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Snake Lords of the Desert 5

For Necross

By Draconicon

The conquest of his brother, Tema, had been one of his greatest accomplishments in his life. Not only for taking control of one of the other noble members of the family - though that in and of itself was remarkable - but also for taking down the mental chains that had held Tema captive to another. Lorenus Adelin had been strutting about as only a naga can strut, tail swaying and swishing through the sands outside the palace as his arms pumped in front of him in good cheer, and had been doing so for days.

And it came crashing down with one simple message, brought to him by one of the hypnotized monkeys that had been shipped in from the south.

Speak with me at once. Prince Rebinus Adelin.

Lorenus ceased his strutting as soon as he had read the message, and slowly turned his head from the streets around him to the family tower palace. He swore that he saw the older naga on one of the great balconies, but he couldn't be sure.

However, even if he hadn't, he was in trouble. A direct summons from his father came seldomly, and he knew that it meant that some part of his plan had been found out. He would need to be careful...very, very careful.

Slithering back to the palace at speed, he made his way up the various levels, and only paused at his own dwelling to cleanse himself of sand and oil his scales again properly. His personal servant, the camel, came to him and offered aid, but he turned it down. It was better not to have any plans now.

If only I'd been moving faster, he thought. I might have had a few more pieces in place before this...

And if he had, then a coup might have been possible. Not preferred, but possible. Now, he had to go and hope for the best, and see if his father knew as much as he feared the older naga did.

He slithered up the ramps that led up the palace, and paused outside the antechamber of his father's quarters. A cheetah slave stood there, mind blank and face just as much so. The feline didn't do anything until he was within two feet of the door, and even then, only held up a dagger, blocking his way.

"I come to ssspeak with my father."

"His Highness will speak with you. After I announce you."

The slight haughtiness of the slave was one of the few reminders his father used to designate where he belonged and where the children belonged. It was a less subtle reminder that they were all subject to the will of the family Sire, and that they were all slaves in some form or another to his will.

Fighting the urge to crack the cheetah over the head with his tail, Lorenus kept himself still as the feline opened the door and stepped inside. The cat's bare fuzzy butt didn't help matters, either.

"Announcing, great Sire of the Adelin family, your son, Lorenus."

The cheetah stepped to the side, and Lorenus slithered in. His father, Prince Rebinus, lay reclined over a great lounge made entirely of slaves. Interconnected in midcoitus, they were statue-esque, unable to move without the will of their master directing them, and the scent coming off of their bodies to him that they were regularly dosed with aphrodisiacs, forced to remain hard at all times, and made to stay eager for their lord.

There were over a hundred of them forming his lounge chair, and for good reason, as his father was over ten feet longer than he was. The great naga, scales unfaded despite his age, looked down at him from his living throne. A flash of light in his eyes nearly sent Lorenus to his figurative knees at the power of the mind behind them, and the naga hissed softly as his father withdrew a moment later.

"Approach."

He slithered forward, his hands at his sides as he bowed his head. He stared at the floor, gathering his mind again before pulling himself upright once more. The green and gold naga smiled at him, forked tongue slithering free before coming back in.

"You sssssummoned me, father?"

"Yessss. I believe that it issss time that we had a chat...about your ambitionssss."

"My ambitionsssss, father? I believe they are in check."

"The ssssstate of your brother arguesssss otherwissssse."

Lorenus managed to hide his flinch, though only barely. There had always been the risk of his father knowing what he had done. Celebration had been safe enough, as a certain shipment of slaves had been sent abroad and brought back a pretty profit for his family. But to have it found out so quickly...

He opened his mouth, searching for something to say, but once more his father caught his eyes. Rebinus's gaze flickered, a bright light flashing, and Lorenus was sent tumbling back into his own mind.

It was a mark of his own skill that he wasn't immediately smothered by his Sire's power, and he was able to hold himself above the metaphorical water level in his memories. The other naga, however, towered over him in his mind, holding him by the throat in the water.

He glared up, panting softly as he gripped his father's arm, barely able to keep it from choking him out, and he knew that it was only through his father's own lighter touch that he was holding out this long. The chains in his mind flickered at the edges of his vision, and he shivered as he felt them being traced by the older naga, followed, checked, secured. Everything that he might have done to loosen them coming undone.

And then, the eyes fixed on his. He felt their power settling on him, and he felt a new chain being laid down.

"Nnngh! You don't trust your own son?"

"Would you, if you saw the things they were capable of?"

"..."

"I thought not."

Rebinus continued his layering of chains, and it was all Lorenus could do to hold himself in awareness of it. There was no chance he could stop it, but he could at least see it happen. The chain layered itself down over his mind, and bound itself tightly, connecting his memory of truth to his tongue.

And then, it was over.

Lorenus fell down, barely catching himself before his head hit the floor as he came back to reality. His father was still in his seat, watching him, but the younger naga was wracked with exhaustion. The sheer effort it had taken to just hold onto that awareness, to know what it was his father had done...

