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Chapter 18

Min-Ji

I was not the same person I was yesterday; I concluded when I woke up that morning. The entire world had shifted when Corin and I had made love, and that really was as cliché as it sounded in my head, but it was the truth. I felt different, stronger, and filled with happiness that just kept making my face fall into a smile.

Corin lay curled against my back, his tail twined around my legs, and his arm thrown over my middle to hug me tight. He was still asleep, I could tell from the slow way he breathed, and his sigils weren't glowing. They weren't glowing because we'd mated. Now they'd only glow if he felt intensely, or if he wanted them to. I felt immensely satisfied knowing that.

Then I realized that it would make it easier, in a way, to hide our mating bond from the Thunder Rock Queen. An accidental touch wouldn't give us away. Was that Corin's plan? Is that why he'd given in yesterday afternoon? I didn't think so, but a hint of doubt settled in my belly. I tried to tell myself that it didn't matter, because even if we had to hide it, that was better than not having him at all.

Triff's soft beep made me push away the thoughts and focus on the present. The little bot was sitting right in front of my face, a little lopsided as he leaned against a rock to keep his balance on the side of the hill we were sleeping on. Last night, we had shared food, and then Corin had set up a proper camp with a campfire to keep Reid warm. We'd moved to the other side of the hill for more privacy and left Triff to guard the sick human. "Oh, is something wrong with Reid?" I asked, worried when I realized that Triff shouldn't be here, but back with the patient he was supposed to guard.

"No," Corin muttered. "He's just lonely. Can't blame him. I'd miss you too after a whole night without you…" His arms tightened around my middle, and he buried his nose against my neck. It made my toes curl, and his words made my heart sing. Who knew my mate had poetic words like that hidden all this time? Maybe I should be less surprised, considering how he made love.

After we'd made our camp and hidden away in the furs on our side of the hill, he'd made me see stars so many times—with his tongue, with his hands and tail, definitely with his cock. I was still feeling the stretch, a little soreness, and it made me feel all warm inside each time my body twinged to remind me.

It was more than the mind-blowing sex, though, because it meant our bond was official now. He'd accepted that we should be together, that staying away was the wrong choice. Now I just had to have faith that we'd manage that stupid Queen somehow. That he wouldn't go back to pretending we were nothing as soon as we saw her. That might be the smart thing to do, but I knew it would hurt, irrational as that was.

There were other things to worry about right now anyway, like how quiet Corin was, and how obvious it was that he didn't want to get up. That wasn't like him, because Reid needed us to get our asses in gear and take him to the Sacred Training Grounds. It could only mean that Corin was having a difficult time facing that place, but he'd feel guilty if our dawdling harmed our friend.

"I know you were meant to train there, and that it was the Queen who put a stop to your training. Is that why you're struggling to go back?" I asked him, and then I winced because that was way too blunt. I should have brought that up in a gentler fashion, but honestly, I wasn't as tactful as Vera or Cosima.

At least Corin huffed against my hair with what was clearly a smothered kind of laugh. He didn't mind, whew… It was still hard to figure out what he was thinking, and now it might get even harder. His scales didn't glow, even though he was touching me. That just meant we'd ‘consummated' our bond, but it made my stomach swoop with nerves each time I noticed.

"It's not that I hate the idea of going back there, it's just… Even with Artek's blessing, I am misusing my invitation for training to help Reid. They will withdraw it once we leave, and that will feel final." That made sense. Once he no longer could return to the Sacred Training Grounds, it meant he was officially never going to be a Shaman. It was the end of a dream he'd had since he was a little boy.

"I'm not a natural healer, but I love everything about working with the relics, the machines our ancestors left behind. I feel like I've been fumbling in the dark for so long, trying to learn on my own. And now I'll never get the chance to become really good at it, for it to mean something." His heartfelt words sounded forlorn, and it made Triff beep sadly in response.

I twisted in Corin's arms so I could see his eyes when I spoke to him, so he could see that I meant what I said. "You are good enough. You know that, right? Without you, Haven wouldn't run the way it does. Without you, we wouldn't have power or running water. You did that. You might not be a Shaman, but you have so many skills! And they'd be idiots if they didn't see that. I know Zathar does. I know all the girls appreciate what you do. Seriously." Thanks to him, we had plumbing instead of having to go outside to do our business on a freaking latrine. We counted our blessings every freaking day.

His mouth curled into a soft smile, and he made me forget all about this heavy conversation by kissing me. That was on purpose, the distraction, but I was willing to let him. With our mating now official, I hoped to have plenty of time to help him see that being a true Shaman wasn't the only way he could prove that he had the skills. I knew he did. He was the only one who kept Haven running; he was vital to our home.

