No, no more listening. This is supposed to be over. This is supposed to be—
‘THROUGH the lies! Do not be tricked! We cannot afford it! We need to stay! Need to fight! Need our sword! See through them! Do not listen! Do not trust!’
‘Not trust …’ he whispered, finding the words less reprehensible on his lips.
‘Something the matter, cousin?’ Togu asked.
‘What happened to them, King?’ The question sprang to Lenk’s lips easily, instinctually. ‘Where are they?’
‘What?’ Togu’s smile was crushed under his sudden frown. ‘Who?’
‘Lenk …’ Kataria placed a hand on his shoulder, but he could not feel it.
‘The humans,’ he said, ‘where are they now? Where did they go?’
‘They are’ – Togu’s lips trembled, searching for the words – ‘not here. They …’ He swallowed hard, a sudden fear in his eyes. ‘They are …’
‘Shi-i ah-ne-tange, Togu!’
The voice rang out through the hut like a thrown spear, its speaker following shortly through the front door. While it was impossible to slam a leather flap, the Gonwa that emerged, tall and limber with the ridges on his head flaring, certainly gave it his all.
Lenk could only guess at the thing’s gender, of course, and that came only from his booming voice as he shoved his way between the two companions, sparing a glare for both of them. With an arm long and lean like a javelin, he thrust a finger at Togu, using the other hand to pat at a satchel strung about his torso.
‘Ah-ne-ambe, Togu! Sakle-ah man-eh!’
Togu spared an indignant glare for the Gonwa, which quickly shifted to Bagagame as the littler lizardman came scurrying behind, gasping for air.
‘Bagagame!’ the king boomed. ‘Ah-dak-eh mah?’
Bagagame made a reply, his voice going far too rapidly to be discerned. In response, the Gonwa stepped up the tempo of his own voice, his ire flowing freely through his words. Togu tried to dominate them in speed and pitch both, roaring over them as they blended into a whirlwind of green limbs and bass rumbles.
‘Who’s the big one?’ Lenk asked, glancing sidelong at Kataria.
‘How am I supposed to know?’ she growled, fixing him with a very direct scowl. ‘What was that?’
‘What was what?’
‘That. What you just did.’
‘I asked him—’
‘You didn’t ask him anything.’
He strained to keep the shock beneath a stony visage hardened by denial. She couldn’t have heard, she can’t hear that, her ears aren’t that long … are they?
The argument between the lizardmen seemed to end in a thunderous roar as Togu shouted something and thrust a hand to the rear door. The Gonwa swung a scowl from him to the companions before nodding and stalking off to the back, Bagagame following with a nervous glance to Togu. The king himself hopped off of his throne and grunted at the two non-scaly creatures in the room.
‘Forgive the interruption,’ he said as he disappeared into the gloom. ‘This won’t take long.’
‘Huh,’ Lenk said. They were gone, but their voices carried into the hut, only slightly diminished by the walls between them. ‘What, exactly, do you suppose reptiles argue about?’
He turned to her and saw her lunging toward him, hands outstretched. Before he could even think to protest, question, or squeal and piss himself, she took him roughly by his head, pressing her fingers fiercely against his temples and pulling him close. Their foreheads met with a cracking sound, but they were bound by shock and narrow-eyed anger, neither making a move to resist.
‘Stop,’ she said swiftly.
‘What?’
‘Stop.’
‘I don’t—’
‘No, you do. You are. That’s the problem.’
‘I really don’t think—’
‘Then don’t. No more thinking; no more speaking. Don’t listen to anyone else. No one else.’
He felt his temples burn, warm blood weeping down in faint trickles. He saw a bead of sweat peel from her brow, slide over her snarling lip as she bared her teeth at him.
‘Only. Listen. To. Me.’
The warmth from her brow was feverish, intense, as though his skin might melt onto hers and come sloughing off when she pulled away. His whole body felt warm, hot, unbearable yet entrancing, all-consuming. It swept through him like a fire, sliding down his body on his sweat to send his arms aching, shoulders drooping, heart racing, stirring his body as it drifted lower and lower until it boiled his blood away, leaving him light-headed.
And, as such, he could only nod weakly.
‘It’s going to be over, soon.’
She sighed, the heavy breath sending her scent roiling over him, filling his nostrils, one more unbearable sensation heaped upon the other that threatened