Caveman Alien’s Riddle (Caverman Aliens Book 13)

by Calista Skye

I drain the cup and look around for the pot the booze came from. “You’ve all been sitting tight here ever since?”

  “The dragons are surrounding us,” Beatrice says, refilling my cup. “We can’t go out. Kyandros and Aragadon are the only reason they haven’t broken in here and invaded Bune, itself. Those two have been extremely busy keeping their compatriots away. And they’re not as strong as they could be. They may have wives that give them strength, but they also need hoards to be at their most powerful. They spend most of their time in human form.”

  I take a big sip. The alcohol isn’t really helping my mood, after all. “They do?”

  “More and more time as men,” Delyah says. “Less and less time in dragon form. Whenever they come back after a patrol, flying around, they’re exhausted and have to rest for hours. And even then, they can’t get much rest inside here. This place was built by their enemies, and they strongly dislike it. Almost as much as they dislike being this close to each other.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to realize how lonely dragons can be,” I agree. “There’s no trust.”

  “We have a lot of guns and gunpowder,” Heidi says, kissing her child on the head. “But against dragons, those aren’t effective, after all. They’re mostly to scare them. We’d need cannons to really hurt a dragon. To be blunt, if the dragons attacked us now, we would lose.”

  I touch my hand to my forehead, but there’s no soreness there anymore. “About those guns. The barrels should be strengthened. Mine blew up in my face.”

  “Yeah, we saw it on the ground,” Beatrice says, stroking unruly black hair out of her face. “And we had the same thought. But the nearest forge is in the village, and it would need to be rebuilt before the guys could repair the guns.”

  Delyah picks another strand of grass and twirls it around the first. “The dragons abhor this spaceship. But its walls aren’t totally dragon-proof. We know that. If they want to break in, they can. It’s only a question of time before they do. By all rights, we should get in the escape ship and pull the Eject handle. But damn it! We were the best village on the planet! We showed both the cavemen and the dragons a thing or two about how to run a civilization. Are we going to give up on that? I think some of us are willing to fight for this planet and the future.”

  “It’s our home as much as anyone else’s,” Heidi says. “But things are not looking great right now. If the Plood are here, and Jennifer’s dragon will go to Earth and conquer it, then we’ve never been in worse trouble. Going back to Earth might feel like coming from the frying pan and into the fire if it’s been invaded. And both Kyandros and Aragadon say that the ship seems to be in working order.”

  I drain the second cup of booze, not feeling the least bit better. “Have they checked that recently?”

  Delyah looks up. “Why?”

  “Because according to Caronerax,” I say carefully, “the Plood think the escape ship won’t work.”

  She frowns. “Do they say why?”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  She thinks about it. “The Plood are by far the most advanced civilization we know about. If they are a civilization, I mean. But they can abduct people with beams and they can travel light years through space in a matter of hours. We know nothing about their capabilities, except that they appear to be breathtakingly advanced.”

  “And they may have done something to break our escape ship,” I ponder. “With some kind of advanced weapon. Right after they got here, which I think was recently. They must be aware of Bune, anyway. They must have checked it out when they arrived.”

  “Definitely,” Beatrice agrees. “Can we get our dragons to check it again?”

  Delyah gets to her feet. “Now we have to. Yeah, this day isn’t getting any better. But I’m really happy to see you in good shape, Jennifer. You did good! Actually, you did great. Riding a freaking bobont? Are you nuts?”

  She reaches down and squeezes my shoulder.

  Her approval feels good, and I manage to smile. “Well, at least I uncovered a weakness in our guns.”

  And that’s all I have to show for my absence. All the other girls have come home with inventions or incredible fiances or discoveries that make our lives better. Or all three, usually.

  Me? Oh, maybe the barrels of our guns are too weak. Oh, and you can make snowshoes to walk in that one swamp a hundred miles away. Oh, and you can ride on a bobont if you just ended things with the love of your life and you have a death wish.

