by Celeste Raye
Josie ran after him. She had to make him see that what he heard wasn't what she meant. She wanted to explain why she had hidden in the dark, take back the last months and tell him about the baby from the beginning. He was ripping her heart out, his too. However, she couldn't catch him. Nausea overwhelmed her, and she was cramping. She fled to the bathroom to lose breakfast. Curling up on the floor, with her arms wrapped around her midsection she sobbed and prayed that she wasn't losing the baby too.
Maxxus
Maxxus could not get out of the building fast enough. The pain he felt was unbearable. His soul was tearing, but it was not a clean tear. It was jagged, bloody, and incomplete. A piece remained attached to Josie's. Transforming the minute he reached open air, he left the city and flew deep into the devastation. It matched his heart, and there he could let go. The wail that erupted from him was mournful, echoing from his dying soul. His pain came out in roars, toppling dead trees and stirring cold ash into the sky.
The black dragon shed tears. They dropped to the ground and were soaked up instantly. For Josie, he had done the impossible. He had opened up his heart and allowed her to take it without reservation. He had risked mating, a ritual he had sworn would never occur. She had caused him to care for the people, instead of just himself. All his life he had stayed behind his own wall where no one could hurt him. Now, he could not rebuild it. Forever, he would feel this pain, unless he and Talonia truly died. Right this second, he wished for it to happen: better dead than living without his mate.
Why had he not seen it coming? He knew she did not sleep well. He saw the dark circles under her beautiful eyes, and the smile had gone from her sweet face. She had stopped caring how she looked, pulling her hair into a crooked ponytail and dressing in sweats. He had told himself it was because she was so worried about the weredragons and was working so hard to save the planet. Was this his fault? He had not given her enough time and attention. Every time she wanted to talk, he was called away to a crisis. Had he lost her because of that? No, if that was the case, it would have meant she loved him at some point. She did not. Love like his would not allow her to leave, so it was clear that she had never loved him. Why, then, had he felt so connected to her? Their souls were one. You could not fake that bond. Their lovemaking had been intense as expected of soul mates. Yet, everything was revealed as a lie. It did not make sense.
The black dragon curled on its side and wept for Maxxus, Josie, and all of Talonia. It was broken, yet it lived on. He could not risk changing back into a man. The dragon could withstand this pain. The man would die.
The first snowflake fell on to the ground in front of the dragon's snout. It was unnoticed. The second landed on its snout with a sizzle as it melted. This drew his attention. More followed, soon covering the ash and coating the fallen dead trees. It was gorgeous, but so frightening. It did not snow on Talonia. Freezing temperatures were impossible.
Maxxus buried his pain deep and locked it away. In doing so, he lost a piece of himself. For his home and people, it was necessary, and he was glad to give it. Josie was locked away with it. He could look right at her and feel nothing. She was simply another human to be dealt with, another mouth for the king to feed when food was getting scarce.
Up in the air he went, to survey what new damage was being done by this anomaly. The devastation had crept so close to the capital. It was almost touching the encampments made by the refugees. The city had remained green with vegetation under the guarding hands of the gardeners. The waterfalls surrounding it flowed, just as blue. The nearest volcano spit fire as usual. Yet, all was not well. He did not need Tae or Eveline to tell him what was happening. Even he could feel the pain emanating from the planet. It was struggling to live. The snow was making the capital blend in with the rest. It hit the log fires and melted but could not be kept off of the plants. As he watched, green turned to white and workers ran to the gardens, reaping what they could. Josie and the humans could be credited with one salvation. They had built a contraption called a greenhouse, and there they had planted seeds to grow in its warmth. He had laughed at the time, reminding them that Talonia would not freeze. He was wrong, again. The plants were not large, and they had not been intended for food. They were being grown to replace the devastation once Josie found a way to stop it.
Kelan, Hesher, and Tae were coming from the mines. Between the three of them, they were balancing a clear dome, its heaviness straining their muscular arms. Maxxus landed, transformed, and tried to help. "What is this thing?" he asked.
"It is supposed to cover what plants are too small to reap, much the same as the greenhouse. There are several more. We must get them in place before the roots of the plants freeze," Kelan replied.
"Where did they come from? Who ordered them built?"
"We made them in the mine. The queen ordered them, and she gave us the instructions to place them if the snows came," Tae answered
The reference to Josie as their queen came close to digging out what Maxxus had buried, but he covered it with anger, "Why was I not informed of this idea? This is my realm."
"We assumed you knew and approved. Josie told you the snows could come. You let them build the greenhouse. This was part of the same operation. She promised to save us, and she is doing all she can," Hesher growled. "You should be glad, not grumbling."
"I do not care to have anything done behind my back," Maxxus stated.
"It was not a secret. I guess you were too busy laughing at her to hear the whole plan when she mentioned the greenhouses. Whatever your problem is, let it go and help us with the rest. You are acting like the Maxxus of old, and it does not suit us," Hesher demanded.
"Do not disrespect me, Commander. I am the king, and I can take away the power I have given you or anyone else." Despite his attitude and sudden harsh words, Maxxus took some of the weight of the dome. He wordlessly helped place each and every one over the tender plants.
