Page 32 of The Naga Maverick’s Determined Mate

“Images,” Cosima said in a hushed voice, unaware of the awe and shock shivering through me. She stared, wide-eyed as she pulled forth one image after another on the gate’s surface. The city at Serqethos as it once was, teaming with life, swarming with Naga in all colors of the rainbow, dragons and strange sky-ships racing through the sky.

There were more images of other places too, other large cities I had never seen or heard of. An image that startled us both as it looked remarkably like the interior of the Hearth Caves that were home to Bitter Storm. Underground buildings, buildings high above in spires or up on mountain flanks, and always the evidence of our ability to cooperate with all the Clans. Naga of all colors mingling together.

“This is amazing…” Cosima breathed, “These buildings are fantastic! It’s all so beautiful…” Ah, she’d been admiring the architecture once again, I wasn’t surprised, it always drove her passion. I’d been watching the Naga, staring at what history proved, that we were once a cohesive species, working together instead of fighting and distrusting. If anything, this made me more excited to be part of what was happening at Outcast Haven, where Zathar and Vera were proving the past could be the future once more.

Then the image shifted one more time, showing us the inside of a large chamber with many tubes and strange lights. At first, I struggled to make any kind of sense at all of what I was seeing but then cold washed over me. Those were coffins, filled with the dead of the past. Endless rows upon rows of coffins with a glass lid, a Naga body inside. The image was dark and gloomy, with shadows everywhere and odd gleaming blue and sickly green lights. It made my stomach turn to look at it.

“I think this is a live feed,” Cosima said, and she turned a wide-eyed stare to me. “Zsekhet, look, their chests are rising and falling. They aren’t dead. They’re in stasis.” She must have seen the utter confusion on my face because she started explaining in a rush, something about images being taken in the here and now and sent to us to watch. She was telling me that the Naga in those coffins might not be dead, and sleeping somewhere, unaware of the world, right this moment.

“Turn the image off,” I said, suddenly feeling like we’d trespassed. There was a reason only our Queens controlled the gate and interpreted the images for us. Because of darkness like this. It felt wrong to be looking at it, and I hoped it wasn’t true, that some of my ancestors weren’t actually stuck in such limbo, asleep and dreaming with no chance of ever waking.

“Okay, I will. It’s okay Zsekhet, they don’t know, they aren’t in any pain or distress. I promise.” Cosima gently touched the knobs and the image made way for a new one, schematic drawings of some kind. These were equally as confusing to me but Cosima studied them with great concentration, flicking through one to another until the images returned of the cities. Only then did she turn off the gate.

“We need to talk with the Queen, Zsekhet. This is important, okay?” I nodded, of course. We had to teach Alshara how to operate the gate so that she could resume that role for Serqethos once more. We needed to tell her that the key was the ‘solar panels’ on the roof.

Chapter 20

Cosima

I stood next to Zsekhet’s sister, Merish, as I watched Zsekhet and several more males from his Clan work to strap a large, hexagonal panel to Sesethul’s belly. The dragon was watching the proceedings with some distrust but he was letting it happen under Zsekhet’s urging. The panel was the most fragile, and hardest to source part we’d need to restore the greenhouse back at Haven. The endless sand of the desert had actually protected well over a dozen greenhouse domes at Serqethos, still whole and possibly just a reboot away from fully functioning.

The panel was a gift from Alshara after we’d returned with our news of the once more functioning gate. I didn’t really feel like it was my doing that had restored it, I’d just recognized the solar panels for what they were. Zsekhet didn’t care, he was happy to tell anyone who wanted to listen that his clever mate had restored the ‘power’ of the gate.

“Poor Ses, that’s going to slow down the journey back. Why do you need that thing again?” Merish asked but then she shrugged and shook her head when she realized she wouldn’t be able to understand my answer. The panel was large, but it was not nearly as heavy as it looked, I was certain that Sesethul would be more hindered aerodynamically than weight-wise. We’d make sure to shorten our flight hours each day so he’d get enough rest.

Once the panel was strapped up correctly and Sesethul knew how to grip the right loops for carrying, Zsekhet rushed to my side. He flung an arm around his sister for a quick goodbye hug, which she pretended to hate and wriggle out of. “Ready to go back home, mate?”

We said goodbye to Merish and Arakash, then passed a whole crowd of Clanspeople who’d turned out to see us off. The Queen was waiting with them, and Zsekhet detoured to give her a proper greeting too.

She was a smaller, elegant figure in a pale rose robe today. It fluttered gently in the breeze, her long, muscled body glimmering gold and bare beneath the nearly see-through fabric. Her scales were all the ornamentation she needed, no other jewels adorned her. With her hair in many thin braids, which must have taken hours to complete, she looked exotic and esoteric. Angelic almost, and yet, there was an undercurrent to her that I couldn’t place, something that made me feel on edge at seeing her today.

