Page 9 of The Naga Inventor's Clever Mate

I held the device triumphantly in the air and smiled when Triff beeped cheerfully. Min-Ji didn’t share in my triumph, still staring into the darkness. “Come,” I said as I rose, already much steadier than before. “We have lost the trail. We need to backtrack and find a suitable spot to catch some sleep. You must be tired. We’ve been searching all day.”

It was very tempting to offer her a hand or to use my tail to guide her back to my side. That’s what I’d do if I allowed myself to claim her. Instead, we walked side by side back the way we’d come, at a slower pace than before. Some of the urgency had left me now that we were simply looking for a place to rest, but my equilibrium was still off, which kept me from rushing as well.

I checked my map twice, and when I was confident we were at a good spot to resume our search tomorrow; I started searching for a camping spot. A room with only one entrance, a nice defensible position if we needed one. Preferably a room with a door, so we could have more light without attracting anything unwelcome.

“How about this room?” Min-Ji asked. She was a bit ahead of me now, her feet graceful as she set a pace faster than mine. Triff was nowhere to be seen, and I felt a pang of worry. Where had he gone? Then the bot whirred out of a doorway behind my mate and beeped merrily. He bypassed Min-Ji to stop next to my tail, his polishing disks brushing against my scales.

I hadn’t realized I was slowing down, but when I reached the doorway the two had singled out, I was relieved. Yeah, this would work, and I couldn’t wait to roll out my furs for a makeshift nest and crash for a few hours. Hopefully, the headache would be gone after a bit of rest.

The room wasn’t big, and crates of varying sizes were stacked all around. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust and grime, and Triff started tackling the dirty floor with obvious enthusiasm. I gave up; the bot had a personality—there was no avoiding it any longer. Maybe it wasn’t faulty so much as it had… evolved?

Spreading out the thick fur from my backpack, I sank down with a groan I tried hard to mask. More than just my head ached, as if tension had wracked my body and left sore muscles in its wake. It reminded me of that time I’d managed to zap myself with a powerful electrical current. All that was missing was a sore jaw and buzzing teeth.

Min-Ji talked to the bot as it cleaned the room around us, each surface it managed to reach. I zoned out on the words but enjoyed the melodic cadence of her voice. It was tempting to study the pilfered voice box, but I’d need my wits bright and sharp for that. Instead, I pulled out the calorie-dense ration bars I’d brought, breaking a piece off one for Min-Ji, and giving myself the rest plus a second one. Healing took a lot of energy, but my mate ate shockingly little. All humans did, and it made me very worried until I realized it did not hurt them.

She sat down on her own, much smaller fur, and nibbled daintily. It was tempting to keep watching her as she ate, but I forced myself to devour my food and set up a lantern to burn through the night. Then I pushed some crates in front of the door, my head throbbing in protest against the motion. When I returned to my fur, it was to collapse gracelessly. All I wanted was to sleep now. “Stay close,” I murmured, and my eyes slid shut.

Sleep pulled at me hard and fast, but I hadn’t done enough yet to secure the room. I should put up a perimeter alarm, move more crates, turn on the portable heater so Min-Ji would be warm. My mind filled with nightmarish images as sleep claimed me, images of death and destruction, with a vengeful queen after my clever mate.

Chapter 7

Min-Ji

I blinked my eyes slowly, still caught in the cobwebs of sleep and the remnants of dreams. I wasn’t cold, but I distinctly recalled shivering myself to sleep last night. Was it even morning, or was it still dark outside? Trapped beneath a giant mountain, I had no clue of the passage of time. Another reminder of why I hated being underground.

When I lifted my head and took a look around, I instantly understood why I wasn’t cold. Corin’s much bigger fur had been spread on top of mine, and a little space heater stood next to me. That meant he was up. I searched for him but the room was empty, no sign of him or Triff. The room was also spotless. Even the tops of the crates were free of dust, and I wondered how the cleaning bot had managed that.

I rolled from the furs with some reluctance, but I didn’t want to be the cause of a delay. Kalani, Iave, and the rest of the warriors were still trapped, as far as we knew. Parts from the robot dog spread out on top of one of the crates beside the lantern. I could easily picture Corin hunched over them as he tinkered. That man never slept. Even after he’d passed out from exhaustion and injury, he’d already been up and doing all kinds of things.

The parts on top of the crate had been precisely lined up like little soldiers, a pile of tiny screws in one spot, a dozen straight pins in another. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. It certainly didn’t resemble the electronic part he’d pulled from the dog robot any longer. Maybe it was something else; he always had a hundred projects. I’d seen the inside of his apartment once. Every shelf and table, even the floor, was covered with some electronic device in a state of deconstruction or reconstruction.