Talonians scurried in all directions, never running into one another or blocking a path. They were working as teams, choreographed by an invisible hand. Larger fires were made from wood stacked in the caves. The school children carried packages off the spaceship. Maxxus discovered the packages contained heavy coats and fur-lined blankets.
Women brewed hot drinks and passed them out to those in the tents. Dragons were in the air using their fire to melt as much of the snow as they could or keeping the pools from icing over. Josie had done all this. He knew it in his brain. She wanted Talonia to survive; she cared, but his heart remained hardened.
Out of habit, at least that is what he told himself, his eyes searched for her among the people. She was not there. Why? Had she given all the instructions so that she could pack up and leave without her conscience hurting? Or was she hiding from him, not wanting to face up to her deception?
Night was falling, and so was the temperature. The capital would stay warm due to Josie's preparations and dragon fire. It was time to see to the sick. So many of the oldest and youngest of their species were getting weak. Tests proved it was not radiation or any human illness. They simply would not eat, barely drank, and not even the energy from the waterfalls stayed with them for long. The older ones stopped transforming, and the fire behind the children's' eyes was growing dim.
Daer worked day and night, often with Josie by his side, to find what ailed them. She had stopped sending new formulas up to repair the atmosphere, thinking she was actually causing the problem to grow faster. The next one would be the cure, or she would not send one at all. Maxxus now believed she had surrendered.
Chapter 14
Josie
Daer had discovered Josie curled on the bathroom floor when he came to relay the latest test results. She was sobbing and clutching her stomach. He thought this was a new manifestation of the radiation poisoning, affecting humans in a more dramatic fashion. But, when he lifted her in his arms, she kept repeating, "My baby, please save my baby."
Understanding, he rushed to take her to the infirmary. "Jo
sie, where is Maxxus? I will send someone for him. Having him near will help calm you, and that may stop the contractions. I would rather they stopped on their own."
"No, you can't tell him! He doesn't know about the baby, and now I don't want him to. He's got some twisted notion that I'm abandoning the planet and so he's removing me from his life. He's sending me back to live on the ship. He doesn't want me anymore!" she cried.
"Nonsense. You had an argument. Maxxus is good at those. It will all be over once he knows about the baby, especially when he sees you like this," Daer replied.
"Finding out I kept our baby a secret will make his anger worse. He'll see it as a betrayal, and he'll be right. I'm being punished for hiding it. Please, don't let the baby pay for my sins. I can't lose it too," Jose begged. "Don't tell anyone. It will get back to Maxxus if you do."
Daer decided the argument could wait. The less stress Josie had, the better the chances of her keeping her pregnancy. He made the choice to intervene, administering a medication that stopped the contractions and allowed her to sleep. She was installed in a small room, formerly used for storage, to separate her from the other patients. Thus, when Maxxus came to check on the sick, he did not find her.
During her week of bed rest, Josie managed to get Daer to cooperate in keeping her secret just between them. It became apparent as the days passed that Maxxus was shutting everyone out and refusing to listen to reason. The whole city was aware that Josie no longer resided in the palace. The mention of her name became forbidden. Maxxus made his belief that she was leaving clear to everyone, acting oblivious to the fact that she was still there.
Daer grew angry and disgusted with the king's attitude. He had thought the days of Maxxus's aloof superiority were gone. So, he chose to side with Josie, letting Maxxus remain in the dark about her condition. She stayed out of sight, in her lab, as weeks turned into months. Isolated, with only blood, air, water, and plant samples to keep her company, she began to see a pattern. She was on the verge of a discovery that she had every reason to believe would restore Talonia to paradise and bring health to its citizens.
Her solitude was shattered by Daer himself. He came to the lab, falling into the doorway, shaking and practically unhinged. Josie paled, fearing Maxxus had discovered her secret and was coming to rip the baby from her and send her to Earth.
Instead, the panic belonged solely to Daer. "Hope is sick. She lays limp, refusing to be nursed. Her pulse is weakening, and her breathing is slow. Shara just sits and rocks her, staring off into space. I gave her everything I used on the others. She is not responding."
Josie let go of her own fears. They were nothing in comparison to Daer's. Baby Hope was all that mattered. If her huge belly was noticed and reported to Maxxus, so be it. She would fight the battle for custody later if necessary. She began tossing supplies into a large bag, making sure to include her breakthrough notes. If her suspicions were founded on truth, then Hope had a chance.
Bundling herself in fur wrappings, which magically disguised her eight-month pregnancy, she handed the bag to Daer and stepped out into the freezing light of day. Talonia was solid white, except for the struggling plants beneath the domes and in the greenhouse. She caught a glimpse of a waterfall, the one outside Kelan's balcony. It was pale blue, with icicles forming in spots. The nearest volcano belched out a small flame, barely a flicker compared to when she had arrived. Wood fires dotted the city and the campground outside it. The citizens she spotted were hollow-eyed and thin. Locked away in the spacecraft, Josie had been shielded from how bad the devastation had grown. Daer had not spoken of it, apparently to save her the anxiety.
