It hit the outcrop dead-on and knocked off the end of it, the rocks bouncing and clattering down the hillside. Not quite as much damage as she’d hoped, but good enough. Her dragon crowed with success and swooped down to grab another rock. Sunniva, her thoughts whirling, regretted the absence of a power network that would have enabled her to deal with this far more easily, while being impressed with her dragon’s direct approach. She didn’t need to hit even the machine itself, just trap it or force it out of cover.
The next boulder left a crack that ran the length of the ledge. Sunniva was about to turn for another when the machine broke free of the outcrop, heading downhill, and her dragon pounced. The machine shot up into the air, evading her claws by the barest fraction, and she chased it up into the sky. Power from the rear thrusters blurred the air currents around them.
The chase was exhilarating, pushing her abilities to their limits. Her dragon wove around the flying machine in an intricate figure eight. The metal was dented in more than a few places, and a lucky hit had taken out the port housing the front blaster. A human pilot was briefly visible through the tinted glass front hatch, a man with a thin, intent face and dark hair. She raked a claw along the metal skin, testing its thickness, and saw him tense his shoulders and stab at a control panel.
The thrusters intensified with a whine, and the machine spiraled away. Her bracelet suddenly sprang to life, the opal buzzing and a warning yellow. Punishment triggered.
Sunniva’s dragon was intent on following the machine, ignoring the opal and her aching wing. Sunniva wrestled her head sideways, searching for Marcus. She could see the crawler in the distance and a flash of blond hair by the side of the trailer. She tried to turn and go to him.
Nearly there. Her dragon resisted. The machine was still ahead, pivoting and twisting in an attempt to throw her off, heading rapidly back along the ridgeline.
The opal’s color was now a bright orange. We have to help him. Sunniva tried to reach out to Marcus through the opal, the way Dreki communicated with each other, but although she got a vague sense of someone in pain anything more precise was like trying to capture fog.
She shifted her focus to her dragon, but found to her dismay that this was equally difficult. Her dragon’s mind was a tangle of emotions, almost overwhelming in intensity, and all fixated on the machine.
Chase. Want. Hunt. Need.
Sunniva had to get to Marcus and find out what was wrong. The opal was still intensifying, the color deepening, and by now the pain must be excruciating.
Her dragon was matching every move the machine made, almost dancing with it, and her emotions were at fever-pitch. Sunniva found it hard to hold on. She pictured Marcus, forcing that image into the mental storm with all the concern she could muster.
We have to go. Please.
Finally her dragon’s focus shifted reluctantly from the machine. We’ll find it again, Sunniva assured her. Her dragon back-winged, shrieking defiance at the machine, then turned and dove for the distant crawler.
Sunniva was trying to ignore the strain the powerful beats put on her injured wing, but she was tiring. She fought her way through the air. Peripherally, she was aware that the machine had also turned, and was following in her wake. Her dragon snarled as it drew closer, and Sunniva fretted that if the blaster was still working she’d given it an excellent target.
She’d also led it directly to Marcus. As she came closer the flying machine dived abruptly, heading for the carrier. Sunniva folded her wings and dropped like a stone.
It wasn’t fast enough. The flying machine hit the trail in a barely controlled skid, kicking up pebbles and dust as it slowed to a stop, the hatch popped open and the man she’d seen half-fell out, heading for the crawler in a stumbling run. Sunniva came in behind him, hind claws grabbing on to the ground. She brought her front claws up, ready to strike, the opal a throbbing red.
Her dragon snarled in protest, and for an instant Sunniva lost her grip.
Don’t kill him!
He attacked us! Sunniva said, incredulous.
Marcus had lifted his head at the noise. He grimaced as he held up the blaster, tracking the man.
“Marcus?” The man from the machine was almost to the crawler. “It’s really you?” Disbelief and hope warred in his voice.
Marcus’ hand was shaking on the blaster. He had his eyes tightly shut, Sunniva realized, and then she remembered Giels’ briefing.
He’ll kill any human without a modifier.
“Marcus. It’s me. Say something, please,” the man from the machine said, his voice cracking, and Marcus’ hand spasmed shut, pulling the trigger.
Save him!
Her dragon had spoken, but Sunniva was already moving, the two of them acting as one creature again, shifting as she leapt. She hit the man with human hands but most of the force of her dragon’s weight behind her, knocking him flat, and the pulse of energy from the blaster passed through space she was no longer occupying. The man lay motionless beneath her.
Marcus had both hands on his blaster, his eyes still shut and his whole body shaking. Sunniva could feel the opal pulsing through the bracelet; despite the pain inflicted on him he was continuing to fight its control.
Stop. She put all the mental force into it that she had.
The opal shrugged off her command. Cursing Giels, Sunniva tried again, with equal lack of success, and scrambled up off the man, who groaned. Dazed brown eyes met hers as he rolled over.
“Marcus?”