Marcus flexed his shoulders, testing. “What should I do?”
“Something I haven’t ordered you to do.” Sunniva’s hand tightened around the opal.
Marcus gave her a wicked look, then dug in one of the bags on the back of the crawler and picked out an apple. He studied it for a second before biting in.
Sunniva felt the opal flare — and her matrix activated in response, muting the signal. The opal pulsed, once, and returned to baseline.
Marcus lifted one eyebrow and swallowed his mouthful of apple. The opal vibrated with unresolved tension.
“Do you feel anything?”
He shook his head. “A twinge. It’s more the memory of it rather than the pain itself.”
It worked. Sunniva sighed with relief. She pulled out the matrix and set both stones back into her bracelet.
Marcus met her gaze, his face full of barely suppressed excitement. “All right.” He hooked two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. Sunniva put one hand up to her ear in protest, not really meaning it.
A shadow detached itself from one of the nearby rock columns. Rafe.
Marcus had left the blaster on the crawler. Sunniva pushed the opal back into her bracelet, keeping her hand on the stone.
Rafe made it no more than a dozen steps when Marcus loped over to grab him in a massive bear hug, lifting the smaller man up off the ground.
Rafe protested, but it lacked sincerity. “Put me down, you great oaf.” He pushed, and Marcus let him go. “I should have known you’d try to kill me again.”
His tone was light, the words obviously teasing, but Marcus looked momentarily stricken. “You know I didn’t mean —”
“I know.” Rafe interrupted. “Besides, it makes a refreshing change from you trying to kill yourself for my sake. Handing yourself over to one of those murdering lizards.”
Marcus’ glance at Sunniva could have been involuntary.
Rafe said something under his breath, and then walked over to stand in front of her. He was a fraction taller than her, and his brown hair was ruffled by the wind. Now that she was looking for it, she could see a greyish undertone to his brown skin, and his lean figure was really too thin to be healthy.
“My apologies.” He dipped his head slightly. “I misjudged you earlier. I also shot you, although by Marcus’ standards that’s probably the equivalent of
saying ‘hello’.”
From inside his jacket he extracted a roll of material, which he unrolled on his palm.
Her dragonmesh.
“This is for you.” He sounded more formal.
Sunniva didn’t pick it up. “I meant for you to keep it.”
That got her an incredulous look. “You what?”
She hadn’t been entirely sure until she said it, but it felt right. “I attacked you, too.” she pointed out.
“After I shot you.” Rafe’s fingers lingered on the mesh. Sunniva could see familiar chemical stains on his thumb. “Perfectly understandable. Also, mainly you toyed with me. I’ve never felt such empathy for pigeons.” He rolled it back up and tucked it into his jacket.
Ask him, her dragon said, insistent.
Soon. She was thinking about the chemical stains. “What do you power your flying craft with?”
The brown eyes that met hers were very carefully clear of any hint of deception. “Avgas. Stockpiled from the dark ages.”
“Of course.” Sunniva didn’t believe him in the slightest. Forbidden technology. “I’d like to fly with you again.”