Caveman Alien's Riddle - Calista Skye Page 0,64
If I were in my dragon form, that little outburst of hers could have been the last thing she did.
She takes a deep, trembling breath. “No. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. It’s just… I’m so worried about being left behind.”
I reach out and grab her dirty little hand, cool and green with coagulated paste and some speckles of my golden ichor, and put the diamond back in her possession. “You will not be left behind.”
“Are you sure?”
Her face, her voice, her scent. I am helpless in her presence, and I have no choice but to make a decision I have been putting off since well before the earthquake. “Whatever happens, you will see your home planet again.”
She takes another deep breath. “Okay. But we better keep going.”
“Now we know where to aim,” I agree. “Unless you prefer your village?”
“Bune is better, I think. Although it’s supposedly under siege by dragons. Anyway, the village isn’t that far from it.”
“Then aim for Bune and walk as fast as you can. I will catch up with you.”
She picks up her fur sack, the spear, and the strange fishing rod. “You won’t go yet?”
“I have an errand to run,” I explain. “I will make sure your route is safe, though. Walk now. Go.”
She gives me a puzzled look, then walks back the way we came to get down the side of the hill. “I’ll check on the dead spidermonkey,” she calls to me. “To find out if it’s the one we think.”
I wait until she’s out of sight, then speed up and whoosh past her so fast she won’t be able to see me. I run as fast as I can in the direction of the Inferior ship, checking that the woods are safe for when Jennifer will walk there.
I find and kill two creatures, one probably unnecessarily, but right now I’m taking no chances.
When I’ve cleared her way as far as I think she can get before I catch up again, I run back and veer off into the woods where I have sensed the second group of spies for some time.
The first group was the cavemen, of course. And they have been dealt with. But this group think they are my friends, and that’s an illusion I’ll let them keep for as long as they need it.
I take them by surprise, and that gives me a spark of satisfaction.
There’s five of them, standing close together, like their kind always does. It appears to give them strength.
“You are spying on me,” I accuse them. “Explain yourselves.”
“Prince Caronerax,” the leader squeals in his high-pitched voice. “We are spying on you. We have done so for many days. As contracted and stipulated by your father, the king of all the dragons.”
I give the deplorable little mercenary alien a warm smile, inwardly wanting to strangle him. “Are you contracted to provide me with assistance?”
“There are some provisions in the contract,” he replies. “Some leeway in the phrasing of paragraph nineteen. Though invocation of same might unlock further liability for the counterparty, in the form of additional payable monies. As well, there is the other agent and his requirements to consider.”
I frown. “Which other agent?”
They don’t flinch. “Your brother, Prince Yranox. Your king’s other son. You are not informed?”
Oh my Gold, this is a complication. A really bad one. “I am informed, of course. Yranox is here, too. In his dragon form, yes?”
“Of course. We are surprised you are not.”
“The ways of dragons can be surprising,” I tell him airily. “As you know.”
“No. We are rarely surprised by the dragons.”
“Good,” I beam, boiling on the inside. “Excellent.”
I think fast. These people are mysterious and extremely strong in their own way. They are not a slave species, and many dragon kings have tried to subdue them, to no avail. They decide what they will do, I can’t pressure them into something they don’t want. They can resist me at will, and they know it. They work for payment, not for any other reason.
“Present your proposal,” their leader creaks.
I look away. It’s remarkably hard to collect my thoughts in this form. My mind is like a sticky mass that I can only manage by laborious processes of thought.
My brother is here. That is a serious complication. But it also makes things much, much easier on the other end of my plan, the end of it. There will be no Yranox to thwart me.
The mere thought of my older brother makes me want to punch the trees around me. All