Talbert stared for a moment. "Crystal clear, Ma'am."
"Good."
They reached the door to the briefing room, and the Marine guards stood aside as the party went inside. King Sayid and the remaining two bodyguards sat at the far end of the conference table.
Sayid looked up. "Lieutenant, what is the meaning of all this?" He pounded the table with his balled fist to emphasize his irritation.
Talbert was a good diplomat, and despite his clear personal views, he kept to the plan. "Your Majesty, I offer my apologies for all of this, and I understand you're angry. This is Captain Davis and Commander Harris. They need to talk with you, and this seemed like the best way to ensure that happening in a timely manner." Elsa had to give the young man credit for being smooth.
"This is highly irregular and an insult."
She decided it was time to get to the point. "Perhaps it is, Your Majesty, but this is the way things will be. As you know, one of my crewmembers, Sergeant Rawls, has vanished. The last time we had sensor contact with her, she was with two of your knights, Landis and Clemmons. Now we can't find any of them. Any ideas?"
The king looked confused. "Why should I have any ideas? Other than knowing they are in Yamat Valley, I don't keep tabs on their exact movements."
Elsa expected as much. "Very well. You and I are alike in that regard. We have good people working for us, and we trust them. That means we don't have to watch them every minute. But I need answers about this war you have with the dragons. Talbert and the linguists believe we have a translation problem." She shrugged. "I'm not so sure of that. I want to know why you're fighting the dragons, and I want to know now."
"Our fight with the lizards is of no concern to you."
"Up until an hour ago, you were right." Elsa leaned on the table, placing her hands palm down so her head towered over the king. "Forty-seven minutes ago, one of my crewmembers vanished, and I think this is somehow tied up with the dragons and your war. It just became a concern to me. A big concern."
Sayid hesitated for more than a minute, his gaze wavering from her to Harris and then to Talbert, before he finally looked down at his hands where they rested on the table in front of him. "Is there someplace you can take my guards so we can speak privately?"
"Of course." She turned to the Corporal leading the security contingent. "Take the bodyguards out, and leave us alone with the king."
Once security had escorted the bodyguards from the briefing room, Sayid looked up at her. "I don't want my people to think me weak."
Elsa nodded. She understood the importance of keeping respect. "I can speak only for myself, but I don't think you're weak."
He smiled a little. "Thank you. This war with the dragons has been going on for many years, since before my father's rule." He paused, his eyes focused on some point far beyond the hull. "I honestly don't know what started it all those years ago."
She considered this. Sayid didn't look like he lied to her—he looked confused. "So why don't you end it?"
"Because I am the king." He laughed. "The war has cost the lives of many of my people, and to simply stop fighting would be weak."
Elsa shook her head. "No, not at all. It takes far more strength and courage to walk away from a fight than to keep on killing for no reason."
"That is the human perception."
"That's my perception."
"My people, particularly my knights, would see it as weak and cowardly."
"I have to disagree. One of the reports from Rawls was that these two friends of hers wanted the war to end as well." She smiled. "Landis and Clemmons have the courage and strength to face the facts that war is bad."
"Do they?"
"I believe so. I see no reason Rawls would have misunderstood or lied about that."
He nodded slowly. "Yes, perhaps you're right." His eyes again looked out past the confines of the ship, and the king chewed on his lip. "Very well."
"What does that mean?"
"I know nothing right now that might help you find your crewmember, but I may be able to learn something if I return to my palace. How can I reach you?"
Talbert looked happy for the first time in an hour. "Captain, I'll volunteer to return to the planet with King Sayid and relay information."
Every rule in the book told her this was not the right thing to do, but the book never meant too much to her. "Very well, Lieutenant. Make it so."
* * * *
Shane hurt all over but mostly in her back and chest. She opened her eyes and found a white, featureless view greeting her. She moved her arm to touch her face and found a damp cloth covering her eyes.
As she tried to remove the wet rag, fingers touched her hand. "Relax, you're safe here, at least for now."
Thankfully, the translator seemed to work and was nearby, because Shane recognized the alien language coming from a feminine voice. "Where am I?"
"You're in a cave of the dragons. You were hurt when they captured you."
The last thing she remembered was the pain from the talons of the dragon tearing through her shoulders. Shane moved her hand and touched thick bandages on her chest and shoulders. They felt dry, and she thought that was a good sign.
Shane asked the most obvious question. "How badly am I hurt?" And she asked the other obvious question. "Who are you?"
The voice hesitated a few seconds. "I'm Alicia. The dragons captured me when I was a girl, and I've been here with them ever since, nearly twenty years. Your wounds need more care than I can give."
That response both was and wasn't an answer to her main question. There was heavy pressure in the right side of her chest, and her breath was short. Shane wondered if she had a partially collapsed lung. There was one other obvious question she needed answered. "Why did the dragons kidnap me? Why am I here?"
Alicia's voice didn't hesitate this time. "I know only that the king of the dragons is worried about why you and your people are here. He thinks you plan to overthrow him."
