16. Aizor

Chapter 16

My mate had been so stunned by my world, she'd collapsed. Perhaps she was seeing everything my clan and I could offer, and it had overwhelmed her with joy. Before I could lift her, hold her, she woke and rose to her feet, I swept her up and carried her into the caipareel. I'd enjoyed holding her while we traveled, and I hoped she'd allow me to hold her again soon.

When I placed her on her feet after emerging from the caipareel, she peered around in amazement. I entered the water to cleanse my legs and returned to her.

"I . . ." She stared at me, stunned. "We're not inside your home but I understand what you're saying."

I wasn't surprised. "This is a sacred place for us, some say the birthplace of our gods."

"You see your gods?"

"In everything they do, but as far as I know, they're not physical beings like you or me." I swept my arm to the center of the island where the tall crystal structures were clustered. "Some say the godly structures were here from the moment our planet formed, while others say they arrived here in ships much larger than yours. My clan elder believes the latter."

Because I was eager to speak with the gods and go home, I took her hand and led her along the path from the shore to the courtyard entrance.

"The stones on the path look like glass," she said. Stopping, she stooped down to touch one. "They're gorgeous. So many colors. They're much like mosaics I saw in a museum once except these are slightly rounded instead of flat. And they're smooth."

"Many have walked here before us."

Straightening, we continued on the path, her stopping to marvel at the vegetation growing on either side.

She pinched a branch on a tree covered with pink blossoms. "It feels almost like glass as well." With a snap, she broke the end of the limb. "Oh, oh."

I took it from her and licked it.

Her eyes widened and a low laugh bubbled up her throat. "It's edible?"

I nodded and kept licking.

Her eyes widened as she watched. "You have a very . . . thick and long tongue."

"You do not."

"I'm defective," she said with a low laugh.

"You're perfect. If I haven't made that clear, I want to do so this instant. You, my mate, are perfect just the way you are."

"Some guys would say they wished my tongue was long and thick as well."

I frowned. "Would that give you a better appetite for the delicacies of my world?" I handed her the twig, and she stared at it before licking it herself.

"I've died and gone to Wonka," she cried out.

"What is a wunka?"

"It's a movie. This is sweet. It tastes like cotton candy." She sucked on it, swirled her tongue around it, and at that instant, I understood what she meant about long, thick tongues.

"You can eat it," I croaked.

Her dual fluffs of hair above her eyes, something Zuldruxians didn't have, lifted. "What happened to your voice?"

I leaned close. "I was imagining a few places I could lick you and where you might use your tongue on me."

Her face turned the same color as the blossoms behind her. "We . . ." The fluffs dropped, as did her smile. She tucked the twig inside her mouth and crunched through it, turning to start walking again. "Let's go see your gods."

My words upset her. Did that mean she didn't want me licking between her legs? Females were confusing. I'd already determined this. But this female was the most puzzling of all.

I walked with her, though we stopped at the tall entrance.

She tipped her head back to peer up. "This is like a big glass Disney-ish castle. The tree broke easily. Are the buildings just as fragile?"

"They wouldn't have lasted this long if they were." I rapped my knuckles on the surface beside the arched opening and it clanged.

"It sounds like metal." Leaning close, she ran her fingertips across it. "It's as smooth as it looks and as thick as any wall in a house back on Earth. So pretty. Every color from the rainbow is represented in this big oval structure."

"The outer walls and their spires are beautiful at sunrise or sunset, when the light hits them at an angle. I could bring you here sometime to see it."

Her face tightened. "Maybe." She stepped through the archway with me following. "It's gorgeous here. The open area in the middle of the round wall has to be the size of a couple of football fields. It's amazing."

"It is large." I wasn't sure what afout-bail feehldwas, but I didn't believe it mattered. "While the custom had stopped after the great disease swept across our lands, our clans now plan to gather here again each year to visit with each other and celebrate the gods' bounty."

