They traveled directly east after leaving the harbor.

  Mereque didn’t understand why they weren’t heading south—back toward the Blanched Land, where the enemy had most likely taken Grace. But he held his questions. Silence felt wiser in the company of these monsters, at least until he better understood their mood and motivations.

  Communication was critical, yet for reasons beyond his grasp, his translation suite deciphered nothing from the beast. The machine offered no response he could comprehend either. He searched for the flashing lights, but the construct had gone silent, offering nothing.

  The dragon’s back was more comfortable than he would have imagined. With spines running from crown to tail tip, he had ample handholds to secure himself during the voyage, though he had no idea how long it might last.

  Higher altitude winds whipped past. He thought of the friend left behind. The departure had been hasty. He regretted not having more time to discuss it with Captain Jenker. But the fire-breathing lizard had been insistent, waving an arm with increasing intensity, pointing between Mereque and its own backside.

  The gesture needed no words.

  Before leaving, the spaceman turned and called out. “I’m going with them to save Grace. Thank you for everything.”

  “What do you mean you’re going with them? They’re monsters!”

  His alarm was sharp. Honest.

  “That’s true.”, Mereque said (voice lower).

  “She’s a fairy!”

  “And I’m a giant.”

  “Fine! If you get eaten by them, that’s on you!”, Jenker concluded, making his position clear.

  “It is.”, he conceded.

  The Havenite relented, realizing no argument would sway him.

  “Aah! Have it your way. Thanks for saving my skin, big man. Be careful. I’ll pray to Old Father you make it through safe. Hope we see each other again.”

  “We will. I owe it to you. Wouldn’t have made it this far without your help.”

  “Can it! No regrets!”

  The captain snapped, speaking like he was issuing commands.

  “What about your admirals?”

  “Leave them to me. They’re my problem now.”

  “You have my thanks.”

  That was how they parted—one man climbing upon a dragon’s back and ascending with the flap of great wings into the skies, the other marching across his ship’s deck shouting orders.

  The Blanched and their forces had withdrawn as quickly as they had appeared. The Harbour was intact, despite the damage that was caused. The Havenites were preoccupied with headcounts, assessing repairs and keeping vigil (against other incursions).

  From the little chatter he overheard, they had lost a good number of their people. More worrying than those who had fallen in battle, were those who had been dragged away in chains. It gave him a shiver thinking what those people would be subjected to.

  For that brief window, their eyes and minds had been committed elsewhere. It had been an opportune time for their quiet departure. He would miss the new bonds forged with Jenker and his crew, but saving Grace was the right thing to do.

  He didn’t have to think twice about it.

  Mereque gripped a spine tighter as the dragon skimmed through a cloud.

  He had to lower his head to avoid the flickering ash and smoke whipping from the dragon’s snout against his face.

  The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. He was going to rescue a fairy who had helped him escape the same beast he rode upon now. It seemed ridiculous.

  Realistically, they were his best chance.

  But worry gnawed.

  Could they be trusted? He didn’t think so. It was a good start, but his options were less than optimal. Frankly, if he was being honest with himself, they were abysmal.

  He checked his HUD again:

  SIGNATURE #1: DRAGON (RED)

  FIRE BREATHING DETECTED

  THREAT LEVEL: HIGH

  INTENT: VOLATILE

  RECOMMENDATION: MAINTAIN VIGILANCE

  SIGNATURE #2: UNKNOWN CONSTRUCT

  MORPHING CAPABILITY DETECTED

  THREAT LEVEL: UNDETERMINED

  INTENT: UNKNOWN

  RECOMMENDATION: OBSERVE

  EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSION: 61% EFFECTIVE

  PRIORITY: RESCUE GRACE

  And what fate awaited Havenlocke Harbour? The friends he had made aboard the Urchin Gull? The consequences for Jenker’s defiance? He would have to bear that uncertainty until he could visit them again. He promised himself he would.

  The dragon hadn’t given him a second glance since leaving the submersible city. It was either supremely confident in his passenger’s grip, or it didn’t care at all if he fell.

  Looking back as they flew, Mereque was certain the dragon and its mechanical companion had broken the siege decisively. Leaving the defenders in a position to drive the remaining hostiles away. Few that remained.

  They had effectively saved their backsides. He gave them that.