When we reluctantly left the furs a little while later to pack up our camp, Corin surprised me by returning to the subject. He hovered at Reid's side, looking down at the sleeping man with a dark expression. "If I were a Shaman," he said as he gestured at the furs and the wan-looking soldier, "we might not even be here. We would have been able to heal him at Haven."

"We?" I said. "You mean you and Artek, who is a Shaman, and didn't have the answers? Corin, you don't have to do everything yourself. That doesn't make you any less." I stepped over his looped tail to curl my arms around his waist and hugged him tight around his washboard abs. "Stop thinking you're lesser because you didn't get to finish the Shaman training. You are enough."

I heard Triff beep fiercely from near my feet, and then there was the sound of his cleaning disks spinning and whirring. When I peeked, the little bot was polishing the nearest coil of Corin's tail, and I smirked when I noticed that my mate didn't move out of the way. I knew he liked it.

We got on our way shortly afterward, trudging down our cozy hill with Reid asleep on the sled. Triff struggled to keep up when the terrain got more woodsy, with leaves and branches littering the mossy ground. Corin picked him up with his tail without comment and tucked him onto the sled near Reid's feet so the bot could look out behind us.

Then we picked up the pace, and any talk became a bit of a struggle, even though I was in decent shape. My breathing sped up, and a stitch started to form in my side, along with a burning in my thighs. I hoped we didn't have to keep this up for hours, because with how little rest I'd gotten last night, I'd need a break soon.

The trees broke apart so suddenly that I tripped over my feet in surprise. Corin's tail whipped out and caught me around the waist, holding me up before I could make a total fool of myself and faceplant right there in the dirt. I didn't even bother to get my feet back under me, simply hanging there in the snug, scaly loop and staring.

I didn't know what I'd expected the Training Grounds to look like, but it wasn't this. I should have expected it, though, because I'd been told they moved around to keep their location hidden. How else were they going to move? Why, flying ships, of course. I couldn't believe I hadn't made that connection, but there they were, a dozen distinctly serpentine-looking ships parked in a circle on a massive clearing.

Several were big ones, many much smaller. With my expert eye, I could classify them as short-range transports, not capable of exiting the atmosphere, and several larger cargo vessels. One was definitely some kind of cruiser with weaponry, and a similarly sized ship had to be a medical vessel or maybe a research vessel.

Their engines might be strong enough to leave the planet, but it wasn't a risk I'd be willing to take, considering the weird pull this planet had exhibited on my shuttle when we crashed here. Not to mention that I'd heard of more ships crashing on Serant since our arrival, without survivors. Maybe Reid would want to leave if he could, but I doubted that any of the other humans had any desire to. They had mates. Charlie, Vera, and now Naomi were all pregnant… and they were presumed dead anyway. I didn't even have to think about whether I wanted to try to leave Serant. That answer was obvious. It was still a huge shock to discover functioning ships existed.

The smaller parked vessels had tents set up against their sides, some open-sided, others closed. They were colorful, with their purple hides, often painted with pretty geometric or serpentine designs. At the center of the parked ships, a large tent had been set up which housed some sort of seating area, complete with benches and a floating viewscreen. At least a dozen Naga younglings were industriously at work, with their colorful heads bent over their desks. And they were colorful: pink, purple, yellow, green, and blue. I saw scales in colors I hadn't even realized might exist—proof that there were Naga Clans that my friends back at Haven had probably never even heard of.

Their teacher was a Naga with a shimmering black hide, glittering with a sprinkling of gold and green flecks. He stood in front of the classroom and indicated things on the screen, his back to us. Ah, no, it was a woman—a Naga female. My breath faltered as I saw her in profile, her sleek breasts hidden beneath a fall of pale pink silk and dozens of glittering gold and silver necklaces.

"I see that Avrish is still teaching," Corin murmured, a hushed quality to his voice. His tail planted me more firmly on the ground, and I hurriedly stood up so he could have his appendage back. Nobody had seen us yet, as if there were no guards about or perimeter alerts, which was surprising given the wilds that surrounded it. There had been Rakworm sightings; shouldn't someone be watching for them?

The little classroom of kids and the Naga female weren't the only Naga out and about. I saw two white-haired Naga in front of a shuttle with a tent. They sat on pillows and played a game with stones on a cloth gaming board. Another group huddled around an outdoor table, all as colorful as their students and decked out in so many different styles of dress.

The ones I was looking for were nowhere to be found, though: the Queen and her daughter, Sazzie. They should be in this camp, unless we'd just missed them. A girl could hope, but I doubted we'd be that lucky; they had to be inside one of the ships.