"Tell me. What did you do with Tema?"

"I broke him," he said, his voice coming to truth without his intent. "I reached into hisssss mind and sssssmassshed the foundationssss of the hypnossssissss insssside him."

"I sssssee."

Rebinus chuckled.

"I have raissssed a mosssst talented sssson indeed, if he can break through sssssuch thingsssss."

"You...aren't angry?"

"Of courssssse not. It would sssserve the family ill to punisssssh ssssuch ssssskill. However..."

The prince sipped from a goblet of wine, and put it down.

"I cannot allow ssssuch naked ambition to unssssettle busssinessss. You will leave, for a time."

"Where will I go, then?"

"To the Ssssizwe. Consssssider it a bussssinessss trip. An extended bussssinesss trip."

"..."

Lorenus could read between the lines to know that his father was giving him a second chance while also pushing him from his homeland. Such a move would give his father time to build up more forces, to entrench the command over the family that much more, and to ensure that his own commands were that much stronger. Depending on the time he was away, Lorenus could lose all progress on his siblings.

But...he wasn't being killed, as could have been the case. That was something that he could recover from.

And in the lands of the Sizwe...

He remembered the elephants, the conquerors that had been a visitor to his lands before. He remembered their powerful, if crude, means of breaking slaves, and more importantly, their access to such vast numbers.

Nagas are powerful in the mind, but weak in body. He will have time to build up here, but...

Lorenus had never considered open rebellion, not on this scale. But his father had raised the stakes, and so he must match them, or fall beneath his Sire's will once more.

"I will leave at once, Ssssire."

"You will leave tomorrow, sssson."

He looked up, cocking his head to the side.

"I would hear of your resssearch, and know your ssssuccesssssessss. After all...you are my ssssson, and there isssss much to be proud of, in you."

"It sssseemssss little more than an excusssse to learn a way to defend againsssst it."

"Sssson. My mind is sssstrong enough to leave me fearlessss. If you mussst."

And then, his father did something that he had never seen Rebinus do before. He let down his guard.

They connected, eye to eye, mind to mind, and Lorenus saw the truth in the mind of his father. The vast depth and breadth of the older naga's mind, the sheer power behind it, was laid bare to him, and he knew that there would never have been a chance to succeed on his own. Even with the entire family led against the older snake, there would have been little chance of taking down the prince, not without something else to supplement it.

He saw in the older male's mind the politics between their family and others. He saw in there the power struggles over the desert. He saw his father's plans, his strategies, and his allies.

And he saw pride. He saw genuine pride in him, in his accomplishments so far, in the way that he had handled himself in getting this far along in his minor rebellion. Prince Rebinus didn't fear him, but instead congratulated him on doing as well as he had, and even encouraged him to do more in his disguised exile.

And then, they separated again. Lorenus shook his head slowly.

"Why?"

"Becaussssse I will not leave the family in the handssss of someone weaker than me. If you will take it, if you will NOT be commanded, you will be ssssstronger and ssssmarter than me. Becausssse, if you are not, you will not hold the family long. Do you undersssstand me, sssson?"

"...I do, father."

"Good. Then coil with me, and ssspeak of what you've learned."

#

It was a long discussion, though one with a great deal of discomfort for him. It had been one thing to know that he couldn't defeat his father alone. It was another to be shown how far below his father's level he actually was. And to be then told that he needed to go and try again, and be given the funds and tools for his banishment to do so...

It galled, but it was a better lesson to learn now than later. If he had raised his family in rebellion, and failed, then there would be no exile. Only death.

He forced himself to look at the positives. He was being sent away, yes, but he was being sent to the only other 'nation' in the world that allowed slavery on the same scale as the desert, as the Snakelands. The Sizwe respected the naga power over the mind, and he doubted that the leaders of the growing empire would dare to send him away. They would want his abilities, and that meant that he would have power over them, power that he could settle into their minds directly.

His father had handed him a weapon that he could use, potentially a whole country. Lorenus held tight to that fact, and tried to ignore the following one that it still might not be enough to unseat the old man.

The naga lord left the tower, carrying his luggage on the backs of slaves and his camel servant. They reached the boat that had been set aside for his journey, and he slowly boarded it with a sigh and a groan.

"Well...it sssseemssss I will not ssssee the city again for sssssome time, Old Hump."

"You'll see it soon enough, great one."

The camel hugged him around the shoulder gently, but didn't disembark with the rest of the slaves. Lorenus looked at the camel with a raised eyeridge, and the old slave shook his head a few times.

"You did not think I would leave you now, did you?"

"You are aged. Thissss may be your lasssst trip."

"And if it is, I will spend it with the lord that has earned my life."

"Thank you, Old Hump. Hehehe. You will 'sssserve' well."

"I anticipate it eagerly."

The ramp was loaded onto the ship, and without further ado, they set sail. Lorenus took his time to watch the city fade into the distance, knowing it would be a long time, a very long time, until he saw it again.

But he would see it again. That much, he swore, would be true.

The End