Page 2 of Black Mamba

No other ships land in my territory.

As I ponder what to do, my curiosity grows.

The ships are different from the ships the soldiers here fly. Even the three below have different shapes and facades from each other. The first two do not have glass domes and instead are dull and gray all around. They are more cylindrical in design with blunt-tipped wings.

Are there humans on board, and if so, are they enemies?

I helped Vagan, the Blue Coral, and the other nagas take out a large camp of soldiers encroaching on his territory months back. I live too close to the Blue Coral to have not been concerned about them.

Humans cannot take Vagan’s land without fighting for it first.

When they did, they lost.

Now that they are gone, I have nothing to fear from the Blue Coral’s territory being so close to mine. As for Vagan, he mostly sticks to the water—the lakes and rivers—and I keep to my mountain and the forest and hills around it. He has always left me and the other Black Mambas alone and so I have always done the same in turn.

But if the ships do not belong to more soldiers, then to whom do they belong?

The thought it could be females briefly arises, but I push it aside. Now is not the time to hope, not until I can ensure my territory is safe and I face no threat from these new arrivals. Whereas I am patient, not all Black Mambas are. To utilize my deadly venom correctly, I must be.

With twilight swiftly approaching, I slip into the shadows and head toward the ships.

If they are piloted by my enemies, I will end them.

If not…

We will see.

TWO

REMORSE

Elena

“Mom, where’s Jenna? I can’t find her anywhere!”

“Stop yelling—there’s no need for it. You’re being uncouth. Your fretting is making me and your dad anxious.” Mom eyes me. “Where’s the food?”

I dash down the hallway of my parents’ lavish upper-caste unit, calling out my sister’s name. “Jenna!” But there’s no answer, no sign of her.

Where is she?

Mom follows me but stops before she enters the hallway, choosing to remain on the threshold. Turning to her, I see she hasn’t made a move to pack her bag. Her dark brown hair is still wet from her shower and she’s in her fluffy yellow bathrobe. The ticking in her jaw as she glares at me is the only indicator that she’s paying attention to what I say at all.

I’m usually okay with being ignored. Today, I’m not.

“What are you doing? We have to go!” I’m nearly delirious with panic. A wrenching pressure in my chest makes it tight, compacted, and hard to breathe. I’d just seen a guy get killed. “Where did Jenna go? I told her not to leave.”

I’d left our parents’ unit—where we were meeting before Jenna’s evening performance—to search for a store that was still selling nonperishable foods on our level. But every store I entered had been sold out. Even the cheap emergency rations were gone. Stunned by how fast the supplies on The Dreadnaut were dwindling, I traveled to a lower-caste floor to look at their shops as well, only to discover they were worse.

Many of them had been boarded up or looted. Things are getting bad, fast.

And I don’t think things are going to get better on the ship. In fact, I think the situation on The Dreadnaut is getting worse by the hour.

“Oh, stop worrying. I sent her to find Mateo to come look at our generator. It’s being finicky again. The power went out briefly when I was in the shower unit. She just left.”

The ship’s ever-present hum seems to heighten in my ears as I comprehend what my mom’s telling me.

“Mom…” I grab her shoulders and squeeze them, trying not to shake her. “You need to pack so we can leave. We need to get out of here and onto the family ship before they close the Westerian Port like they’ve closed off the public ports. If we don’t go now, we could be stuck!”