Page 13 of The Naga Princess’s Soldier Mate (Serpents of Serant #7)
Reid
Sazzie lay curled up against my chest, the dark blue strands of her hair caught in my five o’clock shadow. She wasn’t asleep, but something close to a peaceful slumber—drifting, but not quite. The stone and sand were cold against my back, but it was worth it to see her dressed in my shirt. The expression on her face when I’d offered it to her after we’d made love? Also worth it. Full of wonder, like she’d never considered wearing something that belonged to someone else before. I had to admit, the delicate sniff at the collar once she’d pulled it over her head, followed by her delighted smile—a total boost to the ego.
Despite the idyllic afterglow and the cuddling, my mind was already processing all the sounds outside our prison. They had not died down but had gotten louder instead. A raucous crowd cheering and chanting had provided some cover for what we’d been up to in here; Sazzie had not been quiet. Though I was certain the guard had gotten an earful, no doubt he’d already sent a messenger to his boss to inform him that Sazzie and I were a little too close and that she could understand me.
That meant they had leverage, which meant I could not let them get their hands on me—or her. We had to get out of here before Aser and that Thunder Rock female came back to deal with Sazzie. The other one, Khawla’s mate, had seemed reasonable. Too bad it wasn’t she who survived, but this viper instead. I had not forgotten that it was she who had clawed up Sazzie’s back a few days ago.
The guard was moving restlessly, his scales whispering against the rock; that was a change from before. “Stay here. I’m going to get a look,” I said to my girl, and I gently shifted her off my chest. She made a grumpy noise but clutched more tightly at my dogtags and tucked her chest around the pouch of precious capsules I’d shown her earlier. It seemed she did not like rousing from slumber regardless of the time, and I couldn’t help but grin at that.
When she finally fluttered her eyes open, her brow was scrunched up tight but smoothed out as soon as she saw me. Then, she started to give back the pouch almost immediately, her eyes wide as if embarrassed to be caught holding it so tightly. “No, you keep it. I have a feeling they’re less inclined to search you for contraband than me.” Though they hadn’t bothered to check me for weapons in the usual places when they captured me, I still had a small knife sheathed at my ankle. Perhaps that was simply due to their inexperience with dealing with an opponent who had legs.
I opened the pouch and swallowed a capsule before making my way to the door—just a precaution. My body could only store so much fuel for the nanobots before it stopped making sense, and I didn’t want to waste what we had. Still, it couldn’t hurt to be a little prepared in case I saw our chance the moment I looked outside. The loud noise of a roaring crowd filtered into our prison just then, and the feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach bloomed. It told me that Bitter Storm might have dwindled in size recently, but it was still a very impressive crowd.
Sazzie was alert now, no longer rosy and groggy. I wished I could give her more warm cuddles and lazy slumbering than this and vowed to myself that I’d make sure she got to sleep in all she wanted when this was over. She rose and followed me as I padded to the wooden door, both of us moving as silently as possible. Near the door, the toe of my boot nudged up a broken piece of wood, possibly part of a crate at one point. I ducked down to pick it up and discovered most of it was rotten, but a sharp metal nail stuck to one end. Perfect—that might come in handy. I pried it out and tucked it into one of the pockets in my cargo pants.
At the door, I searched the panel for any sign of weakness. It was an old door, made of vertical planks held together by two horizontal planks—a very simple design that had allowed the door to warp, creating a gap on the left side big enough to fit my hand. Through that gap, I could see the guard moving, his red scales gleaming like blood in the dark at the edge of the cavern. He had his back to the door and was edging further away, drawn by the noises coming from the center of the massive cave—a cave that, to my eye, had a few too many straight edges and precisely placed pillars to be natural.
The town, packed beneath the domed shape of the stone roof, was entirely made of wood. Some of the houses were little more than shacks, while others were much sturdier and decorated with carvings and serpentine designs.
Enhancing my vision a little, I squinted at the area where most of the light was concentrated. Bonfires and torches surrounded what appeared to be a circular pit, and if I wasn’t mistaken, everyone inside the cave had gathered there. When the crowd quieted, I could hear the clash of weapons and the grunts of males fighting—an arena, and either practice fights or... My blood went cold as I realized they might have taken Khawla there. It wasn’t like we were friends, but the thought that they’d thrown him in there for fight after fight until he died seemed particularly cruel.
It was, however, the perfect distraction to get away. Even our guard was so occupied with what was happening at the arena that he wasn’t doing his job, straying further away from our prison door—a door that was hardly a barrier to me; it had rope hinges my knife would make short work of. “We’re breaking out, Sazzie,” I said to my angel, casting her a look over my shoulder. Excitement thrummed through my veins almost immediately, and, in response, the shapes the dormant nanobots formed beneath my skin started to shift.
