Page 24 of The Naga Inventor's Clever Mate

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?

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.

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