to myself. “The cavemen are busy with other things, and probably the dragons, too.”
“What?” Beatrice asks. “I didn’t catch that.”
I stand up. “I said, there will never be another chance. I have to go and see if I can get Caronerax to change his mind. If he’s still here. See you later.”
I make my way around the console and open the door. It’s getting dark out there.
Perfect.
Beatrice scrambles to her feet. “Jennifer! Are you crazy? You’ll never survive out there alone!”
I give her a lopsided smile. “Probably not. But we are all screwed anyway. And I have to try this, or I’d never forgive myself. Bye.”
I hoist the gun and walk out of the door and into chaos.
29
- Caronerax -
I scurry through the jungle, bent double and breathing hard. I stumble over small roots and bushes, often falling, each time picking myself back up with more difficulty.
I see everything double, and there’s static in front of the world around me.
My chest feels like it’s going to explode, and the weakness is spreading.
Still, I clutch the hairpin.
A small part of my mind is railing against me. I’m running from the greatest opportunity I’ve ever had. The chance to heal, to expand my hoard, to be king. To leave my brother behind on a barren planet.
But that voice never becomes loud. The way I’m going now, there’s no healing. There’s no hoard. There’s no throne.
But there might be love.
It took me a while to figure it out. That trust, that comfort with Jennifer. That togetherness I had never experienced before. The urge to protect her, to shield her, to keep her safe.
She knew it. She knew what it was, and she said so. I was too puzzled and absorbed in my own concerns to see it.
I still have my hoard. I can still add to it. I can still be king.
But this is my only chance for something more, something that has turned my world inside out.
No dragon ever expects to feel it. Indeed, I doubt most of us know about it.
Royals are well informed, and as I often maintain, I’m the best informed dragon in the universe.
I have heard of love. I just hadn’t felt it.
Now I have, I can’t be without it.
And I need Jennifer. I need to know she’s safe.
From now on, I will keep her safe.
Branches and twigs whip my face as I rush past them, but I barely notice.
The other dragons are somewhere behind me, going slower in the darkening jungle. They may soon lose interest. But even so, they would come in this direction. The only really interesting place on this planet is the Inferior spaceship, Bune.
I stumble over a root and fall headlong into a bush, scaring up several medium-sized creatures that screech as they flee. I roll over and laboriously crawl to my feet, steadying myself on a sapling that bends under my weight.
With mild interest, I notice I leave a trail of ichor that glitters in the moonlight.
It doesn’t seem important.
I have to go on.
The only important thing is that I have to keep her safe.
30
- Jennifer -
I run across the flat, dry marsh, bent forwards to show as small a profile as possible.
Behind me there are sounds of fighting, with metallic clangs and deep-voiced yelling. I can’t tell who’s winning, and I don’t even want to know. Right now it feels like nothing matters all that much. All is probably lost, anyway. I probably don’t have a home planet anymore.
What are the chances he didn’t take off with the Plood back then, when I left him?
For some reason, I think he’s still here. I think his plan involved me, and it never crossed his mind that I wouldn’t want to come. He’d have to rethink. Maybe he’ll carry out his mission for his king, after all.
And if I’m wrong, and he left? Then we are totally screwed. And it looks like the dragons are gone, just like I’d would expect if they are now on the way to Earth to lay waste to it.
So we’re probably totally screwed whatever happens. But I have to try.
I enter the jungle without slowing down. Of course, I have no idea where he might be, but the village seems like a natural place for me to go first. I’m not even sure I could find the place where that Plood ship had landed.
At least the moon is up, casting its eerie blue light on the jungle. If I now run across a raptor or one of