***
Levant
I had made a grave mistake. It was unforgivable, really, this mistake. How could I have been so careless and hooked my tablet up to that Revenant without taking the appropriate precautions? I should have located and removed its power source first so this couldn’t happen. Should have. That kind of thinking was pointless; what was done was done. At least this particular Revenant had not been built for war, but for something else. It was a child’s toy, a companion.
Still, I had yet to shake the horror I’d felt at seeing my workbench suddenly empty. Or the utter terror that had nearlyparalyzed me when I’d realized the Revenant had not only powered up but approached my mate, perching on top of her with its snout in her face, appearing ready to strike at any moment. I’d been sure it was about to rip out her throat. It was a nightmarish image I knew would not leave me any time soon.
The hunt for the dangerous, now-activated Revenant had also forced me away from her side. Now, she could not understand what I said. Though my translator implants provided translations of her words, and, shockingly, those of the Revenant, it was not the same as when we were touching. That was much more intimate; this just felt… clinical, cold.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready to risk my tail that close to the Revenant, though, especially when it had only stated that it would never harm its companion before locking Felicia in as such. That still left plenty of options for what it could do tome. I knew much better than the average Naga what even a small, seemingly harmless creature like this Revenant could do. I’d seen the laser capabilities and the shielding unit.
Hovering beside my nest, I watched the pair and contemplated what to do. Felicia seemed so easily reassured that the Revenant was harmless, her smile wide and beautiful as she watched the Vakarsa calf dance around. Itwascute, and the Revenant looked happy, which was good. It was telling Felicia how much fun they’d have together now that she was his companion. When it said how lonely it had been before it powered itself down, I even felt a pang of sympathy in my chest. I knew a thing or two about loneliness.
“Auby,” Felicia said, “I think I need a moment to gather some answers. Why don’t you sit down while I talk to Levant?” TheRevenant immediately plunked itself down onto the furs, and its purple pelt made it blend in instantly. No wonder I hadn’t spotted it in the nest; since it gave off no detectable scent at all, it had been impossible to track.
“Yes, Felicia. I shall sit here and warm your cold feet while you talk,” the Revenant chirped happily. I was almost jealous of how carelessly it could assume touch withmymate. When I’d brought her into my tent, I’d been worried about her strength and how cold she’d become. Still, I had assumed she would want to mate with me and celebrate the bond between us right away. Her scent had given me hope, but I’d sensed how jarring my mention of mating had been to her. She was not ready for such things at all.
“Thanks, Auby,” she said, her smile radiant and so sweet I found myself drifting closer. I wanted to offer her another bowl of nourishing stew, pile more furs around her, warm her feet myself, just so she’d smile at me that way. Bah, I had not been a jealous male. I had been most gracious, helping my friend Artek rescue his mate and hearing about the outcasts as they mated the last available humans. I had not even protested, much, about being exiled here when more humans had been rescued from the skywreck. Beautiful, sweet-smelling, and unmated human females.
It was nearly impossible not to feel that sharp, needy emotion when my true mate wasrighthere, and she was smiling at another. Even if that other was an artificial lifeform—a Revenant—and a tiny calf at that. Then Felicia turned her eyes on me, and I felt a sharp burst of pleasure sizzle through my veins. She still looked kind, sweet, her spirits high. “Will you tell me what’sgoing on, Levant? Where are we? What are you doing here? Did you see my ship arrive and come to investigate?”
Ah, blazing stars, she still hadn’t quite realized how long ago her ship had been frozen in that layer of ice. Why did I have to be the one to dash that hopeful look from her eyes? Because I knew that’s what was about to happen. How could it not, when you learned that all you’d ever known in your life was gone? That’s what had happened to her. My less civilized Naga brethren wouldn’t know that, but I did.
“Felicia,” I began, and then I realized she would not understand me. That Revenant, he spoke her language, and he knew mine, but I wasn’t about to let it translate for me. So I reached out with a hand and touched hers. My sigils lit across my front, tingling with sensation all the way to the tip of my tail. Her eyes went huge in her face as she watched the savage mating display appear. “I am not here because I saw your ship arrive,” I said. “I am here because something in this area is causing dangerous fluctuations in Serant’s natural EM field.”
She mouthed both Serant and EM field as if those were keywords she needed to remember. Then her brow furrowed in concern. “Is my ship causing that?” I didn’t know, but it seemed very likely, given the powerful readings I’d gotten. That’s what that massive Burrowing Revenant had appeared to be attracted to, but I hadn’t been able to study it enough yet to draw any real conclusions.
I shrugged. “Possibly. That will require further research. But, Felicia… your ship, it’s been there a long time. Do you understand? You did not arrive recently. Your stasis pod was nearly out of power, that’s how long you’ve been under the ice.”It was too big to voice out loud yet, but I wanted to say that she’d arrived on Serant during the Calamities. Perhaps her ship had even caused some of the disastrous events that had struck Serant a thousand years ago. The timing was simply too close; my ancestors must have known she was here.
Her face began to fall, just as I’d predicted, and I flinched guiltily. My eyes flicked to the Revenant lying sweetly at her feet, and I noticed it had its huge, lavender eyes locked on my face. Almost, I felt, as though it was judging me, watching me and appraising me to see if I would do or say anything that hurt Felicia. The ultimate protector, wrapped in a tiny Vakarsa baby package.
