Chapter 22

Min-Ji

I didn't think I'd ever lay eyes on a functional ship again, and this past day had been a joy in that regard. To be allowed to fly one was like a dream I hadn't even dared to dream. It was so pretty too, sleek, silver, and with all these swirling carved lines along the wings and the lower body of the ship. Were they functional or simply decorative? What was it going to be like to fly a ship of Naga design? It was mind-blowing to even discover they existed.

"Listen closely," the blue-robed Shaman said from where he'd half-curled his long body into the cockpit of the jet. Corin had to pick me up so I could see what the male was pointing at, and I held my breath and dutifully repeated what each button did back to the Shaman. There weren't any surprises; some of it was more simplified than what I was used to. I didn't think this ship was going to give me any trouble at all. It made my heart race with joy to think about being up in the air my way, but I wasn't going to let anyone down by a lack of attention.

"Now," Chen said firmly, and he waited until I'd lifted my eyes to his. "You must watch the altitude meter at all times. The shuttle can never climb beyond this red line, understood?" He tapped a display with red paint applied in a thick smear. It wasn't part of the original system; that line was a manual, crude addition. I couldn't read the Naga numbers on the display, but it was somewhere below the mid-range of the display, so it couldn't be all that high.

Intuitively, my brain leaped to what it could mean, and I raised my eyes to the sky as if that would confirm it. I saw the violet streaking the heavens here, the soft, fluffy pink and white clouds, and nothing that could give me any indication. "Higher and we'll crash? Why? What's causing the skyships to fall?" Look at me—now I was calling them skyships too. Although the Shamans here didn't seem to call their own ships skyships.

"A very unpredictable, heavily fluctuating EM field," Chen said, his eyes narrowed. This was a test. I knew it was. Corin seemed confused; he didn't know what EM meant, but I did. It was confusing, though, because while I knew there were definitely planets that naturally had them, they were usually either due to electrical storms or a permanent addition—not something that fluctuated.

An electromagnetic field, is it natural?" Such a field could disrupt electrical parts and definitely confuse sensor readings. It explained why ships crashed here when they intended to simply pass by Serant. If the phenomenon existed mostly in the upper stratosphere, it explained why ships could still fly at low altitudes. Or maybe they could manage if they had the appropriate shielding.

"Natural," Chen agreed, a smile spreading. "You'll do. Let me set the navigation while you two fetch your things. We'll keep Reid here until he's better—it should be weeks—and send word when he can be retrieved." I felt like I'd just scored an A on my report when Corin led me back toward our tent so we could gather what little we'd brought with us. The Shaman was going to trust me to fly that ancient fighter jet; it was going to be so awesome. I knew it.

It was easier to think about the fun flying part than to worry about what was waiting for us at Haven. That sounded bad, and I could tell it was weighing heavily on Corin's mind. "I'm sure we can figure this out. We'll beat that stupid robot, and then everything will go back to normal."

I was bouncing on my feet with excitement when we returned to the waiting and now-prepped little ship a short while later. Altare and two more Shamans I didn't know had worked with the elder Chen to free the jet from its tethers, and now its nose was angled free and clear in the direction of Ahoshaga. Or I assumed it was aimed at Ahoshaga, because, despite it being a tall mountain, we couldn't see it from here.

"This is the stowage hatch. Come put your stuff in here," Chen said, prompting Corin to take my satchel from my hand and hurry ahead. Triff raced after him, bumping and careening crazily over the mossy terrain. I admired Corin's silvery-blue shimmer against the darker silver of the ship. They looked good together, and I couldn't wait to see what Corin would think of flying in an actual 'skyship.'

I hurried after them, eager to climb aboard and find out. My boot hit the moss with one heel, but on my next step, my body was yanked backward when something firm snapped around my waist. I saw the glitter of azure scales before the rest of my senses caught up—the smell of something sickly sweet, hints of metal, and the sharp burst of pain across my abdomen. Screams came from around me, several low warnings, a mean snarl right next to my ear, and above all that noise, Corin and Triff.

