Chapter 15
The heat radiating from the lava increased. Ransom sprinted toward the cliff. He flapped his wings, but nothing happened. Grata, death beckoned from every angle.
Knifing pain writhed through his temples. Instinctively, he blocked, closing down his dragon side. He stumbled, heard Scarlett’s cry as she slipped. At the last minute, she righted herself. Behind the mental barricade he’d erected, his dragon snarled and aimed fire at his cage.
Ransom ran. He hurtled toward death as the fiery lava heat burned his back.
His dragon burned through his mental fence, and the burst of unrelenting pain had him running blind. When his vision cleared, he was two strides short of the cliff.
Then, it was too late.
Gravity hurled his big body over the edge.
Scarlett’s scream rippled with fear, with panic. It prodded him. Do something. He was better than his father.
Fly. Fly, dammit.
He flapped his wings, attempting to slow their plunge. His dragon side hollered at him.
Fly!
The ground grew closer. Grata, he didn’t want to die. He wanted to claim Scarlett and live a peaceful life. He lifted his wings and forced them back down. While his brain understood the process, it refused to fire and communicate with his body.
“Fly, Ransom. Fly,” Scarlett screamed.
He repeated the up-and-down flap of his wings. Had he slowed? He got a rhythm going. Up. Down. Up. Down.
Yes! Their drop was slowing.
He forced his wings to move faster, and their steep descent flattened out.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Scarlett shouted. “You’ve got this.”
Ransom wasn’t so sure. The ground seemed to be approaching at a dizzying speed, and he forced himself to focus, to soar like a bird. To fly.
His dragon shoved at his mind, grasping for complete control. A dominant roar filled his mind, blasting him with a show of temper.
Suddenly, Ransom understood. He blanked his mind and yielded.
Their crazy free-fall became a controlled dive.
His dragon leveled out their screaming speed and angled upward.
They slowed and whizzed over the heads of a leap of black leopards.
Onward, they flew, their descent down the valley controlled and more leisurely, until in the distance, Ransom spotted their spaceship and another larger one parked beside it.
The Indy.
His friends had come.
Ransom allowed his dragon to land them before saying a silent thank you. “We can join again now,” his dragon said. “We will be strong again. Better together. So tired.”
“I understand. I didn’t before.”
“Need rest.”
“And food,” Ransom said.
Scarlett slid down his side and landed with Talon perched on her shoulder. She bent and kissed a red rock.
“Haw-haw-haw.”
“You thought we’d die. Admit it, you wee monster.”
While they argued back and forth, Ransom shifted. This transformation was sluggish and slower than average, but long moments later, he reformed into a humanoid.
“Are you all right?” he asked Scarlett.
“That was a rush,” she said, her eyes bright and golden. “Terrifying. A journey of many days in several panicked minutes.”
“Yes.” An understatement.
Scarlett turned to stare in the direction they’d come from. “Waves of lava are pouring over the cliff. Did I see my brothers, or did I imagine them? I was so busy clinging, I didn’t take in much scenery.”
“It looked as if your brothers had joined forces with my friends,” Ransom said. “It will take them perhaps two cycles to return, even if they push their speed.”
“Excellent. Time to recover and perhaps fossick for precious stones. I didn’t see a single gemstone on that mountaintop, and you promised.”
“I lied,” Ransom admitted.
Scarlett sniffed. “I know, but I understand. Promise me you’ll never lie again, and we’re good. It can’t have been easy learning about your father and how he handed over your mother to save himself.”
“After having that purple monster inside my head, I can sympathize, but he could’ve found another way. He would’ve wanted to save as many of the tribe as he could. At least, I hope that figured into his assessment of the danger.”
“I hope they have food on their ship because our remaining supplies are still up there on the mountain,” Scarlett said.
“We can leave a note and fly to my clan.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to leave my next bout of flying for a while.” A shudder raced through her. “I thought we would die.”
“Haw, haw, haw.”
“Silence, you wee beastie. Your claws have left marks on my shoulders, and they’re throbbing. Your terror marked me. Don’t deny it.”
“How is your arm?”
Scarlett frowned at it. “Still weeping. Once we find something to eat, I’m going to shift. Then, sleep. We can both sleep knowing our dreams will be pleasant, and any nightmares will be of our own making.”
Ransom nodded. “I left a few cans of stew in my ship because the shrink-food you purchased was lighter. We can eat that now.”
Soon, they were feasting on mystery meat with gravy. While the stew didn’t come close to rivaling the shrink-food, it was hot and filling. All three of them ate a hearty meal.
