Page 48

The jungle map shows the entrance to a cave, as well as a second, smaller cave close to the first one. A larger arrow points to the smaller cave system.

They have a new home.

Perhaps their new home is far enough away from the dragon to offer them some safety. I take a huge breath in. I thought if I could only get up to the mountain, I’d be reunited with the three, gorgeous warriors and finally be in safety.

Instead, I’ve got another long battle to face.

There’s something else glowing under the table, so I crouch. I find a small bag under there, which I pick up and put on the table, opening it. There’s dried meat and the hilt of a weapon in there…

I gasp. An Orb-weapon – with a tiny shard of shimmering, blacker-than-black Orb in it.

My hand freezes as I witness an Orb. I just watched one tear apart a guard and wreak havok on a room. This Orb sits patiently in the hilt of the weapon, as though it has only one purpose. I stare suspiciously for a moment, then grab the hilt and hold it up.

How do I get this thing to work?

I squeeze the hilt, feeling foolish. Then I remember that the Orbs are somehowintelligent, even the shards of the small ones.

Turn on, please.

The Orb-weapon suddenly snarls to life, emitting with a low, dangerous hum.

The shimmering black-blue blade is a foot long, the perfect size for me. It ripples and glows with that eerie blue light, and I almost feel like it’s beenwaitingfor me; that it longs for me to take it in my hand and feed it…

Feed it in blood.

I shiver, and feel the power of this Orb-weapon resonating through me.

The Aurelians left me just enough so that I could have a chance to survive back on this alien world.

Now I’ve got a choice. I can wait here, and hope that they come back before my rations run out…

…or I can rush to them, and finally be reunited; whatever the danger I might face in doing so.

I swallow hard, realizing I’ve already made my choice.

I turn and set off immediately – leaving behind the safety of this cave; the one I’ve fantasized and dreamed of coming back to for so many years.

No turning back – that’s the promise I made to myself, when I struck that bargain with the Orb back on Earth.

“Haleon. Brigg. Stryker. I’m going to get back to you. I’msosorry I ever left.”

I’m talking to no one in particular – just wishing that the cavern I’d returned to had still been filled with the warmth of torches, and the voices of the three gorgeous men who once protected it.

I push my bag of supplies through the crack they’d left me in the boulder entrance, and then sling it over my shoulder. My left hand holds my pistol steady, while my right holds the Orb-blade they’d fashioned for me.

If something comes for me – and I fear it might – I’ll be ready for it.

I walk fast, clambering down the mountainside as quickly as I safely can, knowing that the less time I spend out here in the open, the better my odds of surviving.

The oversized, glowing sun is already lowering. Soon, it’ll disappear beneath the horizon and those two, twin moons will climb into the shimmering, star-filled sky.

I shudder, as I remember that the dragon hunts in darkness.

I make it down the mountainside, my legs burning with exertion. There was no ambush by mountain lions this time. Perhaps they’d seen what I did to the first one who tried to test me; and realized I wasn’t such an easy dinner.

Then I hear it.

That sound… The sound that’s as vivid to me as the rest of the memories of this place.