“It doesn’t matter.” Dyris sighs. “Dyana wants what she wants and she’s going to get it.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants a breeder and she’s chosen Dalox,” Dyanii says.
My stomach falls to the floor, ice gripping around my heart.
“But…”
“He’s mated to you?” Dyoti says, her eyes fever bright. “Dyana doesn’t care. She wants a male for our clan.”
“And how exactly is she going to get Dalox to, um, perform?”
Dyris takes my hand.
“I’m sorry, Gillian. She’ll use you as leverage.”
“She will make Dalox mate with her to stop her doing anything to me?” My voice comes out as a squeak, and I hate it.
Dyanii and Dyoti look at each other.
“It’s not right,” Dyanii says. “Not if they’re mated. The mate bond is sacred. It is something blessed by the ancestors.” She shakes her head.
“Mating shouldn’t be messed with,” Dyoti growls. “Males have a rut for a reason. Even if we don’t want them. Fate is offering us both a chance to find our forever one.” She gives me a look I can only attribute to hope. “It has to be the reason you are both here.”
“I agree with Dyoti, and that’s not a selection of words I ever thought I’d use,” Dyanii says. “If Dalox is mated, Dyana cannot force him to mate with another.”
Dyris looks around us. She draws in a breath and the place is silent.
“I’m Dyana’s second,” she says. “We’re supposed to be bringing the female to her. What you’re saying is treason.”
“It’s not treason if it’s true,” I add, studying my nails, which are filthy, until I fix them all with a gaze. “You wouldn’t want this to happen to you or a friend of yours. How is it different if it’s me and Dalox?”
The three Sarkarnii also study various parts of the vegetation around us before, one by one, they lift their eyes to mine.
“No,” Dyris says. “I would not want it. I don’t believe in it. Not anymore.” She purses her lips, a color blooming across her scales in a way I’ve not seen on the male Sarkarnii.
Dyanii sees my interest.
“Oh yes, of course.” She laughs. “If you’ve not met a female Sarkarnii, you’ll not know.”
“Know what?”
“We can change our color,” she says. “Depending on how we feel.”
“And,” Dyoti adds, “depending on the background.”
Slowly, all three of them disappear, rather like a fairytale, even leaving their smiles behind, sets of fangs which hold there until they’re gone too.
These females have the ultimate in defense. They areinvisible.
I clap my hands together and laugh. Finally, finally, I feel like there is a way out of this.
That there is a way back to Dalox.
DALOX
Ithought Deus was going to bolt, to risk a pulsar disruptor injury which is never fun to heal from, but he looked at me, and he shrugged instead.
