Page 39 of Taken to Voraxia
Xoran releases a half-whistle, half-hiss that succeeds in shutting me up. “The Rakukanna does not know our ways, Ixria. Not yet, but she will.”
I feel myself flush. Everyone’s ridges are flaring a pale color. White and a little bit of yellow. I’m starting to gather that one or both of those colors is bad.
“Sorry,” I murmur.
More bright yellow from the female. She bows deeply. “I am the one who is sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
Her mouth opens and shuts. She bows to me again and I glance again at Raku.I’m no Svera. I have no grace whatsoever.
Attention fixed on the female, Raku says, “Ixria, dock the glider. We won’t be needing it for the lunar, or for the following solars. Not until after the ceremony. We look forward to receiving you.”
The woman’s ridges flare an uncontrollable burst of orange and then fuchsia. She’s so much more expressive than he is. I wonder if they aren’tallmore expressive than the one who’s chosen me for his mate.
“We would not miss it for all Voraxia’s moons,” she says to him and then repeats to me though I have no idea what ceremony they’re talking about.
“We will be honored then. Come, Rakukanna.” Xoran holds his arm out to me and I go to him, giving the woman one last nod, which makes her flare bright orange once more.
Xoran hisses something under his breath that sounds like a curse, but doesn’t say anything to me. He keeps his hand on my lower back as we weave between the trees. As we walk, toes sinking into sand much softer and forgiving than that of my home world, I feel antsy all over, wondering about…well, everything. This place, its people, my faux pas.
But just as I open my mouth to crack the thickening tension between us, we round another of these massive trees and I see what my eyes can only describe as ariverof starlight, so bright that I have to lift a hand to shield my eyes against it.
“Oh my stars, is that…what is that?” I glance up at Xoran only to realize that I’m holding onto his arm with two hands and have edged myself partially behind his body. Using the person who scares me most as a shield isn’t something I would have expected of myself and yet, it’s what came naturally. Instinctively.
I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing because his ridges have flared the same bright orange the other woman — alien’s — had, before flashing with a little bit of white and then turquoise. The color cuts when he turns away from me and starts towards the fiery river. Its light doesn’t seem to startle or bother him at all.
“This is the xamxin river.”
River? What in the stars?“It’swater?”
“Hexa.”
“But its onfire!”
He smiles a little, though it looks like he’s trying hard not to. He edges towards the water and I follow him to the edge of the bank, clenching tighter to him at the sound of a low whir coming from behind us.
His arm pulls snug against his body, bringing me with him. “It is only Ixria and the other xub’Ixria docking the glider. And this is only water. It is our primary light source, since the canopy above lets in so little sunlight, and Voraxia is so far from the sun besides. Not like your little moon.”
“But the water shines. Is it some type of algae?”
“Nox. It is the water itself. Though direct sunlight is blocked by the canopy, ultraviolet rays are not. The water is iridescent beneath ultraviolet radiation. You will see that the shine goes away at night. It is why we have not attempted to crop any of the werro trees. They provide insulation. The rivers provide daylight.”
“It’s incredible. Can you drink it?”
The corners of his mouth are twitching again as he takes a step so close to the bank’s edge, one false step could send him tumbling. Panic grips me.
“Careful,” I whisper, tugging a little on his arm as if I could somehow block him, or heave his giantess free of the lapping eddies, were he to slip in.
His ridges flash a multitude of colors for a beat before the color retreats. He shakes his head and gives me a pull that pitches my whole body forward.
Next to him now, toes close enough to breach the water’s edge, I watch him dip his hand into the fire and withdraw liquid gold. I have to blink many times in order for my eyes to adjust to it and when they do I am utterly spellbound.
“Drink,” he tells me.
“Drink?”
“Hexa, Miari. It will not harm you.”
