Star Side

Chapter 57

I wasn't out long before Gilrack had me zipped and capped in my suit again with my eggs and back in his arms for flight. This time I got to watch his mother as she took off in a graceful ploom of draped cloth and purple wings. It had been hard not to admire all the royal dressings she'd put on herself, namely the glittery jeweled beads in her braids and the shimmery cloth she'd dressed herself in lazy loops. I could dig that fashion style. Sparkly and comfy? Shut up and take my money.

She led us up the great tower, past the shining chandelier, and into a series of vents with polished stairs.

"Only those who fly can reach this nest," said Gilrack. "Only chief and their brood."

It took less than a minute to reach the intricately carved, polished marble entrance, which had a curtain of shimmery purple cloth as a doorway. It was also wide enough to fit two Gilrack's and the light from beneath glittered off the faceted surfaces of some the carvings. I thought I could make out swirls of millipedes and other winged things.

The purple queen held back the curtains for us, a quiet, happy thrum in the back of her throat. I hadn't been able to keep up with all of her conversation with Gilrack, but it was good to know however it had ended, she was still happy.

Gilrack bobbed his head to her before stepping through the cloth.

My eyes seemed to open big enough to fill up my helmet at what awaited on the other side.

A large chamber, fit for a basketball court, had been carved out of the white-gray marble and meticulously polished. The floor, however, had been done in a colorful mosaic of some kinds of flowers. On the right wall was extensive shelves and long counters on either side of a large, bowl like sink with what could only be a facet. At the end of the far counter was a masterfully carved fireplace of sorts, carved into a kind of bowl in the wall with a chimney that went up to who knows where. In the back was another entrance covered in cloth, next to the entrance, taking up a large space in the corner where the back wall and left wall met, or rather curved together, was a raised bowl filled with pillows, cushions, and blankets of varying material and color. Next to this bowl like nest was a strange stone box with a clear doom showing the orange and yellow bed of moss within. The rest of the yellow wall was left for what I could only guess was some sort of coat rack for all of the queen's vestitures.

The queen cluttered happily as Gilrack set me on my feet.

"Out out," she said, reaching forward only to stop just before her claws reached my zipper.

Gilrack harrumphed in displeasure and waved his mother away without touching her, in that way of theirs. I guess it was hard not to be touchy when you were a queen and a mother.

Once I'd again been extracted from my suit, the queen was about me again, ushering me to the nest in the corner. As she did so, she pointed the curtain in the back and said what I gathered to be their word for a bathroom. But rather than push me straight into the nest, eggs and all, she took me to the little box next to it.

"When Gilrack not around and you need rest, put eggs here." She lifted the clear dome. As she did so, a poof of warm air wafted towards me.

My jaw dropped. "An incubator."

"Best to keep eggs with us," said Gilrack quickly. "So young can feel mind waves. But short term, yes."

I reached out to touch the wiry orange and yellow moss to find it surprisingly soft and very warm. I wondered if it was the moss itself that made the heat and why it would do such a thing. For the first time I wished Joshua was here so he could have a field day. Plants had been his thing.

The queen gestured to the box, jabbering a little too quickly for me.

"What did she say?" I asked Gilrack.