I locked eyes with my mate, his quicksilver gaze wide with fear. He was perched on the upper edge of one wing, his tail draping down to the ground—too far away to be of help. Triff was on the ground beneath him, racing over the uneven surface toward me as fast as his cleaning disks would allow him. Corin was letting out an ear-splitting roar—a warning, a sound of intimidation. Triff was screeching so loudly that it hurt my ears, and I wasn't the only one cringing at the sound. The Naga were even more sensitive to auditory attacks.

"Nobody says no to a Queen," Asizza snarled over all that din. Her head was above mine, her claws digging into my belly, and her coils were rapidly curling around my legs, tightening around me like a boa constrictor. There was no escape from a grip like that. I knew it, everyone knew it. I saw it on their faces—Corin's horror, the dismay on the others. Even the stoic Altare looked worried. I was a dead woman. Damn it, that wasn't fair, and I wasn't going to take it lying down.

"Issue an official challenge," the only elder present demanded. Chen had infused as much authority into his voice as he could, and it was a lot. He was a male used to being in charge, and he'd been in charge for a long time. It wasn't enough, not to Asizza, who was clearly mad with her own power. I was coming to see that was a common thread among the Serant Queens.

"An official challenge?" the Queen hissed, and a peal of derisive laughter followed, her claws digging deeper into my flesh. "That is for Naga, for worthy contenders! This female is vermin beneath my scales. She is human; our rules do not apply to her!"

Fuck that. We'd assumed she would follow the cultural traditions she was used to, but she was clever. She thought she could worm her way around them.

Despite the pain that blazed through my abdomen, I forced my hand to reach for the pistol strapped to my thigh. Corin had charged it so I could take on this bitch on my own; it was the only way. Nobody was moving. My mate had climbed down from the ship, but each time he came forward, Asizza dug in her claws and made me yelp in pain.

"Let me go," I said as calmly as I could. I had to distract her, stall for time until I could pull the pistol, and shoot her where it counted. A coil of her tail blocked my access, and it was squeezing tighter and tighter; I had to wriggle my fingers beneath it. "Let me go, Asizza. I'll fight you fair and square."

I'd forgotten about Triff. The little bot had gotten stuck behind a tree root halfway toward me and the enraged Queen, but he managed to free himself, disks whirring as he let out another angry squeak. The Thunder Rock Queen hadn't counted on a tiny but very brave bot to launch himself at her tail. I didn't know Triff could do it, but he'd fired up his cleaning laser at the top of his dome and aimed that beam like a weapon at her scales. It burned her, smoke curling into the air to the sound of her furious scream.

She moved in reflex, and a scream ripped from my throat as a different fear struck. Not Triff! The bot flew through the air as she batted it away with her tail. An awful sound, like a baseball bat cracking against his metal, filled the clearing. At least two people dove forward to catch Triff as he fell back down, all eyes on the poor bot. Mine, Corin's, and the Queen's too.

In the confusion of Triff's brave attack, her coil had slipped, and my fingers closed around the butt of my gun. I yanked it free, aimed for the nearest azure coil, and fired. I wasn't quite sure if it was my definitely non-lethal shot, or something else, but Asizza collapsed around me. Her tail spooled into a pile of limp noodles around my feet, her body thudding to the ground behind me. As a last vicious act, her claws ripped from my belly, and blood spurted. Not nearly as much as I expected, but more than I ever wanted to see.

"Min-Ji!" Corin screamed, and then he was at my side, sweeping me into his arms. He was utterly careless about the pistol I still held in numb fingers, his focus entirely on my wound. I was okay with that. I'd take care of the gun; he could take care of that mess. I didn't want to look; I didn't want to know. It was cowardly, but I was certain I'd faint if I saw what she'd done to me. It would hurt more, too.

It wasn't until he'd lowered me to the ground, cradled gently in his coils, that I could see what had happened. My hand fumbled to holster the pistol safely on my thigh while I stared at the sprawled-out body of the now very dead Queen. She was lying face down, and the handle of a knife was sticking out of the center of her back. Sazzie was hovering on her tail behind her, a slightly dismayed look on her face. "She said she'd raze Haven. She said she was going to kill Zathar's baby…" she said, eyes huge in her face.