Somehow Shane knew this young woman had no impact on the big picture, but she still felt the need to defend herself. "We plan no such thing."
"That doesn't matter. Only what Handley believes matters, and he is a paranoid fool."
Shane pulled the cloth from her eyes. Alicia was not much more than a girl, maybe twenty years old, tops. A dark scar, red and puffy, stretched down her left cheek, detracting from what would have been a pretty face.
Alicia smiled a little. "You should rest. The commander of the dragons sent me to try to care for you."
"This Handley sent you?"
"No. Handley is the king. The leader here, the commander of the dragon soldiers, is called Cedric." The girl shivered a bit. "Handley is coming to see you."
Shane wasn't as worried as she might have been, though. Daedalus would find her soon, her telemetry beacon calling a rescue party down like a homing pigeon. She touched the right side of her chest, just above her breast, and felt a lump under the bandage. Despite Alicia's urgings and her trying to keep Shane's hands away, Shane pulled at the bandages until the edge lifted from her skin.
She pulled the lump from under the cloth and found that the impact on her body had punched the telemetry transmitter from her chest. A neat one-centimeter hole from a talon went clean through the case.
* * * *
Clemmons looked down from the ledge where he and Landis rested from the latest steep climb. It was a long way down to the valley floor, and the slips both the men had suffered convinced him Shane and the lizards had the right idea to fly over the mountains instead of trying to scale them. But neither he nor Landis could fly, so they had to rely on their skills and training to climb the rocks. Both carried a few cuts and scrapes from the inevitable slips but nothing too bad. If either had been alone, it would likely have been much worse.
Landis seemed to have lost some of his black mood, but the climb left little breath for talking not related to surviving the climb itself. As they rested, their conversation, of course, turned to Shane
.
Clemmons put the water skin in his pack. "I think we can rest for maybe half an hour."
"If we need to, yes, but I would like to get moving again sooner." Landis watched a bird soar on the updraft for a moment. "Do you think she's still alive?"
"Yes, I do." Clemmons gathered his thoughts. He wanted to word this right, because a misstatement could plunge Landis back into his despair. "The lizard that took her wasn't just grabbing a target of opportunity. They planned the attack, even if on short notice, and executed it with great expertise. The lizards knew what they were doing, and they did it for a reason. They want Shane for some reason, and they came to get her."
"And now they have her."
"Yes, they do, but that's not your fault or mine. It just happened."
Landis nodded. "And now we need to get her back." He paused for a long time, watching the bird again. "I couldn't stand losing you."
He laughed. "The lizard who can best me in combat hasn't been born yet."
"That's not what I mean." His eyes tracked the bird as it swooped and climbed on the winds, banking and spiraling across the sky. "I wish I could undo what Shane and I did back there."
Clemmons looked for the shock and anger again, but he still couldn't find them. When he looked for the hurt he'd felt, he found only a dull memory of its intensity a short time ago. "You won't lose me, no matter what happens. I love you too much to walk away."
Landis smiled and turned to face him. "I guess I understand that." The smile slipped away. "So where does that leave Shane?"
He stood and clapped his life-partner on the shoulder. "In the clutches of the lizards, waiting for rescue. Let's get moving."
* * * *
Cedric moved through the cave to meet his prisoner. Alicia had told him she was awake and in pain, but she didn't know if the woman would live or not.
He hated this business of skulking about. He was a warrior, not a common criminal and certainly not a kidnapper, but Handley had forced him into this. He had to learn what the plans of this woman and her kind were.
Alicia had been with him for many years now, ever since he'd taken her from a village of men during a raid. She'd resisted at first, when just a child, but she'd learned the ways of the dragons and become a valuable member of Cedric's household. At some level, Cedric saw her almost like his own child. He definitely saw her as a funny-looking dragon. Cedric often wondered if she saw him as a funny-looking man.
He entered the chamber where Alicia cared for the captive and the woman was in a chair, dressed in some of Alicia's clothes. The bandages on her chest and shoulders looked bulky, and the woman winced when she breathed.
Alicia looked up at him. "Cedric, this is Shane. She is in pain, but she says she can talk to you." She pointed at a metal box on the table. "That device speaks for her. It knows the speech of men, and it works with dragon speech, though a little slow."
He nodded. "Thank you. You may leave us now."
Alicia bowed her head and moved for the door, brushing her fingers across his shoulder as she passed. When she was gone, Cedric turned to the woman. "I am Cedric, commander of King Handley's troops here in the valley."
"Why am I here?"
"Simply put, I need to know your intentions. Handley believes you are here to destroy him, and I tend to agree."
"That couldn't be farther from the truth. We are here to contact new people, new societies, and nothing more."
"And yet you have become close with the men and their king."
"Of course we have." She coughed, doubling over with the pain, and a glob of dark blood spattered on the floor.
"You won't believe me when I say I'm sorry you were injured."
"I can't say yet if I believe you or not. I need to get medical help from my people as soon as possible."
"How soon that happens will be up to Handley. He will be here soon to talk to you."