  Jumping on the beast had been one of the most impulsive and harrowing decisions he had made since planetfall.

  It wasn’t so long ago he was running for his life from the thing (or so he had believed). But what else was he supposed to assume when it came out of the sky the way it had, belching flames and leaving him terrified?

  He did what felt natural. Run. Live.

  Now he was riding the damn monster because he felt a deep responsibility to help the Leprechaun’s Daughter.

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  She had extended friendship—literally—at his darkest moment. In his mind, there was no justifying turning away.

  With so few friends in this world, Mereque couldn’t afford to lose any. Especially not the first.

  For all his military training. His harshly disciplined exterior. Exacerbated by augmentations. Mereque possessed a capacity for caring easily as large as his enhanced frame.

  “I’m too damn soft.”, he muttered under his breath.

  As they continued eastward, he drew a deep breath to settle his nerves. He scanned the ocean and islands below. Logging geography into electronic storage, mapping the world as it passed.

  Day edged toward night. Water caps caught the falling light, reflecting pretty oranges and reds. A touch of pink winked up now and then.

  His grip remained as firm as when he first climbed on.

  Before darkness fully claimed the sky, Mereque saw they were headed for a large cloud front. It didn’t alarm him overmuch—no storm signs, no churning turbulence. Yet something about its placement felt wrong. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly, but by all reasonable observation it looked like any innocuous nimbus. Though he saw little movement within, and the winds here were strong.

  When they flew directly into it, the last thing he anticipated was the cloud simply vanishing.

  Revealed in its place, suspended high above the earth in now open skies, rose a massive mountainous rock—many kilometers tall, tapering at both top and bottom from a wider center. A floating mountain.

  The spaceman was stunned.

  This defied everything Leopold Seven had taught.

  He hadn’t seen anything like this prior to, or during the descent from the Cazues. Even though the planet hadn’t matched their records—changed in profound ways—they had scanned nothing quite like this from orbit.

  Cave mouths peppered the surface, some flickering with occasional light from deep inside, as if activity stirred within.

  Speeding toward it without slowing, Mereque tightened his grip on the spines and flattened himself against the beast’s back without thinking—a timely decision.

  His ride suddenly turned sharply upward as they closed in.

  Ascending vertically at breakneck pace.

  The wind roared. Breath caught in his throat.

  The rocky exterior raced past mere inches away.

  Mereque held on and cursed softly.

  He would later swear the low grumbling noises from the beast were the sounds of its laughter.

  The machine followed silently beside them.

  It had changed again somehow, back into a more aerodynamic configuration for the journey. No longer resembling the weapons platform that had cleared off the deck of the Urchin Gull. Its appearance now reminded him of an interceptor.

  Wings sprouting from a central fuselage, ports for thrusters to the rear, he surmised. Others beneath, for precise directional control.

  The similarity ended there though, it was different from anything his people had created.

  While it had the look of something man-made, it maneuvered unlike anything made by human hands. He had seen the speeds it could achieve. The hard angular turns.

  The intensity of the energy it produced was off the charts. What powered it was beyond him.

  Its performance easily outmatched the very best technology Leopold Seven had to offer. It defied physics as he knew it.

  He wondered how Grace had fared as a passenger between them.

  It must have been an awful ordeal for her.

  Though for the brief time he’d seen her, before that clank-head Tarmour had ripped her away, she didn’t appear to be hurt.

  He noticed the dragon had one eye on him, narrowed, head slightly tilted. His stomach knotted. The blasted beast better not be thinking of knocking him off! Not now! Not from up here!

  As they climbed higher along the vertical length of the flying mountain, gray, brown, and black rock zipped past his face. Close enough to touch. He tried not shutting his eyes.

  Then at last—after passing the midpoint and reaching halfway to the top—a massive cave entrance came into sight abruptly before them.

  The Red Dragon spotted it and veered hard.

  Its wings snapped against the cold air.

  Mereque wished he had a harness to keep himself tied down.

  He was nearly sent flying from its back.

  Though shaken, with muscles strained, he still managed to hold on.

  Seconds later, pace finally slowing, the three were headed deeper within.

  The cave mouth was just the beginning.

  Beyond—a tunnel bored straight into the stone—large enough for all of them.