"Here," Chen said as he lifted Corin's hand away from my belly. He'd been pressing on my wounds to stem the flow of blood, and agony blazed when he moved. Then, light hit my flesh through my torn shirt, coming from the healing device that the old Shaman had been carrying with him. In seconds, all the pain faded away, and my flesh started to knit back together.

Erish and the other elder I'd seen yesterday had come up to flank Sazzie, gently nudging her away from her mother's corpse. "Do not worry, Sazzie. You won in combat; nobody will question your throne," the blind elder said kindly, but that seemed to make the Naga female even more distraught.

"Won in combat? I stabbed her in the back!" she said in an oddly high-pitched tone. It was a very feminine sound, and it was rather unexpected coming from a Naga female as battle-hardened as her. But maybe all those scars that covered her meant something else. She shrugged out of Erish' grip to look my way, and her blue eyes reminded me so much of Zathar that it was startling to see. "I don't want to be Queen," she said firmly. "I just didn't want her to harm anyone else." It felt like she was apologizing to me, but that didn't make sense. It wasn't like she'd harmed me.

"You did the right thing," Corin said firmly, his silver eyes still locked on my face. "You saved my mate." That seemed to calm the Naga female down, and it made me feel calmer too. Like it was finally settling in that the threat was gone—not just gone for now, but gone forever. There was nothing standing in our way to be together. Okay, there was one thing remaining: Vrash. But that was more of a general threat, not a personal one like Asizza had been.

Sazzie sighed, then very casually avoided the hand of the elder on her left and dipped down to snatch her blade from her mother's back. "You are right. This had to be done. But I'm not going to be Queen." She gave Corin a nod. "Go, I heard about the situation at Haven. I will watch your human friend until he's better."

My belly already felt normal again, but I still felt a little wobbly and unsteady when Corin and elder Shaman Chen helped me to my feet. Corin didn't stop touching me, his arm around my middle. His tail gently pressed against my thighs to make sure I stayed upright. Altare handed him Triff, and my heart went out to the bot. He was a little scratched up and dented. The cleaning disks at the bottom struggled to spin right, but his lights were still on.

"Thank you, Sazzie," Corin said with a thoughtful look at the scarred female. She didn't look so fierce and warlike, even with a scar that bisected her face diagonally. Her scales were dull compared to those of the elders that flanked her, and her expression was forlorn. When Corin agreed to let her watch over Reid, her shoulders squared and she gave him a determined nod. Interesting. There was more going on here than I could see right now. Why was Sazzie, a supposedly typical Naga female, interested in a human guy? As far as I understood it, most Naga females didn't feel the mating bond. It was a one-sided thing.

I didn't get to ask questions. I didn't get a chance to recover from what had happened. We had another fight to get to, and I needed to play a vital role in getting us there. Even if I was still a little dizzy from blood loss. A flask of water was offered as Corin helped me into the small ship and started to strap me into the appropriate buckles of the flight harness. It didn't fit right. Some of it was based on a creature with a tail, not legs, but he made it work.

The drink was salty, which took me by surprise, but Chen ordered me to drink it all, so I did. I did feel better afterward: my hands no longer shook, and any cobwebs faded from my mind. It was starting to feel like I might actually be able to do this again. Though it was strange to get into a ship and fly while leaving Reid in the hands of still near-strangers, and a Naga female had offered to be his caretaker.

"Run me through it one more time," the elder ordered. Obediently, and under a dozen watchful eyes this time, I indicated what each button did. They were worried, for obvious reasons. I was a little nervous myself, but I still remembered what I was supposed to do. With Corin in the seat right behind me, his tail wrapped around my waist for extra security, I knew I wouldn't fail.

"All right. You're good to go. Remember, never go above the red line." Yes, I knew that. Don't fly too high, or we'd get caught in the EM field and crash this ship.