The cave came into view, a slit in the rock-covered mountainside. Ridge would have to fly sideways to enter it.
Does it open up inside?
he asked, hoping either Jaxi or Tylie was still monitoring him. So long as they didn’t monitor his mind at other, less mission-oriented times.
Such as when you and Sardelle are cloistered in your private room together?
Jaxi asked.
Yes.
You’re noisy enough in there that it doesn’t take a telepath to figure out what you’re doing.
We are
not
noisy. Now, can you show me the cave interior, please?
Whatever the general wants.
Jaxi shared a picture of the inside. The floor wasn’t level, but with the thrusters, he thought they could land two fliers. Probably. It would be tricky.
“We’re going in there, Duck. It won’t be an easy landing. Let me go in first.”
“Yes, sir, but you should know… I can see the dragon.”
Ridge grimaced and glanced back. The mountainside was coming up quickly, so he couldn’t take the time for a long look, but it was enough. The rain had stopped, and the sun was dropping toward the horizon below the clouds. Its red rays gleamed on the dragon’s golden scales. The creature did not appear injured, at least not in any way that Ridge could see from here. There weren’t any hitches in his powerful wing beats.
“Understood,” he said, and tilted sideways for the approach.
Sardelle groaned.
“Headache?” he asked as they arrowed for the narrow cave entrance.
“Yes,” she said, her voice croaking.
If she was talking instead of speaking telepathically, Ridge guessed it was because her head hurt too much to contemplate magic.
Good guess
, Jaxi informed him.
“We’ll land soon, and you can rest.” Maybe. Ridge glanced back at the dragon again—it was flying fast and gaining on them quickly. “I’m heading in, Duck. Keep me updated on the dragon.”
“Yes, sir.”
His flier glided between the walls of the entrance. He cut the power to the propeller, though that was risky before the thrusters had been activated. He couldn’t do that until they were upright again.
The inner chamber—and the back wall—came up quickly. He tilted the craft as he pulled the nose up, flicking the switches that ignited the thrusters. The energy crystal glowed as the power demand increased, and white light pulsed, illuminating the cave. Their forward momentum stopped a few feet from the back wall. There wasn’t room to turn around or be choosy about landing spots. He just hoped Duck would be able to avoid him. The cave wasn’t much wider than the wingspan of his flier.
“I’m in, Duck,” Ridge said, “but I’m taking up a lot of space.”
“Yes, sir. That’s what generals do.”
“Hope you’re not implying that I’ve gained weight since my promotion.” Ridge unbuckled his harness and stood in the cockpit. “I don’t spend
that
many hours at a desk.”
“Actually, I was thinking that you’ve been forgetting some meals,” Sardelle said. “You need to let your mother fatten you up a bit.”
“If Mom had her way, I’d be as round as that gray cat of hers.”
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
“Coming in, sir,” Duck said, his voice tense.
Ridge hopped down from the cockpit, hoping he wasn’t about to witness a crash. “Where’s the dragon, Jaxi?”
The cave darkened as Duck’s flier streaked into it. He was coming too fast. Ridge didn’t need to see Duck’s and Tylie’s bulging eyes to know that.
“Sardelle,” he blurted, wanting to tell her to jump down—or to do something magical to stop the crash—but there wasn’t time for either.
Duck yanked up on his flight stick so hard that the tail of his flier scraped the floor of the cave. The wheels and thrusters filled Ridge’s vision as the belly of the craft lifted toward him. Flames scorched the air in front of the cave entrance, but he was too busy skittering backward and lifting an arm to shield his face from the heat pouring out of the thrusters to notice.
The heat vanished abruptly, though the light remained. Ridge moved his arm so he could open an eye. The thruster jets were striking an invisible barrier, light and flame bending in midair. Then the thrusters went out, and the craft clunked to the ground. It was only inches from Ridge’s flier.
He rubbed his face, aware of how close they had come to destroying both fliers and having to find a way to walk to the outpost, which might not be possible. These mountains were about as hospitable as that dragon, especially at this elevation.
“Thank you, Sardelle, Jaxi, or whoever stopped that crash,” Ridge said. They would have to physically lift the fliers and rotate them around in order to fly out, but that was better than walking.