“Could we use the ship radio to contact my brother?” Scarlett asked. “To tell them we’re back at the ship?”
“Excellent idea. My com-circle is under the lava.”
“I’m just glad it’s not us,” Scarlett said, following him to the ship’s bridge.
He pushed several buttons and scanned his hand. The controls came alive with lights.
Scarlett put through the call.
“Scarlett?” a male voice demanded.
“Yes, Saber. It’s me. We’re at the ship.”
“You couldn’t have flown down before we started this long trek?” No mistaking his tone for anything except testy.
“No, it’s a long story, and we’ll give you the details on your return.”
“It will take us at least two days to reach your position,” Saber said.
“That’s okay. We’re exhausted. Bruised and battered. We could do with a rest.”
“Scarlett?” Ransom called from the doorway.
“Gotta go,” Scarlett said. “Thank you for coming. We’ll see you soon.”
“We have visitors,” Ransom said once Scarlett ended her call.
“Who?”
“The Elevenoss. Talon has gone to greet them.”
“I wonder what they want.”
Ransom reached for her hand and twined their fingers together, every particle of him wanting to show ownership in case one of those handsome Elevenoss males thought to flirt with her.
“Steady,” she murmured. “No need to growl.”
Ransom blinked and closed down the possessive growls coming from his dragon side.
When they reached the Elevenoss delegation, Daenys stepped forward and bowed. “You are alive. Excellent news.”
Talon spoke in a series of clicks and screeches, and Daenys grinned.
“He tells me you are heroes.”
Talon uttered something else and laughed. “Haw, haw, haw.”
Daenys spluttered, her grin widening while the rest of her group chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Scarlett asked.
“You cannot communicate with Talon?”
“No,” Ransom said. “Our translators do not compute his language.”
“Ah, I will fix that for you.” Daenys murmured a chant, then clicked her fingers. “He says your insults to the prince were funny. You told him he had a small purple dick.”
“I might have done that,” Scarlett said. “He had a wee-man complex.”
Daenys chortled. “Thanks to you and the dragon, plus Talon and the Quito race, we are rid of him and his greed. We can once again live in peace in our original homelands.”
Ransom thought about asking them how they traveled through time before deciding he didn’t wish to know. “What about the volcano?”
“Talon says it is not near our lands. Now that the prince is dead, I believe the resonance in the mountains will fade if it hasn’t already.
Both of our races should be safer now.” Daenys turned to one of her men, and he presented her with two bags.
“I understand you are both gifted jewelers. We wished to give you a small token of our thanks.”
Ransom accepted one bag and Scarlett the other.
“If you wish to visit or to trade or exchange services, you are welcome to visit,” Ransom said.
“Likewise,” Daenys said. “We will contact you once our people settle in our homelands again.”
Talon interrupted with clicks, and this time Ransom understood his meaning.
“Talon wishes to go with us,” Daenys said. “But he would visit with your people at a later time. He says you amuse him.”
“Haw, haw, haw,” Scarlett said with bared teeth.
Talon beamed and scampered over to her. He indicated he wished her to crouch and signaled the same to Ransom. They kneeled beside each other and leaned down a fraction. Talon rubbed his giant nose against Ransom’s, then stood back and did the same to Scarlett.
“Haw-haw-haw.” Talon chortled and lifted one clawed hand in farewell. “I like them. They have great courage,” he told one of Daenys’s party.
“We will see you again.” Daenys bowed before following her people to their ship.
“I will miss Talon,” Scarlett said. “Although his sly humor irked me. I wonder what is in these bags? Oh! Ransom, look.” She held up a raw stone that glinted blue. “These are beautiful. There is a mixture of stones. I haven’t seen anything of the like during my fossicking.”
The pale blue stones reminded him of the lakes they’d passed deep in the mountains.
“Customers will pay high prices for pieces made of these,” Scarlett murmured.
She was right. Ransom yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I intend to hit the sanitizer room and get some sleep.”
“Oh, yes,” Scarlett agreed. “You go first. I’d do a quick shift. Hopefully, it will help my aches and pains.”
A short time later, Ransom stretched out on his gel-bed, his mind light and ache-free. The weighty worry about the prince—the wondering if he might or might not appear, had gone, leaving his mind to wander.
“Shift over,” Scarlett said.
Ransom squeezed closer to the wall to make room for Scarlett.
“What will you do now?” she asked as she squeezed her naked body close to his.
“I was hoping you’d come with me,” Ransom said.