Chapter 19

Corin

I saw the Thunder Rock Queen before Min-Ji noticed her and worked hard to keep my body from tensing up. My focus had to be on Reid right now. I was no longer one of her subjects, and the Shamans here all knew that. They would not expect me to obey her every demand. She was asleep right now anyway; she could not see me.

Sazzie hovered beside the medical cot, her scarred front partially hidden behind the silk scarves and jewelry she wore. Her arms were crossed in a defensive, closed-off posture, and her dark blue eyes were narrowed in a sharp frown as she stared at her sleeping mother. If I had to guess, I'd say that Sazzie was not experiencing fond thoughts for the female who birthed her.

That was no surprise; most Naga females struggled to get along with their mothers, especially when the rivalries ran high, like they did when jockeying for the position of Queen. Could that expression mean that my Queen problem would resolve itself soon? If Sazzie killed her mother for the position…

I helped my former mentors lift the weak and unconscious Reid onto the medical nest furthest away from the Thunder Rock Queen. He was always surprisingly heavy when I lifted him, especially compared to my pretty mate. But lying on the cot, he looked small, diminished compared to his usual powerful self—the male I knew, who could hold his own against a fully trained Naga warrior in his prime.

Then I moved back and watched the Shaman elders get to work, all three of them humming and hawing as they gathered around the nearest control unit and watched the readings come in as the machines scanned their patient. It was very tempting to move closer to my mate and curl her in a coil of my tail, but I settled for freeing Triff from the furs on the abandoned travois and setting him on the clean metal deck of the skyship.

I felt eyes on me, and when I looked up, I noticed that the two shamans working on the Queen were watching me—along with Sazzie. "Corin," she said, her tone neutral. "I didn't expect to see you here." Her gaze flicked from me to Min-Ji, down to the humming and excitedly spinning Triff beside my tail, before finally locking on Reid. Her eyes grew wide in surprise, her jaw firming as she snapped her teeth together, then she turned, angling her back toward us as if she intended to ignore us.

"You are correct," Shaman Chen announced as he turned away from the viewscreen and Reid's first medical results. "Nanobots, two kinds. Astute as always." He offered me a gentle smile, one like the hundreds I'd received as a youngling studying here. He'd always been easy with his praise, unlike some of the other teachers, but that didn't make him soft. There was a hint of steel in his eyes when he spoke next. "Why don't you properly introduce us?"

The hint of a reprimand made me straighten, my shoulders snapping back as I felt myself slipping into the role of the student I had been here as a child. It was also hard to curb the impulse to slip my tail around Min-Ji in a protective gesture, though I knew none of the Shamans here would ever harm her. If I did reach out and touch her, it wouldn't be my sigils that gave her away as my mate, but it would give it away nonetheless. With Sazzie in the room, I could not risk it.

"This is Min-Ji," I made myself say through a dry mouth and the tight feeling in my chest. This felt wrong. I didn't like the words that spewed from my lips. I should be shouting it out loud, roaring it like a dragon, but instead, I introduced my mate as a human friend, nothing more. Then I introduced Reid in even fewer words, and I felt the desire to turn tail and slither out of here as fast as I could. It was Chen's kind smile and Erish's much sterner and piercing glance that twisted my insides. They knew; they always knew everything somehow. But how could they know?

"Hmm," Erish said, flicking his yellow tip to the doorway. "Show our guest around, then grab some food. We'll talk later after we've got this fellow sorted. It might be a while." The dismissal was a relief, and I was quick to thank them and usher my mate and my cleaning bot out of the med bay and down the opened hatch. Breathing in the outside air felt better, and a soft breeze cooled my scales, but I still felt too hot.

"It will be okay," Min-Ji said sweetly from next to me, and I darted a quick, grateful look at her. She was smiling. Of course she was, and she had one hand pressed to her breastbone. "Truly, that is the most advanced med bay I've ever seen. They are going to save him." Ah, she didn't realize why I was so troubled. She thought this was about Reid.

Casting a quick glance around, I made sure no one was watching before I reached up and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear with the tip of my tail. "I know he'll be all right. Reid is in good hands." I didn't explain to her what I'd been thinking, but she caught on anyway, the clever female that she was.

"It was a shock to see her there, wasn't it?" she spoke in something close to a whisper, as if she were afraid to draw attention to herself, or the subject. "But it will be all right. I don't think they suspect anything." She sounded wistful that time, a little sad, and I felt a spark of anger sizzle through my veins. I was causing that; she was causing that. It wasn't right, but I felt powerless to change it.

"Come, I'll introduce you to Avrish and the others. They'll be excited to see their first human." I was certain that Min-Ji would happily let herself get distracted by talk and company. She thrived under those circumstances, and she'd win the hearts of any old Shaman who lived here in no time. That wouldn't hurt our cause, because even if the Queen was here for healing, I wouldn't put it past her to stir up trouble while she was at it.

That suspicion was confirmed not much later when we sat down in the meal area with Avrish. Class had let out a few minutes ago, and the little Shamans-in-training had all gathered around Min-Ji to ask her a million questions. They couldn't understand any of her answers, as they had no translator implants, but she understood theirs and was game enough to pantomime and gesture to make herself understood by the curious horde.