  Not a great result to come home with. Especially not in combination with a broken heart.

  The baby starts making impatient noises, and Heidi laboriously stands up. “I think someone needs a nap. Me, I mean. What this baby needs is too disgusting to mention. God, I’m glad you’re back, Jen. We need to be at full strength. Right now I feel like we can do anything!”

  She sashays off, towards the little huts the girls have built because the fake sunlight on this level is hard to adjust and still harder to sleep in.

  “So,” Beatrice says and grabs my pale hand with her dark caramel one. “A dragon, huh? Was he magnificent?”

  I give her a tight smile. “He was pretty magnificent. I mean, I never got a good look at him in dragon form. But he didn’t need that to be… really cool.”

  “What was his color?”

  “Sky blue. WIth yellow lightning bolts.”

  Her dark eyes glitter. “I like him already. Did he kill predators with his bare hands?”

  “Constantly.”

  “Did he always come back to you, even if you thought he was gone forever?”

  “Were you watching us from behind a tree? Yeah, he kept doing that.”

  She grins. “So typical dragon. Did he totally suspect you at first, but then he started to trust you, despite himself?”

  “Well… yeah.”

  She squeezes my hand. “Did you want to do nice things for him, but you had no idea what he needed?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did he make you feel the safest you’ve ever been?”

  My face starts scrunching up. “It’s pretty fresh, I can’t—”

  “Did he make you forget everything else in the world, including the crazy dangers?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Did he casually save your life like it was nothing?”

  I nod jerkily.

  “Did he look at you in wonder? Did he do things for you in a really gruff manner, to camouflage the care he took? Did he sniff your hair like it was the most incredible thing he’d seen?”

  The first tear rolls down my cheek. “Fuck…”

  She leans in and hugs me tight. “No need to bottle it up, girl. I got you. Hey, I think you got more dragon than just about anyone who’s ever lived. That’s got to be tough.”

  I shake uncontrollably with each sob. “He was… he stayed with me, and he was so sick… he could have… could have run so fucking fast through… through the woods and across the swamp. He could have gotten to his cache in a single day if he’d left me behind. He could have healed much sooner. He didn’t need me to find the way. He wanted to make me safe and take me home. Even if it made him sicker every day.”

  “I don’t think he knew that,” Beatrice says. “Dragons do all kinds of stuff that comes from deep within them, but they aren’t aware of it. They don’t do a lot of soul searching, these guys.”

  25

  - Caronerax -

  I open the metal box, and endless peace fills me. Everything is there. Nobody has stolen from my cache.

  I stick my hand into it and luxuriate in the smoothness and coolness of the gold. There are coins, nuggets, bullion, bars, rings, necklaces, and even a little crown. There are elaborate figurines of alien creatures, shields and drinking cups, utensils and weapons. I know where each little piece comes from. I love it all, every tiniest grain of gold dust in its crystal vial.

  I feel immensely rich and powerful. And this is only a small part of my hoard.

  I long for it, of course. I long to lay on top of my ho
ard and just own.

  But that day will come.

  Now, I must heal.

  The Change to dragon form comes easy, and I beat my wings to fly a joyful loop in the sky.

  But the moment I take off, my chest stings like never before and I fall on my back, screaming and kicking my four legs in the air, tail and wings cramping and twitching uncontrollably.

  The pain is unbearable. It’s much worse in dragon form, as if my chest is being ripped apart from the inside.

  The dragon hates it with a passion. I kick and scream, fighting desperately to right myself. I have never been in this position before, and my powerful wings are no help.

  To my infinite shame, I have to Change back to human form to escape the pain.

  I lie there, panting and whimpering as the pain slowly, slowly retreats until it levels off at only excruciating.

  I roll over and stiffly get back on my feet.

  This is not what I thought would happen. Not at all. I don’t feel healed. And the cache doesn’t give me the power I thought. If anything, I’m sicker now.