Grabbing his arm as tightly as she could with her gloved hand, she demanded, "Why didn't you say something? I would have cut my rations to a fourth and sent the food from the ship to help. I would have brought some of the campers inside the ship. You should have told me."
"I could not for exactly the reasons you speak of. For that baby to grow normally, you needed the extra calories. You were at risk of losing it already, so I could not expose you to the sick. We do not know if it can be passed from one person to another."
"It can't. I'm almost positive I know what's happening. It's not really a virus or a bacterial infection."
"Then what is it? Can it be reversed? Can Hope be saved?" he rattled on.
"I need to see her and run a quick test, but I think I can help her."
Shara had to be coaxed to allow Josie to touch Hope and still only Daer could take the small blood sample she required. Shara clung to the baby as Josie swabbed the back of her throat to test her theory.
As she stirred, mixed, and studied her findings under the microscope, Daer gathered the results of previous tests to compare. There it was: the answer to all the devastation. It had been right under their noses the whole time. The planet and its occupants were symbiotic. That's why the weredragons felt the compulsion to fly through the waterfalls or sit in the ash of the volcanoes. It was why those stationed on Earth savored the water they took with them and had to be rotated from time to time. At this point, they were in better health than the ones on the planet. How Kelan had survived on Earth for years was a mystery.
"Okay, let me see if I can explain this," she said to Daer and Shara. "The same element that is in dragon fire and made it what we needed to destroy the Xycon on Earth is what we require to save Talonia. It's the element I found in your atmosphere and those close to it that is missing from Earth's. It's in the waterfalls, the dirt, the volcanoes, the plants, and all life here. You eat it, breathe it, drink it, and soak it in from everywhere. Then, you emit it through your breath, sweat, dragon fire, and other bodily functions. The planet and all life on it act as a unit: perfect symbiosis. The nuclear bomb broke the connection. The solution from Earth helped for a short time but was missing the vital element. It wasn't being reproduced in the cycle from weredragon to planet. Both are being sucked dry of it. Every time I sent a new formula into the atmosphere, it lessened the amount of the necessary element. The atmosphere, planet, and inhabitants weakened. Humans haven't gotten sick because this is our atmosphere. Like on Earth, we breathe in the oxygen from the plants and emit carbon dioxide for the plants to use, allowing us to live here. Since it's not just oxygen that you need, some have lost the ability to transform or send out dragon fire. Ironically, the ones outside are doing better than those who live in homes. They're still drawing what little is left of the element from the air and ground. It's their connection that's keeping the waterfalls and volcanoes halfway alive. Hope has been stuck inside almost since she arrived. Her body doesn't have any of the element left. If she doesn't get it, we could lose her. If she was half human like Tae's or Kelan's children, then her human side would simply become dominant, and she would survive."
"Can you take it from me?" Daer and Shara offered at the same time.
"Actually, I'll need small amounts from you both. I refuse to deplete what you have. Hope wouldn't want either parent to die because of her. It would haunt her all her life, so don't argue with me. I can use small amounts from each of you to quickly get her better, but it will take more to keep her going and save Talonia. It can be replicated and grown artificially using samples from the entire population. I'll make an injectable version to get us started, for the citizens. They'll breathe it out and add it to the atmosphere while we grow more to release mixed in with the previous formula. The element will build on itself and reconnect the planet with the Talonians."
"You want to test this theory on Hope," Shara stated flatly. "What if you are wrong? Does her life not matter to you?"
"Shara, my love, the alternative is worse. She will die without intervention," Daer explained.
"Give her all of mine, no artificial substitutes. She may have guilty feelings, but she would survive," Shara demanded.
"I wouldn't dream of doing her harm," Josie confided. "The mixture won't make anything worse. What I give her won't be artificial. The growing process is what's artificial; the eleme
nt is real. By artificial, I meant test tubes and lighting to force the real element to grow faster. There is no substitute to take its place. That's why the weredragons had to come to Earth and fight the Xycon. I'm sorry I used the wrong expressions and upset you needlessly. I'm so certain it's safe, I'll even inject myself with it. Look at me, Shara. Would I risk my own baby?" Josie removed her furs, revealing her large belly.
Shara's gasp echoed off the walls. She began to cry but nodded her agreement. Josie removed small samples, two from each of Hope's parents, from the back of their throats. That was where the organ that produced dragon fire was located and where the strongest source of the element resided. One of each was reserved in test tubes to grow, while the rest was mixed into a simple glucose solution and injected into Hope.
Maxxus
Now, the waiting began. However, the rest of the population needed help too. So Daer sent for the soldiers and took the required samples from them, then he brought in the campers, and finally the citizens who had not succumbed to the illness yet. He taught his friends how to take the samples in order to hurry the process along. He personally went to get a sample from Maxxus, trusting Josie to stay with Hope and Shara.
"I have no wish to be bothered," Maxxus stated when Daer arrived. "If you have come to bring more bad news, just leave. I have eyes and can see for myself that all hope is lost. Tomorrow I will announce the evacuation. Earth will have to find room for us. It seems I cannot rid myself of Josie after all."