Apex blinked a few times, but seemed too flustered to come up with a response.
Duck strolled up and handed Sardelle a skewered piece of meat on a stick. Rabbit? It was hard to tell under the layer of char.
“Thank you.” She decided to add the restaurants in the capital to the list of things she was longing for.
“Knew you needed to fill your empty belly.” Duck saluted Ridge. “We’re ready to go, too, sir.”
Duck climbed into the cockpit of his flier.
Tolemek and Ahn walked out of the depths of the cave, holding hands. There might have been some canoodling going on back there too.
“If the flier can get off the ground with all that unauthorized cargo on board.” Ahn gave Tolemek a significant look.
“I’ve never studied volcanology,” Tolemek said, “but I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to acquire fresh samples.”
“Including twenty vials of ash?”
“Twenty-six. I assure you the combined weight is less than that of a sniper rifle.”
The glowers they gave each other weren’t particularly fierce.
“Looks like it’s time to fly, then,” Ridge said.
Apex and Kaika were already rolling toward the cave ledge. She gave a long look over her shoulder at the empty seat in Duck’s flier.
“My lady.” Ridge offered Sardelle his hand to give her a boost into the flier. “Your conveyance awaits.”
She accepted the offer. “And my nap, I hope. Though that doesn’t seem fair. You must need one as much as I do, if not more.”
“Who says I won’t take one?”
“Is that allowed when you’re the one flying the craft?”
“You’ll know if you wake up in the arctic instead of the tropics.”
THE END
Afterword
Thank you for following along with the Dragon Blood series. The next novel may actually have a dragon in it! If you would like to hear about it as soon as it’s ready to go, please sign up for my newsletter. I’m also online in all of the usual places: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Blood Charged Page 31