Epilogue

Culebra turned as he heard movement in the snow, smiling faintly as Ruisenor came slithering over it towards him – the cold seemed not to bother her, and Culebra wondered if Sentinels felt such things.

He had not known Teufel had created such monsters. Jorge’s stark fear, after all that the man had done…

Culebra reached out to stroke glistening black scales as Ruisenor wrapped her thick, heavy body around him. The weight of her should have been too much to bear, but even as a mortal he had never been troubled by it. “Ah, my beauty…how did you escape when even Jorge could not, in the end, let go of the threads of Order Teufel tied to him?”

Ruisenor wrapped loosely around his throat, brushing his face with her own before settling her head on his shoulders. In the cold sunlight and glittering snow, against the whiteness of the Basilisk, she was a livid black mark.

Images flickered through his head, of the way she had fled, only a few weeks after being born, traveling and traveling, high into the mountains, deep underground, until she came to a land of heat.

Pozhar, of course.

From there, he sensed, she had somehow found her way onto a ship.

It wasn’t until she reached Piedre, he sensed, that she had begun to grow to her massive proportions. She was growing still – nearly eighteen feet long now.

A mere baby…

Culebra stroked her scales, let her absorb his warmth.

Ruisenor did not communicate much, she never had, but when she did her thoughts carried weight. She adored him. She cared for Corinos. She had not wanted to be as her others were – hunting things that should not be hunted, killing what did not need to die.

Under the cover of the Shadow of the Lost Licht.

Culebra sighed softly, not liking the grim turn of his thoughts when the snow was still freshly fallen, the sun making it almost painfully bright.

In the back of his mind he could sense Cortez rolling her eye, giving a sigh of her own, and telling him to knock it off. Culebra could not help a faint smile, and obediently tried to let his thoughts go.

Certainly he had better things to think about.

Problems might still abound in Schatten and Verde, but three of the five countries were on their way to healing. Even now he could feel the world slowly settling back into its proper rhythms, falling out of the danger that would have begun to wither it had it gone much longer without the gods that created and kept it.

He was no longer alone, and his children would be safer and happier for his presence, even if they did not entirely realize it. He wondered how Pruebas faired…someday he would have to see his brother…but not right now.

Right now he wanted to enjoy himself. Surely he had earned that much.

The steady, ever-amused presence of his sister chuckled in the back of his mind. Of course you have, little brother.

“Go play with Fidel,” Culebra muttered. He turned away from the edge of the cliff, fingers trailing along Ruisenor’s scales as the snake slithered from him and back down the cliff. Culebra followed her a ways, but when the great snake continued on into the forest, he turned toward the small, hidden entrance that led from the top of the waterfall down into his temple.

Myriad entrances to it were scattered across the central part of the Azul. When he had determined to make the temple his tomb, he had sealed off all but the one behind the waterfall.

Bit by bit he was unsealing the others, opening his temple up. Eventually, someday, people would come.

For now, it was just him and Corinos, and occasionally his sister and Fidel – though they preferred the smaller, simpler Temple Oblivar.

The cold vanished as he entered the tunnels of his caves, constantly warmed by Zhar Ptitka’s fires. He weaved his way through the tunnels, at last coming to the one he sought, wondering how long it would take Corinos to find him.

Not long. Corinos always somehow knew where to find him, even when Culebra made his way to chambers Corinos had not yet seen.

This chamber…this chamber Corinos would like. Culebra smiled and began to strip, leaving his clothes folded neatly by the door. He shivered slightly, the air a bit cool on his skin, and padded across the bare stone floor and slipped into the steaming water of the hot spring.

There were several pools, from these in the very back to a few more that actually were outside, which would be tempting, but more pleasant when the stars were out. Sighing softly, Culebra sank down until the water came up to his neck, leaning back against warm stone, just turned away from the entrance. Sighing again, loving the feel of the hot water, the contrast of it with the cooler air, Culebra closed his eye and waited.

Several minutes later he heard the familiar tread of his lover – his lover, the thought was still dizzying. So many years, so many tries, his memories said, and no one had ever been like Corinos.

The boots stopped, and he heard the rough, choking sound that said he taken Corinos quite neatly by surprise. So calm and collected, his bodyguard, most of the time. So very easy for Culebra to make him anything but.

“I did not know these were here,” Corinos said.

Culebra laughed and finally opened his eye. The dark patch around his other was damp from the steam, clinging to his pale skin. “I have been waiting to surprise you with them,” he replied, then lost any interest in talking, more than happy to watch as Corinos stripped, baring a well-formed body, skin like dark caramel, as fine to his eye as it had always been to his fingers.

Humming his pleasure, Culebra splashed across the pool and wrapped himself around Corinos as he slid into the water, mouth opening for the deep kiss Corinos immediately gave, loving the way that as hot as the water was – Corinos was hotter. He held tight as Corinos dragged him to where they could sit, loving the feel of skin and skin, the contrast between them. He sank his hands into the too-soft hair he loved, silently demanding more kisses that Corinos eagerly gave. He moaned and tilted his head back as knowing teeth began to nip and scrape, clever fingers began to search and play. “How did I keep away from you for so long, Corinos?”

“You were very blind,” Corinos said, amusement tingeing his voice as he paused in explorations to brush a tender kiss across Culebra’s mouth. “In more ways than one.”

Culebra smiled and cupped his face, dragging him back in for a proper kiss. “Not anymore.”