“Remember what Cosima said,” Zsekhet urged the young monarch. “The schematics she read make it imperative that we clear the roofs of as many ruins as we can. Don’t forget or there might not be enough food for all of Serqethos one day.”

He was referring to my interpretation of the blueprints of the city, the underground cloning and hatching facilities that bred the giant fish that populated the lake. I should have known when I saw Sesethul gorge himself on the big fish that it was unnatural that the lake was that rich with food when it had to sustain a large population of dragons and Naga. I didn’t know precisely what powered the hatcheries, they’d continued running so far, but they couldn’t risk it. So clearing solar panels seemed imperative.

The Queen reached up to cup his chin, her expression soft until it flicked in a much harder glance my way. “I won’t forget. Now go, before I change my mind.” Chills ran down my spine at that look, despite the dry desert heat. She wasn’t entirely in control of her more volatile instincts today, that look said it all. She didn’t like that I was taking Zsekhet away from her.

Once we were up in the air, Zsekhet’s arms snug around my waist, and Sesethul’s warm scales beneath me, I relaxed. We were going home, and it really did feel like that, like returning to Haven was like a homecoming, a real one this time. I couldn’t wait to see the girls again, to train with Kalani and banter with Min-Ji. I was even wondering about what Corin was up to, and the irrepressibly excited and cheerful Xorare, next to his stoic partner Aks.

“The first thing I’m going to do when we get home is take a really long, warm shower,” I announced to Zsekhet, fully expecting to get a flirty tease back. At the very least he’d make a double entendre. When he said nothing I glanced at his face and realized that he was staring with complete focus at a place below and behind us.

Ses wasn’t flying fast, taking his time to build height so he could coast as much as possible considering the extra luggage he was hauling. We’d only just left the oasis and could still see the details of the tents, the trees, and the impressive construction of Serqethos’ version of a yakhchāl. The Nylarashé with its long shade wall.

A handful of dragons sat perched in a row on the edge of the village, the focal point of Zsekhet’s focus. Riders sat atop their backs and at least one of the dragons was as big as Sesethul, a mature beast. I did not spot the bright pink dragon that belonged to Arakash, but I did see a deep blue one whose rider looked suspiciously like Zsandex.

“That’s not a good sign, is it? What’s happening?” I asked. Zsekhet’s arm around my middle tightened for a moment and then his hands started moving with rapid motions, tugging on each buckle that held my riding harness in place on my body or attached to loops on Sesethul’s matching set.

“Not good. Keep looking, if they take off, warn me,” was all he said and then he was unhooking his own harness and coiling himself down Ses’ back with agile, practiced moves. As big as a passenger airplane, Sesethul’s bulk seemed to defy gravity, an impossible sight to see winging through the air. On the ground, Zsekhet was large and imposing, but against Ses’ huge scales, and gargantuan form, he seemed far too small and fragile for my liking.

I didn’t know what my mate was doing, just that I didn’t like how he was moving himself along hooks on Ses’s body with far more speed than safety. My heart ached with fear that I might lose another, that we were about to find ourselves in so much trouble that Zsekhet could end up hurt or dead while defending me.

Doing as he said, I kept my eyes on the dragons, counting them fervently and measuring their dwindling size against Ses’. Would we outfly them? Could Sesethul take them if it came to a fight? I didn’t want to believe that was about to happen, but Zsandex hadn’t liked any of the things we’d said or done at Serqethos. His dislike of outcasts had instantly transferred to Zsekhet when he’d declared Haven no threat.

The blue dragon was by far the biggest, but a deep brown one, and a shimmering white one sat on either side of it. Their combined bulk would still match Sesethul, and add that lighter lavender one and they must have the upper hand when it came down to it. I didn’t like our odds, and when they suddenly shot up into the sky, one dragon after another soaring after us, my heart leaped in my throat. “They’re coming!” I shouted, my fingers clenching around the neck spike in front of me as I twisted to look at Zsekhet.

He was hanging from straps on Sesethul’s side and now I understood what he was doing. He’d moved to where the straps held my precious piece of the greenhouse to Ses’ body. He raised his eyes to mine, his expression grim, and I understood. We needed to drop that thing so that we could outfly them, with it, there was no doubt they’d catch up to us.

I didn’t care more about some stupid piece of architecture, I cared about Zsekhet and Ses getting out of this unscathed. Despite my excitement—and my determination to bring this thing home—the choice was simple. I nodded, “Do it! Do it, Zsekhet!”