You’re welcome
, Jaxi thought.
The flames that had been blocking the view beyond the cave disappeared. Ridge imagined the dragon swinging around to make an attempt at flying inside or perhaps Morishtomaric might stand on the perch and roast them with flames. Ridge grimaced, feeling very trapped. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone along with Jaxi’s suggestion. Maybe they should have kept going and tried to reach the outpost before the dragon caught them.
He hopped up and pulled his rifle out of the cockpit. It wouldn’t do a thing against Morishtomaric, but he felt better with it in his hands. Sardelle slid down beside him, her face grave as she turned toward the entrance. Duck was helping Tylie down while also staring at the entrance. She gasped in pain.
Remembering her fall, Ridge ran over to help. She’d been clubbed by a multitude of branches before Sardelle had managed to stop her descent.
To his surprise, she lurched toward him as soon as Duck lowered her from the cockpit. Her arms went around his shoulders, her legs curling up to her stomach, and Ridge nearly pitched over, surprised by her weight. After a moment, she dropped her legs to the ground, but did not otherwise release him. She cried into his shoulder, whether because she was in pain or because she thought her dragon had just died, he didn’t know.
“Uhm.” He struggled to get an arm free and hand his rifle to Duck, who seemed as surprised as he was. Then he attempted to pat her back consolingly, all too aware that he didn’t have any experience with kids or how to comfort them. True, she was a little old for weeping inconsolably in a father’s arms, and this wasn’t exactly a good time for it, but he didn’t know what else to do.
“Are there any women that you
don’t
get, sir?” Duck smiled as he accepted the rifle, but it was a quick gesture. He focused on the cave entrance.
“Nobody’s getting anybody.” Ridge knew it had been a joke, but he scowled anyway at the idea that anyone would “get” Tylie. She was too young for that, in mind if not in body. “Is our crotchety friend still out there, Sardelle?”
“Yes.” She came up behind him and rested a hand on his back.
Ridge wondered if he could foist Tylie on her. Women were good at comforting people, weren’t they? “Tylie, Jaxi said Phelistoth was still alive and could probably heal himself.”
She sobbed. “He didn’t want to fight,” she said, the words barely distinguishable. “He came for me. Why’d he do that? And why won’t he leave me alone?”
Ridge assumed the second he was the gold dragon, but it was hard to decipher anything Tylie said.
“What’s he doing?” Duck fingered the trigger on Ridge’s rifle as he watched the cave entrance. “He can’t fit in here, right?”
Ridge wasn’t so sure about that. It would be a tight fit, but unlike a flier, a dragon could fold its wings into its body. He eyed the sides of the cave, gauging whether there was any place for them to hide if Morishtomaric decided to pour in flames and turn this place into an oven.
“If he can’t, he could shape-shift into human form,” Sardelle said.
Ridge groaned. He had forgotten about that. “I don’t suppose dragons are any easier to kill if they’ve changed into humans?”
I actually don’t know the answer to that.
Jaxi sounded shocked that there was a hole in her knowledge base.
Not shocked. Just surprised.
Surprised it wasn’t covered in your dragon romance novels?
Jaxi glowered amazingly well, considering she had neither eyes nor a face.
“I don’t know, either,” Sardelle said. “I’m sure he would still be formidable.”
The entrance darkened, something outside blocking out the daylight. Ridge pried Tylie’s arms from around his neck and set her down, though it wasn’t easy to get her to let go. Bruises and bloody scrapes marked her face, and he grimaced, feeling like a poor mission leader for letting her get hurt.
“Go hide behind the flier, please,” he told her. He wished he had somewhere better to tell her to hide. That dragon fire could probably melt the fliers if Sardelle couldn’t shield them, and he didn’t know if she had the strength left to do so.
Tylie hid behind
him
.
Ridge grimaced again, wondering how he’d been designated the protector. He felt far too inept to take that role, but he put himself between her and the cave entrance.
You liked her ladybug
, Jaxi suggested.
Is
that
why? I didn’t like it. I just told her to take it to the woods.
I’m just guessing. I can’t read her at all. She took quickly to guarding her thoughts.
