“Did you have something particular in mind?” she asked cautiously.
“I would not have mentioned it if I did not. I think it would be a good time to spend an afternoon at the market, especially since Featha instructed me to pick up an order for her and gave me permission to take you with me so that you are not ‘pining in the courtyard all day.’ I have a spare shafna you can use that will protect you from our suns, and we will entertain ourselves with the Ragirsi merchants. They make many credits trading their wares all over Argurumal.”
“I don’t know,” Terri said as she worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. “Veral and Tarik are pretty insistent that I need to rest as much as possible right now.”
She didn’t want to go do something that would make Veral worry if word got to him somehow—but she was so fucking bored. Navesha’s next words did little to help the matter.
“And in consequence be under stimulated and irritable. That is not healthy either. In any case, they are males and do not understand fully that females need a bit of time out to distract ourselves from other pressing concerns. In Argurumal, the weight of the household rests on our shoulders. Veral is gaining some understanding of that responsibility in his current position. It is only reasonable that if Veral is going to distress you by being absent so much then he cannot object.”
That was a fair point.
Her companion shrugged her shoulder. “It is your decision. I will travel faster on my own. My malfunction makes me sentimental in thinking that you may desire to see something more than the walls of the compound.”
She stood, her vibrissae sliding behind and coiling with a hint of concern. “Since you prefer to stay and await Veral’s return late tonight, I will be on my way.”
With a polite incline of her head, Navesha turned and began to stride away, her boots clipping on the hard black stone that cobbled the garden path.
Terri heaved a sigh. She really didn’t want to be stuck there. What could a trip to the market hurt? Shoving to her feet, she hurried after the retreating female. Damn the Argurma’s long legs, there was no way she was going to catch up.
“Wait!” she shouted.
Navesha turned and grinned as far as the species considered polite to do so with just the edges of her sharp teeth peeking between her lips. She didn’t move until Terri caught up to stand by her side. The glowing blue gaze brightened with approval, and Navesha nodded with a hum of her mandibles.
“You have decided… Good. We will go now. Even by flyer, it takes enough time to get to the market, and it never lacks in business. Even this simple excursion will be lengthy. A good opportunity for you to get some new pleasures of our world,” the female chuffed once more.
Without wasting any further time on conversation, she set a brisk pace once more, leaving Terri to scramble to keep up with her. This time, however, Navesha moderated her speed enough that she didn’t completely leave Terri behind. As long as she trotted, Terri was able to keep up well enough.
The Argurma flyer, it turned out, was a compact plane vehicle. It was rather surprising in contrast to the lush gardens and the polished stone of the compound’s interior walls. In some ways, it reminded her ofThe Wandereron an extremely small scale and lacking any personal touches. As tiny as it was it didn’t have a personal chamber at all, just four seats in the main cabin, the chair at the fore occupied by Navesha as she piloted the flyer over the sand.
For her part, Terri watched in fascination as they skimmed over the dunes. Since it had been dark when they arrived, Terri had only impressions of the red sands beneath the light of the moons and the artificial light of their starship. In the full glory of the planet’s twin suns, the brilliant red sands formed endless waves. Her lips parted in awe as the sands in front of them suddenly trembled and rolled as an enormous beast broke free from them.
Its long neck whipped as it dragged itself through the surface, effortlessly bringing down some sort of winged creature that jerked hard, no doubt squawking in pain in the crushing jaws of the predator. The moment it went limp, its ragged, half-furred, half-feathered wings drooping in death, the creature jerked its head back at an angle, its throat working fiercely as it swallowed down its prey.
It only happened in a manner of a couple of minutes, but Terri watched with equal measures of disgust, fear and awe as it rapidly consumed its meal. Its head snaked around searching its surroundings for another easy meal, but it only lasted for second before the enormous paddle-like legs—or, more accurately, long ridged fingers visible among the thick, flexible tissue that connected them in that form—sifted through the sand, pushing the great bulk of its body forward as its long, wedge-shaped tail propelled it.
It turned its head and looked directly at them, and Terri nearly shouted until the flyer veered sharply away when the animal made a lunge for their ship.
Terri clutched a hand over her racing heart, and she shot a panicked look at Navesha. The female returned her regard with another sharp grin.
“A Great Enthar. It is a vicious creature that preyed on our people for generations in our early history. We are fortunate that it did not surface beneath us as we flew over. They have been known to bring down flyers and merchant transports.”
“Fucking perfect,” Terri muttered, ignoring the amused chuffing coming from the other female.
She vaguely recalled Veral mentioning the creatures before when they had first met, but at the time what she had pictured was something graceful in its beauty but ultimately harmless enough.Thatwas something straight out of a nightmare. Yes, it had fluid movements, but every part of it screamed lethal predator and was thoroughly aggressive.
“Have you ever been brought down by one?”
Navesha gave her a sidelong glance that bordered on disdain. “No. I am the best pilot in this part of the Great Dunes. My ability to calculate variables and my skill with evasion in flight makes me a difficult catch for them. That does not stop them from attempting to eat me, but they never manage to even taste the wing of the flyer.”
It was said so matter-of-factly that Terri didn’t think the Argurma was boasting. She spoke plainly, as if it were a commonly known, indisputable thing that needed to be told. After so much time in Veral’s company, she couldn’t have expected anything less. In fact, that bald statement relieved much of her tension as she allowed herself to sag against her seat.
Although Navesha gave her an amused look every so often, the rest of the trip passed uneventfully. With her companion clearly not interested in talking, Terri amused herself by continuing to watch the rolling patterns made by the sand. It was so unlike the desert that had consumed Phoenix. Here, there wasn’t even the slightest bit of green outside the walls of the compound. She had little doubt that the conditions in the courtyard were carefully kept in order to support life. The dunes lacked any and all kindness. In fact, under the bright light of the midday when it came, she was certain that they looked as if they had been stained with generations of blood.
She wasn’t sure how long she stared out at the terrifying beauty of the desert, but when brilliant white structures suddenly pierced the horizon, Terri startled with awe. Unlike the permanent ancestral settlements such as the compound, the rough, whitened buildings were clearly put together from some sort of synthetic material made to reflect the sunlight away as she had seen more than once on her adventures with Veral. They were just as stark as any she had seen before, but in the desert their unnatural appearance disrupted it surroundings so that her eye was pulled continuously back to them as they got closer, no matter where she attempted to look.
Her mouth went dry at the almost forbidding appearance of the buildings as the flyer began to make its approach. Navesha grinned as she brought the flyer down. It hit the sand awkwardly, even with the obvious attempt of someone to level the area to receive visitors. Despite that, there was noticeable give to the sand, which made the landing legs shift hard to the right, sinking one side so that it tipped in an alarming fashion.
Chuffing with what Terri presumed to be undisguised delight, Navesha shoved up to her feet and within seconds had the door sliding abruptly open. Taking a deep breath, the female gestured to the entrance of the buildings with flourish.