the audience, but not with him. I hadn’t dared breach the subject yet, because neither of our species mated for life. At least in Aderian culture, there were myths about a bond; I didn’t think the Rummicaron were sentimental like that. The thought of leaving him after this crazy adventure was over, it pained me in ways I never knew I could feel.
My clothes were wet and uncomfortable, so it was no hardship to undress. It felt even better to slide into the hot, perfumed water and close my eyes for a few minutes as my muscles relaxed and my core temperature was restored. I thought, perhaps, that the moment might have turned heated, from the way Jaxin came to stand over the massive tub to stare at me. He didn’t do much more than admire, though, and I sensed the pain in his chest might be the cause of that. He was tired, too. My poor guy had been working much too hard to keep me safe, and I felt a hint of guilt, knowing I hadn’t made things any easier on him.
He’d stripped out of his armor and used cold water from a basin by the wall to wash up when there wasa knock at the door. I didn’t hear it because I was so fixated, staring at the massive scarring on his chest. How strange to realize that I’d been intimate with him in a way I’d never been with any other man, and yet… I had not seen him completely bare until now. He was very casual about it, and he did not seem to care about hiding the mass of scars. It was such a large, irregular line of healed skin that I knew the hole in his chest had been terrifyingly massive.
Much more alert than I was, Jaxin headed for the door, only at the last moment covering his nudity by snatching up a towel to wrap around his waist. He had a knife I didn’t even know he possessed in hand but didn’t reach for his cannon, which was lying right next to the tub I was in. A little as if he’d left it to stand guard.
It was the same giantess from before, standing demurely with a package in one hand and a tray in the other. I thought she’d just come to bring us food, but she completely surprised me when she swept past Jaxin and through the door. She was so tall that it made me realize this was probably a very small house by their standards, and she could have steppedoverJaxin if she’d wanted to.
I covered my chest with my hands and crossed my legs, all peaceful languor vanishing when she came right up to the tub and peered down at me. Not so demure now, she seemed like a woman on a mission. “What does she want?” Jaxin asked, the knife still in his hand, his head cocked in curiosity. He did not consider her a threat, even if she was three times bigger than him. I shrugged and shook my head, but the answer became almost immediately obvious when the giantess shook out her bundle of clothing—she was here to dress us according to their customs.
“I think,” I said to Jaxin, a bit of heat in my cheeks as I allowed her to help me from the tub and dry me, “she’s here to prepare us for a party.” Then I pointed at the tray the elegant, tall Radin giantess had placed on the table. It was knee-high to her, that table, but still up to my chest. On the tray lay woven strands with flowers, along with two tall cups filled with a fragrant, steaming liquid.
The liquid turned out to be some kind of stimulant—subtle and not harmful to either Jaxin or me—but definitely tailored to revive our flagging energy reserves. The giantess had dressed me first and was now draping fabric around Jaxin’s hips with very gentle fingers. It had allowed me a moment to test the fluid with the supplies from Jaxin’s medkit. There weren’t just stimulants in it, but also a generous amount of minerals and nutrients. Exactly the kind of blend a healing body needed.
“She wants us to drink that?” Jaxin said. With a growl, he snatched the last long swatch of fabric from her fingers and tied the final knot on his hip himself. “Is it safe?” When I explained my test results, he nodded thoughtfully. “Can you take a sample to take with us? This sounds just like the special replenishing stimulants Dravion makes.” He took the offered cup from the giantess without hesitation and tossed back its contents.
I tried not to laugh at the size of the cup in his hands, which was more like a vase than a cup, really. I couldn’t possibly drink all of it, but Jaxin polished off what I couldn’t finish with a satisfied smirk. “Who is Dravion?” I asked as I swiped a slide from my sample kit through what was left in the cup to do as he wanted. He was right, this might be very useful toanalyze.
“He’s our half-Aderian doctor on the Varakartoom,” Jaxin answered, politely lifting his chin so our hostess could drape her flower garlands around his thick neck. He should have looked ridiculous decked out in flowers, but it looked… well, kind of nice. Frankly, he looked very appealing in the toga-like fabric draped just around his hip and one shoulder. I knew he packed a lot of muscle, and that he was a big guy even for his species, but it was very different to see it all without the armor.
His gray skin was paler on the front than the back, and if you squinted in the lantern light, it almost edged toward purple. The scars only made him look more powerful to me, a warrior who had lived through the fires of Charontin and lived to tell about it. A male so strong he could withstand anything, and everything I sensed about him—everything I knew—told me he wanted to use that strength to protect me. I had never had a protector like him before. Guards, yes. But a male so devoted that I could feel how much I mattered, even through layers of conditioning that told him not to feel? It was a heady combination.
The giantess wasn’t finished with him yet, ducking very low to wrap strands of flowers around his ankles. She was shocked, but she hid it well, when she saw the webbing of his toes. Then came curiosity, which seemed to be a favorite emotion among these Radin giants.
“What’s the other half?” I asked Jaxin, remembering that he’d described his ship’s doctor as half-Aderian. No wonder that massive wound had not killed him, he had access to an Aderia-trained healer. It was not false pride to state that Aderia produced only the finest doctors and surgeons. I had always regretted that my powerful empathy made it hard forme to function in practice as a doctor. It was a useful gift in that profession, but not when it was as powerful as mine.
“Dravion? You won’t like the answer, little one,” Jaxin said, but he shrugged. The giantess had finished with him, and now it was my turn to be adorned with the flower garlands. Some of these flowers appeared to be the very ones I’d come to this world to study. “Grolarnx,” he said then, and yes, that did catch me by surprise. My head shot up. A giant finger almost stabbed me in the eye by accident, but I couldn’t help my reaction. The Grolarnx were barely sentient, and extremely deadly. I didn’t know they were even genetically compatible, let alone capable of leaving a female alive long enough for a child to be born. They ate everything.
