...

Jimmus quickly put his patch back in place as Neferti began to walk around the room.

"Kotaria, Rosemarble, Bloodmarble." the pharaohess said, "Three very different queendoms, yet they all have something in common, no king. By what I assume to be law in all of these realms, the queen cannot have a male heir, and yet your queen sends two men to convince me to die for her. In Kotaria, a pharaohess has no father. My mother took several suitors and raised me alone. In exchange, a suitor may keep any male children for himself. Do you not do the same in Rosemarble?"

"We do." Jimmus admitted.

"I will tell you this, paleskin." Neferti decided, "I shall speak with my high priestess to see what chance of victory we have against Bloodmarble. If the goddesses smile upon us, then I may assist you. If not, then you must leave this land, never to return. We will accept your tradespeople, but not your soldiers. Heti, take these two back down to the city."

"As you wish, my pharaohess." Heti said.

Heti and the soldiers led the knights back down to the bottom of the palace. Neferti herself stepped out with her guards to the floor right below her, where High Priestess Semerket resided. Neferi entered the corridor and went into the jade and marble room where Semerket was knelt before a large jade idol in the shape of a cow, representing Boc, goddess of the harvest.

Semerket was a naturally bald woman who wore a tall headress made of green cloth held together by a gold band. In the center of the band was the golden head of a cobra representing Snek, goddess of war and death. She wore a similar white robe to Neferti, only with less amulets but more eyeliner.

"What troubles you, my pharaohess?" Semerket asked as she turned around to face Neferti and knelt before her.

"Stand, my priestess, and tell me." Neferti said, "How would we fare should we war against Bloodmarble?"

Semerket stood up and took a deep breath, inhaling the incense emitted by the burning bronze plates around the room.

"We would fare well." Semerket answered, "Snek has spoken it to me. An utter victory, the vampelles would fall before us."

"And of an alliance with the paleskins of Rosemarble?" Neferti continued.

"They would not drive us out either. Bloodmarble would be ours to conquer." Semerket said, "The paleskins would tire their armies too greatly after warring with Bloodmarble to stand against us."

"And what of our armies?" Neferti wondered.

"We would suffer loss, but not too great a loss." Semerket said, "Our forces would soon replenish."

"Then we shall go to war." Neferti concluded.

"As you wish, my pharaohess." Semerket said as she nodded and bowed back toward the idol.

The following morning, Jimmus and Reginald prepared their carriage for the return journey to Rosemarble. The Kotarians had already repaired the damage they had caused and even given the knights some provisions. The knights loaded their sack of loaf bread and clay jar full of grape wine.

"I do not believe it." Reginald said as he began to drive the carriage out of the city, "We actually convinced them to help us."

"It is Our Lady's will." Jimmus surmised, seated inside the carriage.

"And is it Our Lady's will that we encounter those serpentine fiends again?" Reginald joked.

"I certainly hope so...I mean, hope not." Jimmus corrected.

Salamanca herself was in fact spying on the carriage from a distance but she had no intention of greeting the men a second time. She had slithered behind them on Saphirina's orders to ensure that the knights did not veer into serpentine territory and bother her people. Saphirina did not usually ask for tribute from Rosemarble traders in order to avoid such things, but Saphirina had been growing bolder and more foolish, in Salamanca's opinion.

<Saphirina will be the death of us.> Salamanca complained to herself, <Those humans could have possibly ran us through with their blades. We did not even have weapons ourselves.>

Salamanca did in fact own six curveblades she had scavenged from Dunelanders but only wielded them when she felt she was facing a direct threat. Saphirina had assured her that they did not need to risk losing their weapons to the desert when the knights were no threat.

The serpentess slithered through the sands, returning to her own tribe, hiding and cooling herself behind boulders and patches of tall grass. She drank from the Dune River and fed on desert rats. The small ones she swallowed whole and the large ones she tore apart with her fangs.

In the evening, Salamanca reached her own tribe, the Dunefang, who resided in a series of natural caverns making up part of a large cliffside. She quickly found her own burrow, inhabited by her husband Serotolo and daughter Seratala.