  I slam my fist into a tree in frustration, and it snaps and falls over. I’m as weak as one of those ridiculous not-sheep things! Soon I’ll be fainting at the sight of a predator.

  I dive into the cache again, covering my hands in gold. It soothes, but it doesn’t heal. It gives me power to Change, but that only makes it worse. The wounds on my wrists are still seeping ichor into the box.

  And soon I have to present my plan to the other dragons. I plainly can’t do it in dragon form. That would be much more convincing, of course. But the pain is simply so bad it sears my mind and takes control.

  I have to stand before my fellow dragons and try to convince them to come with me, boot-less and with a dirty pair of pants, looking weak and bleeding from my chest and wrists.

  I take a deep breath to calm myself.

  It will not be convincing. But they will accept. They have no choice

  Once on Earth, I will avail myself of the medical wonders there that Jennifer mentioned. They will pick the demonic poison out of my chest, I will Change with no pain, and then I will be king.

  Yes.

  Jennifer. Where is she now?

  In that terrible Inferior ship called Bune, no doubt. With her friends. The ones she likes more than me.

  I slam my fist into another tree, and it shakes without breaking. Wild with rage, I embrace the trunk and break it off at the root, then throw the tree up at the sky.

  Well, she will regret her decision. When I am king of Earth and she is… not.

  I take a long, thick gold necklace out of the box and wind it around my thigh, so that it will be hidden under my pants. I need the strength it gives.

  Then I lift the box out of the hole, put it under my arm, and make my way to the deserted village where Jennifer lived.

  She will regret not loving me.

  26

  - Jennifer -

  “Yeah, it could be broken,” Mia confirms. “But we’re not sure.”

  We’re up in the control room of Bune, all the Earth girls. This is the place where we can feel like we have some kind of control, at least.

  We’re sitting on alien consoles or the floor, munching on fruits and berries and looking totally out of place in these super high-tech surroundings, what with our dinosaur-skin dresses, ridiculously furry pantsuits, and pitiful attempts at jeans and shirts.

  “Kyandros and Aragadon are pretty weak these days,” Eleanor continues. “If they had their full strength, they could put a hand on the escape ship and tell whether or not it was broken. That’s what Kyandros did a few months back, stating it was fine. Now, he’s not sure. Neither is Aragadon. It’s not that it feels broken, they say. It’s more that their ability to sense it has diminished. It could be the ship, or it could be them.”

  Probably them, I think to myself. I’ve seen both the dragons now, after I returned. They look tired and ragged, and that’s a weird thing for a dragon. Whenever they’re not out flying on short patrols, they’re curled up in hidden spots as far away from each other as they can get inside Bune, while their wives sit and embrace them tightly as a way for the shifter to recharge.

  “It looks no different than before,” Ashlynn says, looking just as tired as the dragons. “If there’s damage done to it, I can’t tell. The power source looks fine, too. Still glowing and being weird.”

  “We’re no worse or no better off than before,” Aurora says, trusty crossbow in hand. “That ship was always going to be a total gamble. A very last resort.”

  “I think we’re a little worse off every day,” Delyah says mildly. “The dragons outside are getting more daring, coming closer. And just today a band of cavemen came pretty close to this ship. It looked like they were scouting. But the bad part is that they didn’t fight the dragons. The two groups were within fifty yards of each other, and it looked like they were both aware of it. They didn’t fight. If anything, it looked like they were measuring each other up. Not even as enemies, but in some other way.”

  “Ach, verdammt! That’s all we need,” Heidi groans. “The dragons and the cavemen joining forces against us. Then our only allies are the spidermonkeys, who have already told us they expect us to deal with all of this on our own.”

  “And the Plood are here again,” Caroline adds. “They are most definitely not on friendly terms with us. Or rather, we are not on friendly terms with them.”

  The control room is silent as we all consider the implications.