"I didn't know there were female Shamans…" I whispered, a bit scared to be the one to draw attention to us. Corin kept his voice hushed too, and he still wasn't moving. We hovered on the edge of the camp, looking in but not crossing the boundary to enter. Maybe Corin knew exactly where the perimeter was that would get us noticed; it wouldn't surprise me.

"They are rare, and often they remain as teachers. Avrish was very kind to me when I was here as a youngling. She's…" He hesitated, his silver eyes flicking from the Naga female, who was talking with expansive hand gestures, to me. "She's not like a normal Naga female. And don't comment on her lack of a horn." He tapped the ivory horn that jutted from his chin in a sharp point. "She's sensitive about it."

It was a soft moan from Reid that spurred us into motion. We left the shade of the trees and started crossing the short, purple moss that covered the clearing between a larger cargo ship and a small shuttle without an attached tent. As we walked, Corin softly pointed out things I could see. "That's a storage ship. It houses supplies and can only be accessed by those with authorization: the head cook, the elders."

He nodded toward the smaller shuttle. "I think that's Altare's home. He likes his privacy, so he always parks on the edge of the grounds." He recognized more of the small ships and spoke of them in wistful tones. Even if he hadn't stayed here long, it was clear that he'd felt at home in this place.

When we reached the edge of the inner circle, our welcoming committee came from around the side of one of the bigger ships: three Naga males, each a different jewel color but all crowned with hair as white as snow. I realized that I'd never really seen an old Naga before. Everyone at Haven was young, in their prime. Aks was the oldest of us, and he was barely middle-aged, so it didn't count. Naga didn't get wrinkles, so to me, he looked the same as the younger males.

These Naga looked old, though, from their white hair to the diminished sheen of their scales. They weren't as bulky either, having lost some of their muscle mass, either by lack of training or age. One had milky eyes that made me think he was blind, or maybe he had cataracts.

The blue one wore long, fluttery robes in dark blue that contrasted beautifully with his azure scales—a male once from Thunder Rock, perhaps. The one in the lead was a shimmering white, like Artek, while the third, blind one, was yellow with orange spots.

"Corin, you made good time. Artek informed us you would be visiting," the blue elder said, spreading his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. He was smiling, and his eyes crinkled at the corners in a familiar way, like he smiled a lot, the way my mom's eyes would crinkle when she laughed. Seeing that expression made me feel a bit of worry slide away. Maybe they weren't going to revoke Corin's right to be here when we were done.

"Shaman Chen," Corin answered. He dipped his head respectfully, the way Naga males did to show submission, by jabbing their sharp horn toward their vulnerable throats. Not stabbing themselves, but clearly showing that they could. "Yes, we hitched a ride on a Serqethos dragon. Please, could you look at my friend Reid? It might be conflicting nanobots?" He glanced quickly my way for confirmation, and I felt warm inside to realize that he'd taken my assessment that seriously.

"Of course, we will," said the orange-and-yellow male with the white eyes. He sounded affronted at the suggestion that they might not care for a patient, and I saw how that made a smile flash across Corin's face. When the Naga spun around and imperiously gestured for us to follow, we fell in behind the three elders as they led us to the ship I'd pegged as a medical vessel. It was no surprise to discover that I was right.

"Thank you, Shaman Erish," Corin mumbled at the male's orange-spotted back. That made the Shaman flick his yellow tail at Corin in a gesture that read, "Don't worry about it." I thought they'd talk more, say something about how Corin had brought humans to their Sacred Training Grounds, or demand to know who I was. Their focus seemed to be their new patient, guiding us into the brightly lit and beautifully maintained ship to a med bay decked out in advanced technology that went beyond even what the UAR was capable of.

I gaped and stared—I couldn't help it. This went far beyond my expectations, and I'd already seen the med bay at Haven, which was already advanced and beautiful, kitted out beyond anything I'd seen aboard the Praetor or other battleships I'd been stationed on. This was even better. And it was also laid out like the one medical ship I'd been on during my time as a Space Marine. This was a ship made to serve as a flying hospital at a time of war… What that meant made my head hurt to think about. What had happened to Serant?

From roaming war machines that the locals called Revenants to what was essentially a doomsday prepper town in a remote mountain, and now the sight of a medical ship meant to service the front lines—something really bad had happened, but what? Was the calamity that had struck this planet what had caused it to be a shipwreck magnet, or had that always been a trait of this planet?

We stepped into a brightly lit med bay after a few turns through silver corridors painted with serpentine, twisting lines. Inside, several more Naga waited, including a distinctly feminine shape lying on one of the nest-shaped medical cots. A medical arm hovered over her chest as it worked. Ah fuck, was that the Queen?

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