A rumble came from somewhere above them. The ground shook.
“What now?” Ridge groaned, remembering the earthquakes in the king’s secret facility. According to Angulus, those had been caused by Morishtomaric’s pain. Ridge doubted the dragon was in any kind of pain this time.
Above them, deep within the rock, snaps sounded.
“Get back,” Sardelle whispered. Her hand shifted to his arm, and she tugged him toward the back wall.
Trusting her, Ridge said, “You heard her, Duck.”
He swooped Tylie over his shoulder and ran to the deepest part of the cave. Duck and Sardelle crowded into an alcove with them. The ground pitched, and Duck almost fell onto him. More rocks snapped, and a roar came from above them, or maybe from outside. The noise filled the cave, and it was too hard to tell.
Stay close
, Sardelle ordered.
Everyone. Jaxi and I are making a shield to protect us.
Can you protect the fliers too?
Ridge hoped he wasn’t asking too much, but he didn’t know if they could get off this mountain without them.
And he thinks
Tylie
is needy
, Jaxi thought.
I didn’t think that.
Ridge did his best to cover Tylie’s and Sardelle’s heads as rocks started falling. Barrier or not, he wasn’t positive they wouldn’t be in danger.
That was
you
thinking that
,
Jaxi
, Sardelle thought.
Ridge was being fatherly.
Fatherly. Hardly. He’d been thinking that a father might know what in the hells to do.
Ah, was that it? I knew
someone
thought it—and wondered why Tolemek wasn’t here to take care of his sister.
Boulders tumbled past the cave entrance. One stuck, halving the light inside. Smaller rocks tumbled past, some falling inside, others bouncing away. The light grew dimmer and dimmer as the entrance filled with rubble. Despite the quaking, their roof wasn’t falling, at least not yet. Dust and a few pebbles bounced off Sardelle’s barrier, but nothing more substantial.
Are you doing that?
Jaxi asked.
Thinking the question was for him, Ridge started to respond, but Sardelle said,
No. I thought you were.
Not me.
What?
Ridge asked.
Ssh.
Jaxi said.
Don’t talk for a minute. Or think. Any of you. And don’t move. Don’t make any noise.
Ridge had no idea what they were talking about, but did as ordered. He tried to still his mind and think nothing of the rocks pounding down the slope outside, of the entrance filling the entire way and leaving them in darkness. The flier crystals had powered down, so not even they glowed to break up the blackness.
The sounds of the rockfall dwindled and stopped. The entrance remained blocked, but nothing had fallen within the cave itself. Ridge’s back ached from the position he had crammed himself into, his arms over Sardelle and Tylie. Sardelle knelt, also with an arm around Tylie, who was huddled in a ball, with her hands over her ears. Duck was pressed against Ridge’s side, standing utterly still, barely breathing. Jaxi’s order must have been for all of them.
“He’s leaving,” Sardelle said.
“He just wanted to trap us?” Ridge asked. “I was expecting him to roast us to a crisp.”
He wasn’t trying to
trap
us.
Jaxi’s pommel started glowing, giving them some light.
He was trying to bury us and smash us into a thousand pieces. Tylie is muting our auras somehow. I believe the dragon thinks we’re dead, and that’s why he’s leaving.
“
Tylie
?” Ridge stared down at the girl balled up at his feet. He knew she could speak telepathically with Phelistoth and had been learning things from Sardelle and the dragon, but he wouldn’t have expected her to be the one to save them. “What do you mean
somehow
?”
None of us taught her how to do it
, Jaxi said.
She came up with the idea on her own too.
“Thank you, Tylie,” Sardelle murmured, resting a hand on her head.
Tylie looked up, her battered face streaked with tears. “I have to keep doing it until he flies out of range. He sensed me before from a long ways away.”
Sardelle nodded. “Keep doing it as long as you have the strength. If he thinks you’re dead, all the better. He won’t come back for you again.”
“I wish I’d figured out how to do it before. Then Phel wouldn’t have been hurt.”
“I don’t suppose any of you can tell which direction the dragon went,” Ridge said.
To the northeast
, Jaxi said.