  “Even so,” I pipe up, “did I do the wrong thing when I told Caronerax where he could stick his Plood? I mean, he only offered to take me along. But if I could have negotiated with them, maybe they would have been willing to bring all of us along. I don’t know.”

  Emilia comes over and puts her arm around my shoulders. “You did the only right thing. I am never trusting myself to the Plood. If we have enemies in this universe, they are the worst ones. I want no fucking Plood anywhere near me, ever!”

  “No fucking Plood,” some of the girls repeat with feeling. “No fucking Plood!”

  We all chant if for a little while, and it releases some of the tension in my stomach. I wasn’t off when I recoiled so totally from having anything to do with the abductors that brought us here.

  “In fairness, these are not the same ones,” I state for completion.

  “That’s right,” Delyah says. “Those that abducted us died when not-Alesya shot their ship down. I know we usually shouldn’t judge a whole group by the actions of some. But in this case, we will. Didn’t you say they are a hive species? If so, they act as one. The Plood are our mortal enemies. No fucking Plood.”

  “Do we know how the weapons on this ship work?” I ask. “Wasn’t there a beam weapon of some kind?”

  “There was,” Aurora says and nods to a distant part of the control room. “The controls are right over there. We think we know how it worked. But it seems to be out of order. If not, we would have shot down a good few dragons already, just to show them.”

  “Let’s sum up,” Delyah suggests. “We are all safe and sound. We have this old spaceship with many big levels, where we can live indefinitely. We have medical supplies and food and scenic places to spend time. We have guns and gunpowder, but they’re not too effective against dragons. Well, mostly. We have thirty caveman slayers, including our husbands. We have two full dragons on our side. We have crossbows and spears. And soap!”

  A loud cheer goes up at the mention of that, and we all slap Dolly on the back in sincere appreciation.

  She blushes. “That’s mostly Jennifer’s brand. I haven’t made that much Døl’äy yet.”

  The girls cheer again, and this time it’s my back they’re slapping.

  “That’s all well and good,” Sophia says as we calm down. “On the other hand, we are under siege. We can’t leave this ship without being attacked by dragons and maybe cavemen. Are we willing to spend the rest of our lives here? And our children, too? It’s
a nice spaceship. It’s huge and it sustains us. But do you know what else it is? A prison.”

  The control room is silent again. We are in a serious bind here.

  And I can’t help noticing some of the girls are sending me quick, casual glances.

  Fuck. This probably has to happen.

  Well, why not? I’m already dead on the inside. Might as well go the whole way.

  I clear my throat. “Okay. We might have a third possible ally. It’s a stretch, but Caronerax is an agent of his king, who I think is his father. But don’t quote me on that, it was a tense moment, and I may have misheard.”

  “Now, Jennifer...” Delyah begins.

  I hold my hand up to stop her. “No, we have to try this. He might be a game changer for us. I could go to him again and throw myself at his mercy. If he’s still here and not on the way to Earth to plunder it. I’ll find him and beg him—”

  Boom!

  We all scream and stagger as the whole spaceship shakes from some terrible impact.

  Delyah runs to the controls, and the rest of us pick ourselves up from the floor.

  “Another earthquake?” I suggest, my heart beating fast.

  “Cavemen,” Delyah says. “Lots of them. Looks like they have brought a big battering ram. And they really want to get in.”

  27

  - Caronerax -

  The village is still there, although deserted. The house that almost collapsed on top of Jennifer is now a heap of rubble, and so is everything else.

  Their main campfire outside the large cave is cold and wet.

  I just stand there for a good while. She lived here for a long time, with her friends. They drew some joy from their community in a way I’ll never be able to understand.

  ‘I love those girls,’ she said. To me, it’s entirely mysterious. But it is also irresistible, in a strange way.

  I’ve hidden my cache again. It’s less well guarded now, but it doesn’t matter much at this time. I must make sure the others don’t know there is a lot of gold in the vicinity, or they will definitely get some ideas into their heads.