Serotolo had the same build as his wife, youthful, long white hair, blue reptillian eyes, and long hair. He had no facial hair but serpentine beards grew so slowly and unevenly it was impractical to have. His tail was a plain blue, with no pattern. Seratala, named from her father, was a small child, with six stubby arms, pink hair and pink tail, a mixture of her parents' white and purple.

<I have returned from spying out the humans.> Salamanca announced.

Father and daughter were coiled on the ground, half-asleep. They both yawned and rubbed their eyes.

<Seeking out more human lovers?> Serotolo assumed.

<Silence!> Salamanca ordered, <No such thing is true! How dare you speak this in front of our young!>

<Please don't fight, Mama and Papa!> Seratala pleaded.

<Go to sleep, Seratala.> Salamanca instructed, <Mama and Papa must speak alone.>

Salamanca motioned for her husband to follow her and they both slithered to a private section of their cave.

<Saphirina ordered me to trail two human knights from Rosemarble, the paleskin tribe.> Salamanca explained, <They were meeting with Kotarians, the darkskins.>

<Why?> Serotolo questioned.

<I do not know.> Salamanca admitted, <Perhaps they seek to enslave us, but that is up to Saphirina to decide.>

<Saphirina teases that you fell in love with a human.> Serotolo replied.

<Saphirina likes to jest, she makes up lies about all of us.> Salamanca suggested, <What if I assumed you had fallen in love with Saphirina?>

<I find her insufferable.> Serotolo assessed.

<All the more reason to not believe her.> Salamanca said.

<I want to believe you for the sake of our daughter.> Serotolo continued, <Perhaps it is the only reason I believe you. But if I ever see him, I will drown his veins in venom.>

<Watch yourself, husband.> Salamanca warned.

<Watch yourself, wife.> Serotolo retorted.

<For Seratala's sake I will not rip your forked tongue from your head.> Salamanca said, hissing threateningly.

Serotolo hissed angrily in return as his wife slithered away. The spurned male slithered back to his daughter and soon fell asleep.

When Salamanca was satisfied that her family was sound in slumber, she swiftly slithered far off into the desert, distant enough so that her fellow serpentines would not be among her. She crossed her three sets of arms impatiently, waiting almost an hour for a human man in a black robe. The robed man stepped out of the darkness and his brown eyes glistened in the moonlight. Salamanca's irises shrunk and the both of them blushed.

"Sirikana..." the female said in the Duneland language.

<Salamanca...> the male said, attempting a serpentine accent.

Sirikana was a tan skinned man with rugged black hair and a thick moustache. He wore a plain black robe, similar to his fellow Dunelanders. Dunelanders were tent dwellers who raised goats and worshipped the Sun Father, considering serpentines and Kotarians to be heathens. They called themselves "Brothers of Sunlight" but most others referred to them as "Dunelanders". Salamanca had known Sirikana since childhood, before she had even met Serotolo, but an open marriage between a betrothed Dunelander and an impure serpentine could never be.

Salamanca hugged the human with all six of her arms until he winced in pain, almost digging her claws into his back. They kissed passionately and the serpentess coiled her tail around the human. Sirikana did not especially enjoy this form of affection as his lover could easily crush him but this was as intimate as a serpentine could possibly be with a human.

"My husband becomes more blatant in his threats." Salamanca found herself saying, "He wants to kill you."

"But he has never seen me." Sirikana said.

"And your wife has never seen me." Salamanca reminded him, "But would she not stone me to death if she knew?"

"She would." Sirikana admitted.

"How long shall we do this?" Salamanca wondered, "Until they slay us both?"

"Until then." Sirikana asserted.

"And our children?" Salamanca continued.

"Someday all children must learn that their parents are flawed." Sirikana said.

"Not my child." Salamanca insisted.

"Remember when we used to meet as children?" Sirikana recalled, "Before we knew passion? We would dig in the sand for hours, finding old tombs, bones, kingdoms long since turned to dust."

"Where do you think serpentines find their jewelry?" Salamanca said, "My most beautiful necklace, gold taken from a wrapped, dusty corpse."

"I am the one who ripped it free." Sirikana said with a smile, "But I must return. We cannot stay until dawn."

"Just a bit longer." Salamanca replied.