“That is correct,” it said in Felicia’s language. “Your ship arrived on Serant exactly one thousand and sixty-three of your cycles ago, Felicia.” It was not lost on me that this was the exact same number he’d given not long ago as the date when he’d lost his previous companion. Also not a coincidence. Which perhaps meant that Auby hadn’t been built as a companion for a Naga youngling of the past after all. Somehow lost over the Arctic and frozen in ice, I’d assumed, but if Auby knew when she’d gotten here so precisely, maybe he’d been here with a purpose.
I opened my mouth to ask, but Felicia spoke first, and I subsided, listening as her trembling voice sought to change the subject. “Oh, so stasis, a long time… Can I get some more food? And where are the rest of my clothes?” She was brave, I could tell, and a female of action, used to being in charge. This was too much for her, though; she didn’t know how to handle having traveled through time while asleep—reaching a future while slumbering and losing all she knew with the journey. The kind of time travel that was irreversible and final.
I squeezed her hand gently. “Yes, right away, sweet mate,” I said. My tail coiled lightly around her wrist so I could maintain the tenuous connection that allowed her to understand my language. Then I turned to pull her clothing, the strange, stiff jumpsuit she’d worn, from a basket. She took it from my hands and began shrugging into it under the furs. My metal clasp, repurposed from holding the furs closed over her chest, now tied up her long hair on top of her head. I liked it; it bared her neck and shoulders in a way that made her look delicate, elegant. She reminded me of the Queen of Serqethos, who, unlike most Queens, was like that: kind, delicate, elegant, and very much revered by the entire Clan.
As she dressed, I tried not to peek, but it was impossible not to let my eyes wander as she shifted around beneath the furs. The stew was quickly piled into a bowl, and then I sat there, waiting at her side, watching. She was so beautiful, better than anything I had been dreaming up while alone in my tent. She smelled so good too. I wanted to draw her into my coils and rub myself all over her so that it would cling to my scales, that scent. Very primitive, very barbaric, and very much in line with the primal mating instincts that rode a male when he found his one. I relished every aching feeling, each drawn-out moment.
“Thanks,” she said as she took the bowl from my hands and shifted to the edge of the nest so she could eat. Now her feet were on the floor, bare toes wriggling. They were beyond strange to look at, foreign and tempting. I had no feet and had never really touched a creature that did have them before. Well, not with the interest I was feeling now. There were claws on the tips of those toes, but they looked soft and blunt, not designed to be weapons or for digging. Just… there.
“So you’re here to find out about the EM field,” she muttered around a mouthful of stew. My eyes instantly skittered away, and shame crawled up my spine. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong to get me banished here, exiled. I stood by my choices, but still, would she see it that way? Only one way to find out: I had to tell her. Better to do it now, right? Be honest up front?
“I am,” I agreed quietly, and my tail snuggled a little more tightly around her wrist. “It was an assignment to punish me,” I said, trying to appear as mild and neutral about it as possible. “The Shaman Council did not like that I broke the rules, so they sent me here, where they thought I would not be able to find my mate or interfere with humans.” There, that was the facts and nothing else. I’d leave the rest up to her. She was already flagging anyway; her long time in stasis had sapped her strength and weakened her muscles, and there was only so much healing my hand device could do at a time.
“Oh, exiled, huh? You must have seriously pissed off your boss,” she grinned. Like it was a joke, not something designed to deny me a future I’d dreamed of since I first heard of humans. “What about humans, you mentioned them a few times. Am I not the first human you’ve met?” She was flagging already, but soldiering on with a very determined frown on her face.
“In the past year, two ships with humans crash-landed on Serant. My brethren have rescued them, and they now live at a place called Haven, at Ahoshaga. Not all Naga like humans, as our females have become competitive and hostile. They are safe there, however, and you are safe with me.” I could see in her eyes that she had questions but she only had energy for eating at the moment. So I quietly talked about the former Thunder Rock prince, Zathar, and Vera, his human mate. About the others andhow they’d brought together outcasts into a unique but cohesive group.
She was out of steam after her second round of food, nearly collapsing where she sat, though she tried stubbornly to keep her eyes open. I took the bowl and discarded it, and though she pushed against me as if to protest, I quickly tucked her into the furs again. “Don’t need sleep, I need answers,” she murmured, but her eyes slid closed. She was out.
“The human is experiencing the side effects of stasis, I believe,” Auby said in my own language. There was concern in his tone that sounded very genuine. I stared at him, wondering what to do now. A talking Revenant right in my tent, a brain I could pick for knowledge of the past in a way that no Shaman had been able to in centuries? It was an exciting opportunity, but I found I could not muster any curiosity. I just wanted to make sure that Felicia was okay.
“Yes,” I agreed. “As her companion, you are designed to protect her at all costs?” Auby instantly chirped an affirmative. “And would you consider me a threat?” I asked, my breath stuck in my chest as I waited for the answer. Felicia’s chest rose and fell in sleep, her expression serene and the spots on her face intriguing, tempting me to touch.
“Are you not her true mate?” Auby asked. “Are you not programmed to protect her at all costs, too?” I almost laughed at the way he’d phrased that, but it was true. A Naga male would go to any length to ensure his female was safe. Auby was correct, I would never harm Felicia.
“I am,” I agreed, and then I gave in to all that temptation bubbling in my veins. I slid the furs aside and slipped into the nest, curling myself around Felicia and, for the first time, gathering her into my arms and coils, right where she belonged. Auby mewled when my motions dislodged him from the lower part of the nest, but he did not complain, just resettled on the edge, perching there like a sentinel, as if he intended to watch over both of us.
