Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

Night came to the Mistari Lands like bullets from a cruel but natural gun. I found myself alone, for the first time in my entire life. As a child I had always had my mother, or my brother Xavier, or some other family member beside me, and after my marriage, Zane and I were never apart. But now, within the walls of this strange palace, and my fate in the hands of a man that I had once trusted my entire life to, a man that I thought could do no wrong, now seemed as though his personality had chipped off as though it were a piece of portable skin that hung against his body like a cloak.

I stood beside the window in the room that just the night before belonged to Zane and I. My hands clutched to the sides of the peach dress that the Disa had given me earlier that morning, only now it was torn and shredded from the conflict earlier.

In the background I could hear Vasili's boots clicking and hitting the hard floor of the bedroom as he paced back and forth. His commanding and stern walk ever present even though I was turned away from him. I kept my eyes on the dark landscapes and forests that surrounded this land, but I could feel Vasili's cold stare upon me, reducing me, disregarding me, and puncturing holes into my soul.

Rain was falling. I remember that the clearest from that night. Small waves of rain fell lightly on the earth, the beads of water so small that they couldn't even be considered raindrops. I felt a cold breeze push at me as it came through the open glass and moved my hair away from my face. I didn't speak, I didn't move, whether if it was because I chose not to or I simply could not I don't know.

Vasili's steps seemed to haunt me, and I anticipated them before his feet even hit the floor. I sensed his turns as he curved back onto the line that he had created as he paced. "We will go back to the Hawks keep as soon as possible – in the morning I think. I will be reinstated as your Alistair immediately, and soon we will bring our people back to the solitude and pride that they once had while true Avian's ruled over them."

I said nothing, but in my mind I kept hearing the Disa's words: "It is just land and sky, and we as leaders, we lead our people. We do not own them, and we cannot control them as easily as we would like." Her words seemed wiser and struck me as being more truthful than they had been when she said them to me before. I thought about what Vasili was saying and if what our people really wanted were true Avian's on the thrown. Would they be so easily satisfied with the actions he had contemplated?

Vasili spoke again, but I blocked it all out. I was still unmoved from my position in front of the window and my thoughts turned to Zane. He's out there, in this rain, on his way to the Underground Municipality, to suffer hells and tortures that I cannot even begin to imagine. Will I ever see him again?

"Danica are you listening to me?" Vasili barked, his voice forcing me out of my thoughts and back into the cold room where I truly stood. Again I didn't answer, but I moved my head slightly and he took that as a sign that I was listening to him.

Zane...

The bedroom door opened suddenly, but all I heard was Vasili's movements stopping, his shoes no longer hitting and clicking the floor. The silence of that action caused me to flinch. I bowed my head low, recognizing the soft voice that came in from behind me. It was Sasha, the Disa's sweet and faithful servant. "Milord," she said, addressing Vasili, who most likely paid no attention to her. "Milord, Naga Adelina has left the boarders of Mistari lands and should reach the Serpiente Keep within the next day." Vasili said nothing, but I heard his boots clicking against the floor again as he began to pace.

Naga Adalina? When had she decided to take my place as Naga? I cringed when I thought of what she would do now that she was in power. Would she force Zane to become her companion just as Vasili was doing to me?

"Milady Shardae?" Sasha said from behind me, her gentle hand startling me as she placed it on my shoulder. I turned, my eyes not daring to search out Vasili but staying only on her. "Milady, I will help you undress now if you would like." Her voice was meek, barely above a whisper, but I could still see Vasili watching us, out of the corner of his eye. His look was a perplexed one, as though he didn't exactly know what we were saying and desperate to find out. I nodded my head, a simple gesture that felt very commanding for me. I stepped in front of her, my stare looking straight ahead and not even turning slightly to see if Vasili was watching me, trying to decode the meaning of my walk, or the confidentiality behind the slight conversation. I walked tall and straight into the adjoining room that acted as a changing area, and through the tall mirror in front of me I could see Vasili's expression stop and study me. His gazes traveling up and down my body as if anticipating my naked flesh in plain sight in just a matter of minutes. Without my asking, Sasha shut the door after she entered the room, creating a barer between Vasili and I, which was greatly appreciated.

I took a seat calmly in front of the mirror. My reflection was strange and mysterious as I looked at it. "Sasha?" I questioned, my voice barely above a whisper so Vasili could not hear. "Is their nothing that the Disa and Dio can do for Zane?"

Sasha licked her lips, as if the dryness were too much for her to handle. "They tried Milady. The Dio begged for the Arami Zane's release, he even tried to bribe one of Adelina's guards. But this is a matter between Serpiente blood, and not Mistari nor Avain can get involved." Sasha paused. "It is the same in your situation, Milady. This is a situation between Avains, and Vasili is your rightful Alistar. It was decreed long before you came to know Zane."

"But he was dead!" I argued, my voice rising, like smoke in a boiling pot. "I had no idea that he was alive, or living in that horrible place."

"I know," she reassured me, "but according to your law Vasili is your Alistar for life, and if he had left for whatever reason and then come back he still would be your Alistar."

Silence. I was boxed in at every turn and I saw no escape for Zane and I now. Sasha was silent as well. She curled her fingers against my hair, pulling undone the weaves of braids and buns that she had been placed there this morning. Soon my golden main was flowing again, framing my face gently as though I were an ancient painting of sadness.

"What do you think Adelina will do to Zane?" I asked, afraid of her answer but desperate for any information that she could give me.

"Adelina is vengeful; she will not take Arami Zane as her paramour or companion. I fear that she will take him to the same hell that he took her. That she will not be satisfied until he had suffered the same as she. First with losing the one that he loves, and then losing his sanity."

Her words pierced every section of my body. I had to help him; I had to stop all of this. Tonight! I decided, tonight I would escape from all of this. Tonight I would find Zane.

Before long Sasha was finished with my hair, and had taken away the many layers of flowing fabric that made up my dress. After the dress was free of me she dressed me in a long white nightgown. The material thick and warm, hugging my skin lightly as it formed to my curves.

I reopened the doors to the changing room and took a step outside. Vasili stood at the edge of the bed, his long cloak placed against the back of a tall chair that stood in the corner of the room. Long brown pants hung from his legs like leaves off of a great tree and as I approached the bed he pulled the last button lose from his white linen shirt and withdrew it from his breast. His chest was exposed to me, showing muscles that were bolder and thicker then I remembered from when we were children, and scares that I wished never to know the stories to.

Without a word I climbed into the bed, knowing that Vasili expected me to sleep here with him, and that if I did not he would surly follow me to where ever it was that I chose to sleep. I bit my lip and turned onto my side, facing away from him, trying to give the impression that I did not want to be touched. Moments later I felt Vasili's hard body slide into bed, the mattress dropping from one side to the other under his weight and I felt every one of his uncomfortable shifts as if they were my own. I felt him lean back up and I heard the puff of his cheeks and the exhale of breath that extinguished the lit candle on his side of the room.

The room went dark, and for a moment I thought that Vasili would come to me, reach his hand out to me as if we had been lover's years ago and were now rekindling the flame. I feared his touch, frightful of the difference between his and Zane's. But nothing happened, and before long I heard the calm and even breath of deep sleep. I wondered if this was my chance, if I dared truly slip away from him now, I wondered if he truly slept or had anticipated my desire to escape and was only waiting to catch me in the act. I dared not breathe as I pulled the covers back.