I headed for the doorway to peer out. Corin wouldn’t have gone far, but I was worried that I hadn’t seen or heard him yet. What if he’d collapsed again? Or had another run-in with one of those robot hounds? Farah and Zeidon hadn’t mentioned them, but there could be more.

The tunnel outside the old storage room was empty, the floor shiny until it gleamed, and even the crystals in the ceiling glowed brighter. I wasn’t sure if that was all Triff, or if Corin had been part of the cleanup, too. They certainly made a very cute pair last night. Corin a haphazard sprawl of tail and coils and limbs; Triff tucked away in one loop as it went into sleep mode. I’d stared for quite some time before settling down to sleep myself.

“Corin?” I called out softly. He wouldn’t have abandoned me, he wouldn’t. But I couldn’t help but remember that I’d forced my company on him by following him down here. He hadn’t protested, but only because he knew how stubborn I was. Was this payback? Or had he left me here so he could quickly rescue the warriors before coming back to fetch me?

I was beginning to wonder if he was ever coming back when I heard a voice muttering from very far away. My skin broke out in goosebumps, worry skittering up my spine. Was that Corin or someone else? My hand went for the laser pistol, but it was empty and I had no way to charge it. Casting around, I settled for picking up a knife left behind on a crate nearby. It was Corin’s; had he left it on purpose or forgotten about it?

“I’m warning you, silly bot. No more scale polishing, please!” That had to be Corin, and he sounded exasperated by the small cleaning bot. Nothing new there. I risked sticking my head out the door again, the knife clutched in my fist and watched them approach. Corin looked much better than last night, and his silvery-blue scales shimmered; definitely polished.

I loved how the leather straps he wore accentuated his biceps, and the leather cord and metal disk around his neck drew the eye down his pectorals. They made me linger on the defined ridges of his abs. He had hair some girls I once knew would kill for: a deep, luscious blue. Thick, silky strands with a slight curl at the tips. Add to that his mercury eyes, and you had a beautiful, mysterious, and sometimes surly package that tickedallmy boxes.

“Morning,” I said with as much cheer as I could muster. Naga had a great sense of smell; I hoped he wasn’t going to flick that freaky, split tongue at me. If he did, he’d know how turned on I was from watching him approach; that would be embarrassing. He came to an abrupt stop just as I thought that, and I started to freak out, but all he did was raise a hand and wave.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good. We need to pack up and get moving. I want to find the others today, as soon as possible. I don’t think they have much food left.” He didn’t tell me where he’d been; he didn’t tell me good morning either. I shouldn’t be surprised when he slithered past me, carefully making sure we didn’t touch, and started packing our supplies. He always did that, pretending I was one of the guys, or not there, or not worth looking at. It made me want to throw things, and it made me want to prod him until he reacted.

“Thank you for the extra fur and the heater,” I said. “Cuddling to keep me warm would have been my preference, but this worked too.” A smirk pulled at my cheeks when Corin dropped the tools he was picking up with a noisy clatter. His shoulders twitched, and I could see the scales along his spine tremble. They made a soft whispering noise as they clattered together.

The only response I got was a narrow-eyed glare from behind a hunk of pretty lapis lazuli-blue hair. As far as taunts went, I was satisfied with the result: I’d made him drop what he was holding. I smiled and whistled a tune while helping with the packing; my mood was much better knowing I could startle him that way.

Not much later, I was following Corin and Triff back into the warren of tunnels. My stomach rumbled with hunger, but I wasn’t going to complain, since we really did have to hurry. “What was in those crates? Did you look?” I asked my Naga companion as we walked. He was holding the leather map and checking it carefully each time we came to a crossing, his nubbed brows lowered in concentration.

“Parts,” Corin said, and I muffled a laugh behind my hand at the monosyllabic answer. So that was his mood this morning, we’d see about that. I was always extra tempted to keep prodding him when he got that way, until he told me all about his latest project or idea. It usually worked.

I opened my mouth to ask a question, but snapped it shut when something came sailing toward me. I caught it by reflex, my hands almost fumbling with the small, leaf-wrapped package. A ration bar, neatly cut in half so it was the right size for me. “Eat,” Corin said without looking at me, and my smile grew. I knew he liked me.

I’d pause the questions for now, but I was going to get more than one word at a time from him today. That proved to be a bigger challenge than usual as we traveled through the tunnels at a quick pace. As soon as I said anything, Corin would pick up the pace and urge me to hurry. Alternating between jogging and speed-walking didn’t leave me with a whole lot of breath for talking. I was in good shape; I’d trained with Kalani on a regular basis, but after two hours of that, I was starting to feel the burn.

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