11
Xia
—
“I can’t take being cooped anymore! If I don’t go outside I’ll go insane.”
“Going outside is not possible, Tess.” I tell her. “We’re pretty high up and your leg’s still fucked. It snows a lot in Seca. It’s probably snowing right now.”
“Then at least a window?” She scowls and folds her arms. “I need some fresh air. I need to see something other than a gloomy cave. How long have we been here again?”
“Maybe seven days or so.”
“Exactly. Seven days and all that time I’ve been flat on my back. I gotta move, Xia.” She wiggles her body where she sits propped up against a wall. “I gotta move!”
“The medic said you’re not to move too much. You’re still healing.”
“What does he know? He’s a hack!” she scoffs. “It isn’t his ass getting blisters from being in one place for so long.” Then her voice and gaze become imploring. “Please, Xia. Don’t make me bring out the big guns.”
I give her an amused look. “What are the big guns?”
“The waterworks. Tears. Enough to flood that pool back there. I’ll do it. I swear to the goddess I’ll sit here and cry like a baby until I get what I want.”
“Fine. OK.” I release an exasperated breath. “I saw a bunch of entrances to Vyaka when Adan brought us here. Maybe we can find one.”
“Adan, huh?” Tess’ gaze narrow in suspicion. “Someone’s chummy with the Konai of Seca.”
“That’s his name!”
“And he doesn’t object to you calling him that?”
“I don’t see why he would.”
“Because usually rur draki royalty prefer the plebeians to refer to them by their title. Only family, friends and lovers get the honour of first names. I wonder which of those three categories you fall into?”
I purse my lips. “None.”
A silence follows for a moment before she breaks it.
“I think you’re lying. I think you know exactly why he allows you to be so familiar with him. Just because I’ve been unwell doesn’t mean I’m blind. He’s probably visited us as many times as the medic. And I’m betting it’s not because he’s so concerned about my welfare.”
“If you have something to say, Tess, spit it out already,” I say, properly irritated now.
“He likes you,” she says watching me closely. “And you like him too.”
“What does any of it matter?” I say, unwilling to admit anything. Despite my hard beliefs that I hated all dragons because of what one did to my father, Adan has worn down those beliefs. He saved mine and Tess’ lives and he’s been looking out for us ever since. Not even his people has treated us poorly during our stay. The Secan people don’t seem to care that we’re human. We’re not treated differently because we don’t have a powerful monster living inside us.
It’s so unlike what I’ve encountered all my years living in Andrasar. Sure there were a few Andrasari who were on the humans’ side, fighting alongside us for our freedom. The most notable was Theron Visclaud’s rahsa, Eyin Visclaud. Even though she was sister to the male who enforced our captivity until he fell in love with a human, she still wanted us all to be free.
“Because it means that that’s the death of any leftover hope I have.”
“Hope for what?”
“That you might like me too.”
Oh. The kiss. We’ve not spoken about it at all. I’ve been too much of a coward to bring it up. I’m afraid that by unpacking what it meant might lead to another fight and a definite rift in our friendship. We already had an unpleasant argument before we got to Seca. I don’t want that to happen again.
“Tess... I...” I remember what Adan said about being honest just before he gave me a toe-curling kiss that made me feel like his dragon had lit me on fire. Shamefully, I admit to myself that if he’d decided to fuck me against the wall then and there, I would have let him. No, stop thinking about that. Focus!. “Tess, I do like you. Very much. But only as a friend.”
“Because you prefer penises, right?” she grins.
I snort. “Well, yeah. Plus, you’re Jogen’s sister. It just wouldn’t feel right.” I give her an enquiring look. “I thought you liked males? Weren’t you with that mechanic… Sevan… Safan… ?”
“Sevran. I do like males, and I like females too.” Tess sighs. “It did feel like I’m being a traitor to my dead brother. I’d already told myself to back off, but I wanted to give it a shot still before I did.” She shakes her head. “Now I’m really backing off. Especially now that you’re interested in… Adan.”
My face grows hot. “I’m not. I can’t. He’s a draki.”
But even as I say the words, they hold less than zero conviction, and less than zero truth.
“That’s the same sort of close-minded, prejudicial thinking that had humankind enslaved for years, Xia,” she says. “I get why you hate them because of what happened to your dad, but the dragon that killed him is also dead. If you continue holding a grudge against everything that has wronged you in life, then you’re in for a lifetime of bitterness and anger, my friend.”
Holding onto a wall for support, she struggles to stand on her uninjured leg. I grab the fur jackets we were provided for the cold and wrap one around Tess, the other around me. Then I give her my hand for extra support.
I quirk an eyebrow as we slowly make our way toward the den’s entrance.
“When did you become this well of wisdom?”
“When I died, I saw the light. It spoke to me and gave me the answers to all of life’s important questions.”
Outside the den, it’s gloomy as usual. The heat from the steaming pool below chases away the cold and makes me warmer in the fur jacket.
“I’ll ask one of the guards patrolling to tell us how to get to an entrance.” I say.
It’s slow going because of Tess’ injured leg and arm. As we walk, sweat forms on her creased forehead and she breathes hard through parted lips.
“Tess, I don’t think this is a good idea. You look like you’re in pain.”
“Fuck the pain. I want some fresh air and I’m gonna get it.”
I spy a guard patrolling nearby but a child approaches us.
“Where are you going?” Zavi asks.
“We’re trying to find one of those entrances so we can look outside.”
Zavi’s eyes light up in excitement. “I can take you.” He races to the mouth of one tunnel and point into the yawning darkness. “Through here.”
“Pretty dark,” says Tess.
Zavi holds his hands out, palms up and a ball of light manifests in his open palm until it grows.
“Safur,” he says with a grin, his silver eyes gleaming in the light from the ball.
Right. I’d forgotten Rur beings could do that. They took all the impressive abilities while leaving us humans with absolutely nothing.
“I’m liking you more and more, Zavi,” says Tess with a grin. A bit of colour fills Zavi’s pale cheeks and his eyes become a little shinier.
Holding the safur before him, Zavi leads us through the tunnel. Thankfully, the path is smooth and easy for me to take Tess through. The further we go, the colder it gets until the tunnel ends, opening into a open area like another den. Except a huge open hole lets in all the cold air.
It’s dark outside, and the light from Zavi’s safur capture the steadily falling flecks of snow. Some of the snow blows inside, forming a small mound at the entrance.
“Even in these jackets it’s cold,” Tess says as I help her to sit on a short ledge jutting out from the wall.
I sit beside her. “You’re the one who wanted fresh air.”
She smiles and closes her eyes as she takes a deep breath. “Worth it.”
We sit in companionable silence watching as Zavi plays with the snow that’s coming in.
“Where’s Lim, Zavi?” I ask him. In all the instances I’ve seen him that huge white cat has been faithfully at his side.
He perks up and comes closer. “She went hunting earlier. She is probably in one of the mountains waiting out the storm before she can come home.”
For a second I envision Lim pouncing on unsuspecting prey and making short work of the feast. It’s not a pretty sight in my head. I shudder. I don’t know why my imagination can be so vivid in the worst moments.
Soon, it gets too cold for Tess and I to tolerate any longer. We’re both shivering as the furs can no longer protect us from the cold. I help Tess to her feet and Zavi creates another safur as the first one fades.
“What’s that sound?” says Tess suddenly, frowning.
I pause and wait for a short moment before I hear it too. A slithering, hissing sound. I’m about to say I hear it too when a huge, black creature leaps out of nowhere right onto Zavi.