Page 77 of A Snake By Name

I cannot sleep, and it is too cold to sleep, anyway. A wet smog has risen off the ground, and the moon isn’t out, so this small part of Lodra is black as pitch.

“I will get my revenge,” I find myself saying when the sun starts rising, faintly in the distance. “I will get my revenge.”

And by the time everyone else is up, I know exactly what I am going to do.

I think it over, again and again, as I finish my breakfast and my fourth cup of kaffo.

I think it over as we continue building the post. I think it over as I start writing my first communication to Lasta, to inform him of our progress – even though I know he doesn’t care.

They betrayed me. They betrayed me so that they could continue fucking human filth. And I will not stand for it.

But now I know that I am going to get my revenge, and I know exactly how I’m going to do it.

In time, I will abdicate my position, and I will sell my services to the highest bidder.

I know that many naga will be interested in hiring an unsatisfied former Lodrian soldier.

Especially because of the intel I have on the royal family. Intel, information that I am more than happy to surrender for the right price.

Here, in this abandoned, desolate territory, I am close to Kario. I could easily go over to the next kingdom and approach Kario’s royal family.

I could do the same with the other kingdoms.

I am here to help prevent a war, but maybe, just maybe, I could help start it instead.

And I can bring Lodra to its knees.

Are you really going to give up your own people so easily?

The voice in my head calls me back to the years I spent in Lodra. I had a happy life there, and I was proud of my work as a soldier for the royal guard.

I loved Lasta like a brother and wanted nothing but good things for him.

I worshiped Prince Zalith, and I had the greatest admiration for Slyth, even if I always thought that he was a little odd.

I had a good life in Lodra, but they have taken all that away from me.

And I am not willing to protect a kingdom that has been completely disloyal to me.

And just like that, my decision is made. A sense of calm overwhelms me, and I lean back in my chair.

It is close to nighttime, and the cold is rising from the ground again.

“At least I’ll be among people who think like me,” I say to myself, wrinkling my nose at the thought of Prince Zalith and Aurora’s half-breed babies.

I know that Lasta and his so-called mate are also about to have half-human, half-naga babies.

“How could they possibly think this is okay?” I am sure that every other soldier in this camp can hear that I am talking to myself, but I do not care if they think I am crazy.

The disgust in my voice is palpable.

“And the King and Queen have accepted this, and sanctioned this! Maybe war is the best thing for Lodra.”

And I realize then that that is exactly what Lodra needs. A war. A war in which the three human mates, of those three very important naga, die.

A war in which Lodra is cleansed of humanity.

A war in which new rulers take over.