told them all about the target? The hoards we will find?”
“I have told them all you told me. And I have added, on my own account, that there is of course no way to tell if a word of it is true. Where is this target, and how do we get there?”
I draw breath to make sure I’m heard by all. “The target is close. Close in time, but not in space. Follow me, accept me as your leader and your king—”
Something small falls to the ground right beside me.
I freeze, then slowly stoop to pick it up.
When I touch it, it is as if it hypnotizes me.
It’s the simple, wooden pin that Jennifer made for my unruly hair to help me keep it out of my face.
My chest swells and aches. The poison is suddenly moving around in there.
She made this for me. Without being commanded to. Without me taking it from her. She made it specifically for me. Handed it to me with a smile and a cute little comment.
And at that point, I knew I could trust her. Like she had trusted me from almost the first moment.
The realization hits me like a bolt of lightning. I trust someone! I trust Jennifer.
I’m vaguely aware that the hundreds of dragons in the clearing are muttering impatiently. But it all fades into unimportance.
I trust someone.
When has a dragon ever trusted someone?
And why do I trust the only person who has injured me? Why is it her?
There is something bigger behind it. Something gigantic.
I have to find out.
This could be more important than anything else I have ever experienced. This could be more important than the plan.
I clench the little wooden object in my fist and frown at the assembled dragons. It’s as if I see them for the first time. And it is myself I am seeing.
“See how afraid you are!” I yell. “See how you keep looking around yourselves! See how tensely you stand there, unable to trust anyone!”
The Plood saucer lands a little to the side, huge and silent. Its side opens to the bright green interior.
All the dragons look around, puzzled and getting angry.
“What kind of trick is this?”
“It must be a trap!”
“Is your plan just to yell at us, princeling?”
“Where are the hoards you promised?”
I clench the little hairpin in my hand and look away, up at the treetops. I’m sick, and the only way for me to heal is to go to Jennifer’s home planet and take my chances on its inhabitants being able to heal me. Before I lead the plunder of their planet.
It’s as solid a plan as any dragon has ever had. Which is not saying much, but still the only hope I have.
This is big. This is big and much more important. I feel it with every inch of my being—
Hissing, I bend over as my my chest explodes in pain and fresh ichor starts dripping from the injury. I cough, and more ichor comes out of my mouth. The world spins around me, so I have to go down on one knee to not fall over.
“The time for entry is now,” the Plood leader says through some kind of device that amplifies his thin voice and makes it unbearably screechy. “Prince Caronerax, time is of the essence. The cargo appears to be ready to be stowed.”
I’m starting to understand Jennifer’s skepticism of the Plood. The ‘cargo’ is me and the dragons.
I get to my feet again. The Plood can do whatever they want. But with me gone, they won’t follow through on the agreed contract.
Clutching my chest, I stagger backwards, making for the edge of the woods. I have to find Jennifer, explore this mysterious idea of trust and then see where it may lead.
‘I love you,’ she said.
More ichor runs down my chin as I clench the hairpin and stumble into the jungle.
Behind me, the other dragons are left bewildered, and the last glimpse I get is the Plood closing the hatch and their saucer taking off again, then hanging uncertainly above the treetops.
“It’s a trap,” dragon voices seethe behind me. “He lured us here to take our attention away from that Inferior ship!”
That’s where she is, of course. I will go there and see her. She can explain what it is I’m feeling. It will be the last thing I do, but that’s how important it is.
28
- Jennifer -
There’s another army outside, with cavemen of all stripe colors surrounding the ship.