"She's sweet," Avrish commented as she sat down on the bench across from me with a bowl of steaming, fragrant stew. She pulled out her familiar Rakworm ivory spoon and started digging in, speaking with her mouth full and grinning with twinkling eyes as she did. It was on purpose, because she knew it irked me when people ate noisily. There was no sign of the strict but animated teacher from earlier; now, she slipped into her warm and teasing persona. The one I used to watch with awe as she teased cool Altare. She was treating me as an equal, an adult, not a student. It was a very surreal experience, but one I got used to in a hurry.

"Good with the kids," she added after an extra-loud slurping noise. When I failed to rise to the bait, she dropped the pretense and ate her next bite daintily. Avrish was dainty—except for her size compared to Min-Ji. Her face was delicate and as close to human in features as a Naga could get: no horn, tiny scales, delicate brows, and a plush mouth for smiling. "She's your mate, right?"

I ripped my gaze from Min-Ji, who'd managed to draw the younglings into a game that involved a lot of clapping and hand-slapping. It was accompanied by loud peals of laughter, and more than one elder had come out of their home, slipping away from their research to watch with amusement.

"How did you know?" I asked, not bothering to deny the comment. I did not want to hide it from Avrish, and I knew the female would not betray my trust. She was the kindest Naga female in existence, but I was willing to admit to being a little biased on that front. Avrish had definitely been my first crush as a youngling, but I felt only fondness for her and those past feelings. My feelings for Min-Ji eclipsed anything I'd felt in the past.

"It's in your eyes. I recognize that look," my former teacher responded with a laugh. She was, as Altare had once gruffly explained to a baffled young Corin, a throwback to older genes. I still did not grasp the concept of ‘genes' entirely, something I'd missed out on when I had failed to show up for more lessons the next year. But I understood enough to know that he meant Avrish was more like a Naga female from before the calamities. That was why she had no horns, and why she was kinder, softer, and lacked a will to battle her rivals.

"The Queen," I said, instead of explaining the convoluted difficulties of my mating. "Why is she here?" I could not imagine that she'd admitted to any sign of weakness to the Thunder Rock Clan, especially to her rivals. So, if she was sick, she'd come here under false pretenses.

"Officially?" Avrish queried, instantly understanding my real question. "To discuss the worry of disease brought here by the humans." The Naga woman rolled her golden eyes as if she thought this idea was utterly preposterous, but it was not entirely untrue. If any of them had been sick, it could have been a threat. After months among us without any issues, though, that was unlikely. The other way around, like what had happened to Reid? That was a bigger concern and one that suddenly filled my mind with all kinds of horrific scenarios.

"Unofficially, she's here because Artek discovered a mass in her chest cavity—her lungs, to be precise. He treated her, but it has come back, so he suggested she come here for further treatment." Avrish snorted, and I knew it was because she thought that kind of subterfuge was stupid. A sign of weakness rather than strength. I agreed. If she were a good Queen, her people would want her to heal, not stab her in the back while she was down.

"I see," I murmured. "And why did she bring Sazzie? I would think her daughter would be her biggest rival…" I really couldn't see that. Sazzie was always a brawler, loud and vicious in her fights. I did not recall a single fight Zathar's younger sister had ever lost. Then again, Zathar did say that Sazzie had been sympathetic to his mating with Vera. Maybe she wasn't all bad…

"Oh? You didn't hear? Sazzie publicly denounced any desire for the Thunder Rock throne. Apparently, her mother believes her." I had not heard that, and it made very little sense to me, but it wasn't going to be my problem. I had other things to worry about, like the Queen's presence and keeping my mate safe, like making sure that Reid would get what he needed to heal.

I spoke with Avrish some more while we ate, but I made sure to keep a portion of food ready for Min-Ji so she could eat as soon as she tired of playing with the younglings. I loved how kind she was when she managed to entice and shy one into play. A youngling in the middle of molting and rather unfortunately disfigured by the process. That was normal, but sometimes the subject of teasing by peers. Even with the language barrier, she made that kid feel at ease. That was her power, which was the complete opposite of me in that regard. I loved watching her in her element.

Triff was having fun too, in ways a robot should never be capable of. The Naga younglings here did not fear him, and they were far quicker to adapt to his quirks than I had been. A bunch of them were playing some kind of tag with the beeping bot as it let them chase it around the teaching and eating hub at the center of the camp.

It was probably one of the calmest, most enjoyable afternoons I'd had in a while. Watching my mate have fun, my pet robot play, and being surrounded by mentors who came and went to catch up with me, I felt… accepted, at home, and welcome. Nobody said anything about how I shouldn't be here or that I wasn't a Shaman. It was almost as if I was one of them. But they couldn't really see me that way, could they?

Then my beautiful Min-Ji derailed all my thoughts when, panting and smiling, she finally joined me at the table to eat some food. She was out of breath from a rousing game of chase, with smudges of dirt on her knees and elbows. There was even a smudge on her cheek. We didn't have kids at Haven, though that would soon change. I hadn't had a chance to see how good she was with them, but now I knew. My mate was the prettiest creature in existence—utterly perfect. My chest ached with how badly I wanted her.

Her hip brushed against my tail as she sat down and my sigils started to flare, a response more to the heavy emotions filling my chest than her actual touch. I reined them in with effort and hated that I needed to do that. "Hi," she smiled at me. "Is this food for me?" Silently, I nudged the bowl I'd been guarding for her closer to her hands.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the hatch of the med bay skyship slide open, and my body went tight as a bowstring. Either the elders were finished with Reid and had come to bring us news, or it was the Thunder Rock Queen. I wasn't ready for this afternoon to be over, but suddenly, it was.