  The walls and ceilings were dark, smooth, and rounded. The floor below flat—stone in parts, unfamiliar steel paneling in others. The passageway led straight in.

  It took a sharp right turn after a short length, then continued along a gradual curve that appeared to spiral into the mountain’s heart.

  Intersecting with a handful of other passages along the way, they followed it for some time.

  Finally—after over a half hour traveling the labyrinthine interior—they arrived at a larger cavity.

  This space was like an earthen cathedral.

  A vast vaulted cavern, with a forest of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Some reaching far enough to form complete pillars at the ground level. It made him think that they were entering some earth monster’s mouth, where a thousand teeth ready to chew them apart.

  There were no other tunnels connecting to it, not that he could see.

  From floor level, Mereque judged the roof to be 200 meters up. The cavity itself, maybe half a kilometer in diameter.

  Geologically ancient, he thought. He was no expert though. It made him wish Tarcen was here.

  The thought of his crew was like a gut-punch. He shook it off. Looked around some more.

  The rock had been melted in places. Metals reinforced certain areas. More plating, similar to what he’d seen in the tunnels.

  He spotted a single large mechanical panel towards the center—lights strobing across its surface. As he studied it, he noticed subtle filaments woven throughout.

  Attached to it were thick transparent cables. These snaked along the floor, nearly invisible, save for flashes of blue, yellow, and white pulses racing along their lengths. He didn’t know where they went.

  The fire-breathing drake circled through the chamber. Climbing high enough for Mereque to hit his head against the ceiling—if he were to sit up. Before descending—quite gently—to land on a broad rock shelf.

  Wings pumped hard as they touched down, huge, clawed feet scraped against stone.

  He had no idea where he was. What they might do. Yet Grace’s last words lingered.

  He could trust them. She had said so.

  He clung to that. It was all he had.

  The dragon turned its head. Stared.

  Was it glaring at him?

  Did he just walk into a trap?

  He had to push those thoughts away. Figure this out. Rationally. He focused on what was happening, not what his fears might conjure up.

  Its eyes were narrowing, as if wanting something. Then a slight nod of its snout.

  Mereque finally understood.

  It wanted him off.

  In the next instant, he leapt from its back.

  He let out a breath—he didn’t know he was holding—when he felt his feet touch solid ground.

  With a snort, the oversized fire-breathing lizard launched upward. In a single flap it landed on another overhang. Higher, with a hard upturned lip.

  Its muscular bulk perched at the edge, threatening to break the rock itself. Pebbles and dust trickled down, bouncing off his cracked faceplate.

  The monster released a roar that shook the cavern. Mereque could feel the vibrations through the stones. A Cloud of dust came down from the ceiling.

  It was a frightening display of raw power.

  He wondered how long it would take before it decided it was hungry—and if he wasn’t on the menu, what the hell did dragons eat?

  He had to be careful, one wrong move and he could be ash.

  It stared down at him with its discerning reptilian eyes. A curl at the corner of lips. Judging.

  “WHAT NOW!?”

  Mereque didn’t know what else to do, or where to go from here.

  His voice echoed throughout the cavern. He could feel his pulse still racing, and the sweat cooling on his skin. Unconsciously his hand had moved closer to the holster where his Pelter rested.

  The Red Dragon growled (getting his attention), as smoke curled from its nostrils. Then it turned its head, facing towards the tunnel opening from where they had come.

  He spotted the machine slowly cruising into sight. External lights flashed through the dark. Its smooth frame sparkled. He wondered what secrets it might hide.

  The machine had changed again. This time its shape was rounder, more compact, more suited for tight movements. Such as would be necessary inside a tunnel or cave.

  He was dumbfounded by the ease with which it transformed itself. Masterfully fit for purpose, he thought. Who could have built it?

  It reminded him of a giant egg.

  He looked between the two. Both were terrifying for their own reasons, but he couldn’t help but smirk.

  Mereque thought, ‘I wonder what came first?’

  He let out a small laugh.

  The dragon looked down at him strangely.

  The growl deepened.

  His HUD pulsed (a persistent amber):

  THREAT ASSESSMENT: DRAGON VOLATILITY INCREASING

  INTENT: UNPREDICTABLE

  EMOTIONAL STATE: HEIGHTENED

  RECOMMENDATION: DO NOT PROVOKE!