"What disease?" She paused while crossing the open area where clans would set up tables to exchange goods during the gathering. Colorful, smooth stones covered the floor of this area as well.

I explained how many sickened, how most of the gods also died, and how our people were still slowly dying, though no longer due to the disease. How our clan leaders had come together and spoken to the gods, begging them to help us.

"You're saying you asked your gods for mates?" she said.

"With so few females being born and few clan members already, our people won't live many more generations without their help. So yes, we asked them. Begged them to help us, to send you to us."

She sighed and leaned against the outer wall of the central structure that was also enormous and many stories tall. The spires had inspired many poems that spoke of their greatness. Would my mate be interested in hearing them when we all gathered in our Indigan central area tonight?

"I still can't understand how asking your gods for help resulted in me being kidnapped and brought here."

"I'm sorry you were taken against your will."

"It's not your fault." Pain etched lines into her face.

"In some ways, it is. If we hadn't asked our gods for help, they wouldn't have taken you."

"I'm one woman. Please don't expect me to save your people."

"If you wish to have young with me, I'll welcome you with open arms."

She snorted. "I'm sure you will."

"But if you don't wish for young, there are herbs you can take to prevent a child."

"Forever?"

I joined her, leaning against the outer wall, my lower arm brushing against her shoulder. "I would love to hold my youngling in my arms, but I would never force such a thing on you. You've already been forced to come here, to be my mate."

"Do mates ever divorce?" She explained the concept.

Turning to face her, I stroked her hair. So soft. Her appearance stunned me all over again, and my heart squeezed beneath my ribs. She was gloriously beautiful and it would hurt if she ultimately rejected me. "True mates like us? No."

"You're saying I'd have no say in this?" she growled.

"Just like with having young, it is your choice to stay with me or not, but true matings are rare. More often, they're fertile. No one would ever consider ending such a relationship. But if you don't want to be with me, I'd never force you to do so."

"I appreciate you saying that." She gazed up at me with her lovely eyes. Tiny hairs sprung from the lids. Zuldruxians only had hair on the tops of our heads. I'd already noted she had strips of fluff above her eyes, plus tiny, fine pale hairs on her arms. I'd discovered wonderfully coarse hair between her legs as if her folds and sweet pussy hid behind a briar shield.

How would that hair feel to my tongue? Would it be soft like the hair on her head or barbed? It hasn't pricked my fingers, though.

My groan ripped out, a sound full of frustration and desire. I was eager to taste her everywhere, and she was equally eager to leave me.

She eased away from me, and I released her hair, letting it fall to drape across her shoulder.

"You wanted to speak with your gods?" she asked, the fluffs above her eyes lifting once more. I'd already noted she used the gesture when she was surprised, but it seemed to be part of an inquiry as well.

"They reside in this structure." I tapped the smooth crystal wall we'd leaned against.

"I'll admit, this place is incredible," she said. "Gorgeous. The colors." The awe in her voice was appropriate. We were near the gods. They'd be listening. She should be amazed by the beauty of their structures.

"The varying colors represent each of our clans," I said as I led her along the outer aspect of the central building. The entrance to the main god room was on the other side. "My clan, the Indigan, resides within the gods that are gifted with the colors blue and silver."

"That's the color of your buildings."

I tapped a place in the wall whose color perfectly matched. "Other clans live in crystal structures of red or gold, bluish green and white."

"How many clans are there?"

"Too many to count, though in this area? There used to be three but now there are four."

"Why four now and not before? I thought your gods had been here for longer than you remember, that your people were dying out."

"Nevarn, the traedor of the new Celedar Clan, lives in the forest along the lake. He did something horrible and was banished from the Dastalon Clan."

"What did he do?"

"We don't like to speak of it." I lowered my voice as if the world was listening when actually, in this sacred place, only the gods would overhear. "He killed his mate."

"His true mate? Is it because she wouldn't give him a divorce?"

