Mareliux bends over me. “Are you all right, Umbra?”
“Can we not do this again?” I ask weakly. “Ever?”
He takes my arm and helps me up. “Agreed. I hope we will never have to.” He embraces me, hard. “I thought that was it for us.”
The five big shapes are wearing mirrored armor and carrying big, black guns. Five ropes hang down from above the trees, and I hear the deep whine of big engines somewhere up there.
Sigise takes her helmet off. “Greetings, Princess Umbra. We would have done this in a less dramatic way, but we saw you surrounded by enemies, and it was becoming urgent.” Her voice is no longer distorted by her helmet.
“I’m not complaining,” I assure her as I check myself for damage. I seem fine, except for all the leaves and debris in my hair. And the still shaking limbs.
The ground is littered with dead flying dinosaurs that look like they were fried to a crisp in mid-air. That’s how they smell, too — like rancid lard burning.
Caret’ax comes sliding down one of the ropes. “They wouldn’t let me come down with them, sir,” he growls before he lands on the ground. “They were worried I’d get in the way.”
“I think this was an enemy that should be fought with guns and not swords,” Mareliux says. “I certainly got nowhere with that. Even you might have struggled.”
Caret’ax kicks at a dead dactyl. “Perhaps. Taking down even one of these is the mark of a greatly skilled swordsman. I see you dispatched several. Well done, sir. Now, there’s no reason to stay. These woods are full of dangers, some worse than these.”
“I must say I agree. With your permission, sir?” Sigise talks to the AI on her chest, and there’s another terrible crash fromabove as a black gunship descends through the canopy above us, its armored hull breaking trees in half.
“TheGladiuxis in orbit,” Caret’ax says. “The Vyrpy were dealt with before they could do much damage. I wonder how long they were hiding there.”
“Since the fight on theKerberux,” Mareliux says, still holding me tight. “There’s no way they could have sneaked aboard on Grefve.”
“Sir, allow me,” says a squad member as she opens a first-aid kit that’s much bigger than the one in the escape pods. “You have several cuts.”
“Very well,” the prince says.
The medic gets busy with his wounds, treating them in a quick and efficient way that tells me she’s done this many times before.
The big gunship comes to a rest, hovering a few feet over the ground. Sigise’s squad helps me in, then Mareliux and finally Caret’ax.
“I’ll fly us up,” Sigise says as she walks to the cockpit. “The AI is good at hovering and landing, but I prefer to hold the controls when we take off.”
The door stays open as we leave the ground. Air whirls into the gunship, blowing my hair all around.
We’re about to break up through the canopy when someone walks into the fresh clearing the gunship left. He looks up, and I recognize the big shape I think I spotted before. His hair and clothing are being blown wildly by the hard downdraft from the gunship’s engines. He looks a lot like someone I know.
I’m about to alert the others when the gunship powers through the leaves and I lose sight of the ground.
The door closes, and I push myself closer to Mareliux, wanting to embrace him but worried that that’s not princess-like behavior. And the four other girls in Sigise’s squad are right here.
Mareliux has no such worries. He grabs me, sets me on his lap, and buries his face in my hair while he embraces me so I can just barely breathe.
“Thank the gods they came,” he growls. “That was really close.”
I rest my head on his chest. “I was so scared,” I whisper, my voice trembling against his bare skin.
His arms tighten around me, a solid, comforting embrace that chases away the lingering fear. I relax into his warmth. The jungle and its horrors are behind us, and all that matters is his presence.
- - -
The gunship enters theGladiux’s hangar so smoothly it impresses me. Of course they have the help of AIs, but still the process is so fast and accurate that I want to take notes for later.
We disembark, and after escorting us to the control room, the squad insists on doing a final sweep of the ship. They want to make absolutely sure there are no Vyrpy left onboard.
Mareliux gets busy laying in the course to Khav, discussing technical issues with Bellatriz.