“Okay,” she said so quietly that it was barely a breath of air against the back of my neck. My girl was feeling hesitant; I could sense that in the way she placed her hand on my back and sidled closer. It only made me more determined to get us out of here. I did not want her to be scared. If only I could get her to Haven—I knew she’d be safe there, and I knew it would be the perfect place for her to discover her true self. The girls at Haven wouldn’t judge her for who she was, and I’d make sure—with my fists if necessary—that the Naga males wouldn’t either.
One thing at a time. Getting out of here was going to be rough, and I hated that we’d have to abandon the Thunder Rock male. He did not deserve this fate, but Sazzie’s safety was my priority. I would not risk it for him. I did not tell my angel that, though; I was not sure if she would like my plan if I did. We made quick preparations instead, checking our meager supplies. Sazzie returned my shirt to me, insisting that it was better that way.
With my knife, I cut through the top hinge first, then held on to the door as I cut the bottom one. Timing my breakout with the roaring of the crowd, I threw the door at our guard before racing after it and leaping onto his shoulders. He never saw me coming, too focused on the sounds in the distance. My nano-enhanced muscles had too much strength and speed for his reflexes, and I snapped his neck with a quick, merciful twist. It was over in seconds, and I’d barely broken a sweat doing it.
Ducking down, I rummaged through the few supplies he carried with him. I took his knife, a pouch containing some of the dried, dense ration bars the Naga liked to make, and a waterskin. “Into the tunnels,” I said to Sazzie. “How good is your sense of direction underground?” I was fairly certain which way we needed to go to reach Haven—my survival skills were well-developed and extensively trained—but it couldn’t hurt to have a second opinion, especially in the dark.
I grabbed our downed guard by his arms and dragged him into what had previously been our prison. With the door propped into the opening, it might pass a first inspection. Then I picked up his spear, and, with Sazzie’s hand in mine, the two of us set off into the tunnel we’d arrived through.
As soon as the dark of that hole swallowed us, Sazzie jerked to a stop. Her blue eyes gleamed brightly in the dark, glowing like a pair of cat eyes. “Khawla, we can’t leave him! Do you know where they took him?” I should have known she’d remember the male, and since he’d helped me with the capsules, I did owe him. And yet…
“We can’t reach him,” I said firmly. That was the truth; we’d have to face the entire cavern of Bitter Storm Naga to get to him. Those odds were impossible, and Sazzie’s safety was more important. “Come on, we’ve got to hurry before they discover we escaped.” I did not think we’d get a second chance as easily as this one if they managed to capture us a second time. Aser did not seem like the type that easily forgave. From the stories Krashe and Naomi told me of their dealings with him, he held a grudge.
She protested a second time, but when I pulled on her hand, she came with me. I sensed her discontent, but there was nothing I could do about it. She was my only priority. We hurried through the tunnels until we reached an intersection. At least five tunnels split off in various directions, and I was pretty sure I did not recall this place from before. Somehow, we had already gotten into another tunnel, and I had not noticed. It drove home how badly we could get lost down here if we were not careful.
Hesitating over which of the five options to take made me antsy, but I could not do this lightly. One tunnel sloped down, one definitely went up quite steeply, but the other three were all level and pretty much the same. When I sharpened my vision in the dark, I could tell two of those twisted and got narrow in the distance, while the third remained a squarish shape, straight as an arrow. It was such a neat tunnel that, here too, I suspected hands had smoothed the way. It was that tunnel I guided Sazzie into, and soon, I was certain I’d made the right choice.
“Wow, I smell the woods,” my angel whispered. “How did you know?” I smelled them too, but it was only a faint trace. The woods smelled like they did on Serant, not back home on Earth. This wood smell had all the same notes of leaves and dirt; that was the same. But the trees here weren’t the evergreens or pines I was used to. They smelled more like lavender or something similar, and I still could not get used to that. Woods were supposed to smell musty, fresh, and manly—not this delicate, froufrou scent.
I opened my mouth but snapped it shut again, tilting my head to listen more closely. The risk of using a tunnel so defined and straight was that we were clearly visible from far away. A sound had drawn my attention, but, when I tried to focus on it, I did not hear it again. I didn’t trust it, though, and that was probably the only thing that saved me. The arrow that whizzed through the air made an odd sound as it traveled down the tunnel. I ducked, throwing myself on top of Sazzie, and felt it brush against my shirt before it clattered against the tunnel wall behind us.
“Ah, fuck, this is gonna get ugly,” I muttered as I raised my head and caught sight of the Naga slithering out of the darkness ahead of us. I heard them behind us too; that party emerged from the intersection, led by a Naga with red and black edging his scales and a strand of white at his temple. He stood out to me because he was an older male with a particularly vicious expression on his face.
“Stay small, Sazzie. I’ll protect you,” I told my angel, and I pressed her shoulders against the cave wall. Then I rose, swished my pilfered spear through the air, and offered the nearest Naga a battle-ready grin. Bring it—a dozen? In small quarters? They didn’t stand a chance. Not when I had my Sazzie to protect. Nobody touched my princess.