Page 22 of The Naga Maverick’s Determined Mate

“Welcome to my humble home,” the male said in an ingratiating manner. My skin prickled. This guy was bad news, really bad news. For the first time since we’d been caught by these Bitter Storm warriors did real fear sing through me. Until now, I’d had complete faith that we’d somehow make it out of here, that this truce would hold. Meeting this King made me realize that we might not be getting the outcome we hoped for.

Zsekhet’s arm tightened around my shoulder as he ducked us into a slight bow in greeting. “Thank you, Sir, for the kind hospitality.” I wanted to snort at how silly that sounded but I understood that Zsekhet was playing the game this Aser wanted to play. What better person than a spy to negotiate our release?

We were ushered further inside and Zsekhet was forced to lower himself on his tail or risk getting his horns stuck in the roof. The King was sitting on the dirt floor, which wasn’t even covered in flagstones like our previous abode had been. I didn’t much feel like joining him there even though that did seem like the polite thing to do. Thankfully, Zsekhet didn’t seem inclined to do so either.

“It’s no problem,” Aser drawled with a thick lisp, probably greatly exaggerated by his missing teeth. “You must have been terribly turned around in those tunnels down there. But no worry. You will be free to leave this cavern in a moment.”

That sounded promising, what was the catch? Was he going to set us loose in the tunnels again, with no hope of ever finding our way out? The orange-hued male was hovering nearby, the only male that had entered the little hut with us. His expression was so grim that I did not dare to hope even a little that those words meant actual freedom.

“You are too kind. Thank you for honoring the truce you made with Outcast Haven.” Zsekhet dipped his head in thanks, his gold eyes like lasers, sharp and cunning as he appraised the King. It had to be baffling to him to discover that a male had taken over the rule of this Clan. I found it a little strange too but far less surprising. All Clans as far as I knew were ruled by a Queen, and even, as in the case of Serqethos, when a Queen was killed, they let a female mature rather than let a male lead.

Aser narrowed his dark red eyes and cocked his head, his long black braid barely moving across his shoulder; stiff from whatever he’d put in it to make it look that slick. “Ah, yes. We are very grateful for the instructions on how to make fields on the mountain to grow food. As we are grateful for the offer of meats in exchange for ores from our home.”

I didn’t know that those were the details Krashe had hammered out with this guy. What did we need ore for at Haven? Was that all to help build new things? The greenhouse even? But I felt a hint of excitement, if we could refine metals for metalworking, we could improve many things. Like better arrows for bows to start off small.

We could make nails and hinges to improve the buildings that were going up outside of the Haven caves. The drying shed and the wall and gate for instance could be reinforced if we had such tools. I was almost salivating at the thought of being able to make a proper hammer.

None of that would happen if this Aser was as conniving and manipulative as I thought he was. Krashe cared about feeding the young from his former Clan, he’d have given the plans to make terraces for food growing with our without something in return. I had a feeling this Aser knew that and was taking full advantage.

Zsekhet nodded, “Yes, a good relationship between our peoples can be good for all of us. Our friends are already searching for us, they know where we went into the tunnels.” I wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but Zsekhet had brought supplies with him that had come from the Shaman, so at least one person knew.

“As you know, Krashe is an excellent tracker underground. He will have already found our trail.” Zsekhet’s voice held just enough of a hint of warning to get the message across. He was letting this Aser know that if he didn’t let us go, bad things could happen to that trade relationship or more. Telling in no uncertain terms that our friends knew exactly where we were.

“So he is,” Aser nodded, “No need to explain that to me. I am aware of the complete situation.” He gestured with a hand and from behind me a hand shot out, grabbing hold of the strap of the satchel. Zsekhet growled, a dagger swirling between his fingers which he lashed out toward the offender. I fought for a moment to hold on to the satchel but it ripped from my grasp as the male ducked out of Zsekhet’s way.

Zsekhet didn’t help either, his arm banding around my middle to pull me into him, away from danger. I didn’t think I’d been in danger, they just wanted our bag for some reason, but still my heart was pounding from the surprise. “I’m okay, he just wanted our bag,” I said to Zsekhet, patting his chest and urging him away from the perceived threat. We didn’t have many places to go in this tiny home, but I felt better when we were with our backs to a wall.

Aser remained completely unperturbed by the scuffle, he didn’t even seem to care that Zsekhet was still rumbling with a growl. He was engrossed in pawing through our things, pulling every single food item out of it to pile neatly on the floor next to him. Then he uncovered the healing device, which made him growl and pull back his hands as if it had burned him.

He shoved it back in the satchel and tossed it toward the orange male, “Joxra, get rid of that. Permanently,” he curled his lips in disgust on the last word and shot us a fierce, red glare that made my skin crawl. “And now you can leave the cavern. Let me guide you outside.”

