“Yes, it was hard to see in the dark but wasn’t his skin a kind of peacock blue?” Iyanna asked, frowning. “I barely caught a look at him because the minute you fell in, I was too scared to look anywhere else but the river,” she added, turning to Lucy.
“It’s all just a blur to me, too,” Lucy admitted. “All I remember is that when I was clinging onto him in the water, his back was so hot I could hardly stand to keep hold of him.”
“His back washotyou say?” Dra’vik looked interested.
Lucy nodded.
“Yeah—it was weird, too. I mean, the water was freezing but his back felt like it was onfire.” She frowned. “And Ithoughtit might be a different color from the rest of his skin too.”
“What other color?” Iyanna asked.
Lucy shook her head.
“I’m not sure—just lighter than the blue, that’s all. I was kind of too distracted trying not to drown to look closely.”
“That’s interesting,” Dra’vik rumbled. “Because if what I remember about the Stri’vor Monstrum is right, their backs only change color when they meet theirS’rentha.”
“Theirwhat?”Iyanna asked, frowning.
“S’rentha,” Dra’vik repeated. “It’s a word with many meanings in the Stri’vor tongue. It can mean ‘goddess to be worshipped’ or ‘stern Mistress’ but at the same time, it also means ‘little one’ or ‘cherished one to be protected.’ Oh, and also, ‘she who must be pleasured’ and ‘she whose honey shall be tasted,’” he added.
“It means allthat?”Lucy exclaimed. “I don’t get it.”
“Neither do most of the other Monstrum,” Dra’vik admitted. “Let’s just say that the Stri’vor Monstrum have a…complicatedrelationship with their females.”
“Sounds like it,” Iyanna murmured. “But do you think his back changed colors for Lucy?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m sure it didn’t,” Lucy said quickly. “I mean, I probably just imagined all that. It was dark and I was halfway drowned, after all.”
“Still, it might be something to keep in mind when you meet with him and Chief Commander Rarev tomorrow,” her friend said, smiling knowingly.
“What?” Lucy frowned. “I don’t understand—why am I meeting with the head of the Monstrum Mother Ship and what’s his name again? Zaren?”
“No,T’zaren,”Iyanna corrected her. “There’s a kind of little hiss at the first part of the name—like you’re putting a T and an S together before you say the ‘zaren’ part.”
“Okay,T’zaren, then,” Lucy said, getting the pronunciation right this time. “But I still don’t know why I’m meeting with him and Chief Commander Rarev. And when did this get set up, anyway?”
“We got a call while you were in the shower,” Iyanna told her. “I had been telling Commander Rarev all about you before you came and he called and asked to meet you. He just happened to mention that T’zaren would be there too.”
“Do you think he’s mad at me for falling into the river?” Lucy asked apprehensively. “I mean, it was anaccident, you know. He doesn’t think I disturbed any kind of natural habitat or anything, does he?”
“When he called, he didn’t even know about your accident until we informed him,” Dra’vik assured her. “And when I told him who saved you, he nodded and said it was coincidental because he was going to ask T’zaren to meet with him as well.”
“So you’ll get to thank him for saving you in person,” Iyanna said brightly. “And please don’t worry, Lucy—Commander Rarev has been interested in you ever since I told him you’re a Geologist. He wants to meet you because of your specialty—notbecause you fell in the river and nearly got your fool self drowned!”
Lucy laughed, feeling relieved.
“Well, I don’t know what kind of Geology I’m supposed to do on a spaceship, but I’ll be happy to give him an overview if he wants. And Idowant to thank T’zaren for saving me.”
“He didn’t hesitate an instant—jumped right in after you,” Iyanna told her.
“I’m glad he did,” Lucy murmured. “And I can’t wait to see him again and thank him for what he did.”
FOUR
T’ZAREN
T’zaren was dreading seeing the little human female he had saved. There was something wrong with her—or maybe it was something wrong withhim. Whatever the case, the fact was that sheshouldn’thave been able to activate his Sen Stripe and yet somehow, shehad.