"She wasn't his true mate. I don't know why he did it, but it was a terrible crime. Since life is sacred here . . . How can it not be? We're a dying species. Each person is precious. He was banished rather than killed for the murder."

"Whoa." She peered around. "And you said he lives in the forest near the edge of the lake?"

"He won't come near us. Have no fear." He'd better not, or I might not see his life as sacred as his traedor had. "When he left, some of the males went with him, angered by the decision their traedor made."

"But he killed her."

"I've heard there were circumstances the traedor didn't understand, but that Nevarn wasn't allowed to speak of them."

"I can't imagine any reason someone would have to take the life of another."

"I don't either. We kill creatures but only to eat. And we thank them for the sacrifice they make to keep us alive."

"Does any clan hunt for the enormous fish that brought us to this island?"

"Never. The fish is called a caipareel and its species has performed this duty for us for longer than anyone remembers. We protect it and it transports us to and from the island." I cleared my throat. "Nevarn's is the Celedar Clan, and their god bestowed bluish green and white on them."

"You said they're a new clan. How would they have a god or colors if they've been here forever?"

"They discovered a god we hadn't known existed in this area. I don't know anything about this god, just that Nevarn's clan has one. My friend, Firion, is traedor of the Dastalon Clan, that of the sky warriors. Their red rivals the sky at sunset."

"That must be Nevarn's former clan." She peered up, but we couldn't see the sky through the top of the crystal structure. "How do they live up there? On ships?"

"They fly on great winged beasts and live on islands that float in the sky above the ocean."

"Why don't the islands fall?"

I shrugged. "Such is the way of the gods."

A shiver tracked through her, and she hugged her waist with her arms. "I'm not sure I'm eager to meet their flying beasts if they're anything like the caipareel."

"They're well-trained. They rarely bite."

"Where do the final clan live?"

"My friend, Xax, is the second to the traedor of the Ulistar Clan, the Zuldruxians living among plant gods."

Pausing, she frowned, wedging the fluffs above her eyes together, creating yet another gesture with a new, indiscernible meaning on her expressive face. "Plant clan?"

"They live inside large plants thrusting up from the ground that they grow from spores. This clan is very small and we've encouraged them to come live with us, but their traedor prefers to isolate them. He's refused to join us so far."

"Are their colors bluish green and white as well?"

I shook my head. "Gold. Glorious gold. Our worlds are similar, aren't they?"

"In some ways, though our islands only float on the surface of the water, not in the sky."

"And how do you keep them from sinking into the water?"

She frowned. "They're large land masses with bases that extend all the way to the ocean floor. They don't sink."

"And neither do the sky islands, though they don't have bases anchoring them to the ground or the hooks for clinging to the clouds."

"I can't imagine anything like that."

"We could visit one day and you could see how they live."

"Perhaps." She tapped the wall of the central compound. "We use a similar appearing material to this, though it's quite fragile. It shatters under a heavy blow."

"Some crystals shatter as easily here, as you saw with the flowering tree. The grass our hepadons eat is also fragile. If one treads on it hard, it can be crushed."

"You eat some of the crystals."

"Don't you eat your trees and grass and the creatures that roam your world?"

"We do, but they're not made of the same material. I'm not sure how my body will respond to them."

"If I know the gods, though no one truly understands their ways completely, they'll have ensured your body can eat whatever we do."

"Hmm," was all she said.

We rounded the large central pillar, and I gasped in amazement.

A circle of structures—the "pod" Van-eesa must've been referring to—had been placed in this section of the vast room, the tops of the long cylinders nearly meeting in the middle.

A female like Van-eesa lay inside each one.

Van-eesa snarled and before I could ask her what she was doing, she grabbed my dagger from its sheath at my waist and raced toward the pods. When she reached them, she lifted my weapon and drove the hard crystalline tip down on top of the first pod.

A loud clang rang out in the room.

I felt the gods awaken around us.