Filled with distrust, Zsekhet and I were bade to follow after the ‘King.’ He left his little hovel at a slow pace and started to slither across the gathering place, directly past the open door to that palace-like building. My eyes tracked after the orange male, who, with a lingering glance, left our party of guards and a King, to do as he was told. Joxra, yeah, I was sure now. That orange male was definitely the same guy that had allowed Naomi and Krashe to escape out on the tundra.

When we were level with the palace, it felt like Aser slowed his pace to what was almost a crawl. It was like he wanted us to look inside and see what kind of mayhem had happened there. Was this how he’d grasped hold of the Clan, killing the Queen and her sycophants? My stomach was in knots, I didn’t want to see it, but morbid curiosity made me glance inside.

It was dark, and many shapes fluttered from the ceiling. They were sheets of fabric not actual ghosts, but the effect was spooky and unsettling. With only a little light to see by, I could make out a portion of the floor beyond the entrance and it was clearly sticky with some kind of dried fluid. Blood. A massacre had taken place there.

Zsekhet drew in a breath, the only sign that he was shocked. His eyes were much better than mine in the dark, I imagined he was getting the full picture. “This is what we do to a Queen that steals from her people,” Aser said placidly in front of us. He didn’t even glance into the building but just kept up his slow pace across the gathering place and hopefully out of this huge cavern. While by all accounts that Queen had deserved at least some of what she’d gotten, it made my skin crawl.

He had a trick up his plain brown sleeve. He was leading us ‘outside’ but I was pretty sure we’d be facing a gauntlet when we got there. This entire cavern had emptied out, everyone had to be waiting for us somewhere.

I curled my fingers around Zsekhet’s hand on my waist and glanced up to see how he was doing. His eyes were tracking the ceiling as much as the guards that followed us with their spears aimed at our backs. I had a feeling that as long as we were inside this huge cavern, he was equally as worried about the roof falling down on our heads, as those sharp spears.

Then noise started to reach our ears, the babble of a crowd of people all talking at the same time. The tunnel that led to the exit wasn’t long but it was enough to allow my eyes to adjust from complete dark to the violet sunlight outside. With a fur around my shoulders, I hadn’t been cold inside the cavern, but as soon as we stepped outside, a cold wind cut hard against my flesh and I started to shiver.

Several hundred Naga had gathered on the flank of the mountain at the cave entrance. It was a fairly steep slope and some attempt had been made to cut a zigzagging path down it for more easy traversing. Naturally, a platform of maybe a hundred square feet sat at the opening to the caves. People had crowded on here too, but most of the place had been taken up by a shocking amount of large cages.

I gasped, coldness forgotten, when I realized what I was looking at. The crowd was mostly males and younglings, but those cages, that’s where they were keeping the Naga females. It was a shocking reversal of what was the most common hierarchy structure on this world. After that failed war, Aser hadn’t just incited them to dispose of the Queen, he’d gotten them to turn on all their women. How did they think that was going to work out?

“I thought they numbered in the thousand, this looks like only half of that…” Zsekhet murmured in surprise. He was right, if this was all of them, their numbers had drastically dwindled. The war at Thunder Rock would have been a contributing factor but this much? Most Naga Clans supposedly skewed more heavily toward a male population as their females got extremely violent and competitive with each other, resulting in many deaths.

I held my breath as I estimated how many women were in those cages and had to draw the shocking conclusion that it might only be a hundred. That wasn’t going to be good for this Clan’s survival at all and then, sadly, I wondered if that was bad for Serant or not. They were supposedly keeping robotic monstrosities out of the lands of the others but was that enough to make up for the rest? Especially if Aser was about to pull his trick and try to get Zsekhet and me killed.

Aser stopped in front of us on a still fairly empty space on the platform. He raised his hands and the whole mass of Naga in front of us fell silent. Now that they were no longer talking loudly and pointing at us, it felt even more awful. Their fear and hatred were all in their eyes, they glared and bared their blackened teeth.

I pressed myself back against Zsekhet’s side as I waited to see what was about to happen. There was no way the two of us could walk through that crowd and exit on the other side unscathed. Was that Aser’s plan? To have his crowd of hooligans deal with us? He sure didn’t look like he liked to get his hands dirty with violence.

“I have passed judgment on these strangers, a male from a foreign Clan, and a being from the sky. I have decided to let them exit our caves.” Aser’s voice carried far as he spoke across the silent crowd. I held my breath and Zsekhet was letting out this low hiss, the scales along his back rattling softly. Nothing Aser was saying was a ringing endorsement to let us go but then, that had been his plan all along.