And my heart stops dead.
GILLIAN
It’s a lot of fun to see the many expressions which range over Dalox’s face at the mention of the Sarkarnii females being taken to his equivalent of a man-cave. It clearly pained him to ask Lydia to visit me when I wasn’t well and he was too fresh in the rut to think straight.
I admit it’s been fun to talk with Dyoti and Dyris, who obviously know the males of their species intimately. It’s given me an insight into what makes the Sarkarnii males tick, and they’re surprisingly complicated.
For instance, I had no idea Dalox’s rut was spurred by a gland which fills his body with a cocktail of chemicals known as amix. Apparently it gives them additional strength and shifting ability, but it also makes them shed their skin if they haven’t recently shed.
It can also make them grumpy and irritable. I did ask how the females could tell from an ordinary Sarkarnii male but got laughed at.
I think it was anif you know you knowsituation.
“Yes,” Dalox says hesitantly. “The females could initially stay in my hidden quarters. I can take Dyoti and Dyris up to the clanmeeting place in the neutral zone and explain the situation to the others.”
He looks triumphant.
“And Deus?”
“He is on his own,” Dalox rumbles. “He will need to make his peace with the warlords on his, and their, own terms.”
“So, we have a plan?”
“We have a plan,” Dalox says, his jaw set.
A plan he isn’t too enamored with.
“I’ll go tell Dyoti and Dyris. They can tell the others.” I get to my feet, Dalox following suit.
“We will likely be over the first continent shortly. The navigation system is glitching, and I’ll need to pilot manually.”
“Don’t leave it to Deus, whatever you do.”
Dalox gives me a grin which instantly melts various parts of me. He is a wicked Sarkarnii, and yet he calls me trouble!
“I wouldn’t leave anything to Deus,” he says. “Come be by my side once you have informed the females of ourplan.”
Why do I get the feeling I’m going to pay for what I suggested later?
As Dalox returns to the pilot’s seat, I make my way into the back to where Dyris and Dyoti are talking with Dyanii.
“I got him to agree,” I say.
All three smile.
“Thank the ancestors,” Dyanii says. “I like males, I really do, but if they’ve been without females for all this time.” She growls low in her chest which, it appears, is the Sarkarnii equivalent of an eye-roll. “No one needs to be envenomated.” She bares her needle-sharp fangs.
“Shame, I fancied a bit of envenomation,” Dyoti says. “I’ve been having to expel so much venom recently, it has not been fun.”
“Expel?” I’m aware I’m staring at her.
“Our venom builds up,” Dyris explains. “In our glands.” She touches the side of her neck. “We have to regularly expel it, or it becomes painful at certain times in our cycle.”
“Males have ruts, we have cycles,” Dyoti says slowly.
“Humans have cycles too,” I say. “Monthly ones.”
“Then you will know about expelling venom,” Dyanii says.