"You mean if that happens."
He shrugged, his wings flexing. "As you wish. I would advise you to not trifle so with Handley. He lacks my patience."
Chapter 4
The High and The Mighty
In their first contact since sending the king back to the planet, Talbert and Sayid looked out at her from the display. Elsa was glad they had set up visual links to the palace so she could actually see the king. She could read him better that way than by voice alone.
"So we know what happened to them." Elsa thought for a moment. "Rawls was attacked by one of the dragons and carried off, and your knights went after her."
Sayid nodded. "Exactly. Landis and Clemmons went alone, refusing to take more men, because they felt they stood a better chance alone than with an army."
"But the note they sent you doesn't say exactly where Rawls was taken or where they were going."
"No, it doesn't. Only that they were going to the mountains."
She paused again. "Science, what does that do to our chances of finding the three?"
The Science Officer tapped at the screen controls on the conference table, and a topographical map of the encampment and surrounding area appeared on the screen. "There are high mountains all around the camp—" She used the pointer in the screen to trace the higher elevations. "Here and here are the areas where we've seen the dragons clustering. There are also heavy metal deposits in the mountains, and that could be blocking our scans if they are in a deep enough cave."
Sayid shook his head. "It's been only a little more than two hours since Landis and Clemmons went after her. It will take them at least four to reach any of those locations."
"The ore may also be interfering with the scans."
"All right, people." Elsa sighed. "We need to stop looking for reasons we can't find them and just find them. Let's assume Rawls is underground, and the scans are blocked. That lets us focus on finding where the dragons and the knights are. I want low-level satellites that can enhance the scans put in orbit."
The Science Officer frowned. "That will take some time, Captain."
"I know it will. You have thirty minutes, so I suggest you get on it."
The officer blinked at her a few times. "Thirty minutes?"
"If you need it. Twenty will make me happier."
* * * *
Lizards swarmed around the cave entrance. Landis couldn't recall seeing so many in one place before other than in battles. The gathering of dragons was a sure sign something—or someone—important was inside.
Clemmons lowered the spyglass from his eye. "I count twelve lizards milling about outside, and I've seen eight more come and go from the cave itself."
"That's a lot of dragons for one cave."
"That's a lot of new lizard-skin boots." Clemmons's hand caressed the pommel of his sword. "What's your plan?"
He paused, pondering the situation. "We can't be certain Shane is in there, but I'd bet she is. Why else would there be so many lizards here? We'll have to go in to be certain. I'll create a distraction, and you get inside. I'll come in when I can."
Clemmons shook his head. "You mean if you can. No, you go inside and find her, and I'll keep the dragons busy." He smiled, but it looked a bit wistful. "You're the one she wants to see."
Landis had thought about this since they started climbing the mountains, and he'd made up his mind. "Maybe so, maybe not, but you have to be the one to go in after her. I'm afraid my emotions will cause me to make mistakes, and that could kill both Shane and myself. We need a cooler head to prevail."
He nodded. "Maybe you're right. Besides, there are plenty of lizards for us both to kill."
"No, I don't want to kill them. Shane is right, and the killing is wrong. I just want her safe."
"I know what you mean." Clemmons smiled softly, the same smile that, for the last six years, Landis had found so attractive. "If we can get her out without killing a single dragon, that's a good thing. On the other hand, I would kill them all to make sure she's safe."
Landis reached into his bag and pulled out Shane's weapon. "Any idea how to wo
rk this weapon?"
"Not a one." Clemmons pointed to a pair of slides on side of the device. "I've seen her move these, though."
"So have I." He looked at one of the levers and found it had only two positions. When he studied the other slide, it had three positions. Small markings on the framework matched the catches, but they couldn't read Shane's language. "I wonder what it all means."
"Does it matter much?" Clemmons laughed softly. "We'll probably be dead in short time anyway."
"That's true." Landis hesitated as he stared at Shane's weapon. "I'll move off around to the right. When the distraction starts, you get inside."
"How will I know when to move?"
Landis turned the weapon over in his hand a few times. "I think you'll know."
* * * *
Cedric had frightened her, but Shane thought it was mostly his appearance. He looked a lot like the classic dragons in fairytales and fantasy stories, with his green scales flecked with hints of gold and blue and large diaphanous wings better suited to some kind of bat from a nightmare. When she added in the sharp talons and teeth like small white mountains with jagged peaks, the image was complete. Except for the yellow eyes with horizontal slits like a cat's-eye turned on its side.
Cedric had an air of honor about him. Not unlike her, he was a warrior, a soldier with a job to do, and he did it as best he could. He followed orders, and he followed some code of conduct she didn't understand, but Shane somehow knew Cedric wasn't evil.
While Cedric had frightened her, Handley terrified her.
The dragon king didn't look much different from Cedric. He was a little smaller, maybe, and not as well muscled, but size didn't mean much in this case. Where Cedric exuded determined honor, Handley radiated pure evil.
Knights of Desire [Flights of Fancy 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 7