“Scarlett!Where are you?”
“Narenda.”
“I know you’re on Narenda,” Saber said in his scariest voice.“Where on Narenda?”
“Near the volcano.”
“Crap, it’s erupting.”
Scarlett blinked.“You’re here?”
“Yes.We—”
“Who is with you?Listen, this is important.Are you getting headaches?”
“Yes, now you mention it.Casey is suffering the worst, though all of us are getting headaches of various degrees.Is the dragon with you?”
“Yes, Ransom, and one other.Before you sleep, make sure you build a barrier around your mind.It’s an alien feeding on you.That’s how he gets his energy, and he’s starving.He’s a Maphra.Let me talk to Casey.”
Ransom leaned forward, listening intently.Talon appeared to be eavesdropping too.
“Casey, it’s a Maphra prince feeding on you.Are you having nightmares too?”
“Crap, my unit and I ran into some of these guys on a different planet.Half of my men died before we worked out what was happening.”
“What did you do?”
“Another race—the Elevenoss helped us make a potion.It helps, but doesn’t stop the feeding.I grabbed my medical bag.I might be able to make up something to help.”
“Feline shapeshifters seem to have an in-built defense.Get every feline with you to build a mental barrier before they go to sleep.I—”
The ground rippled beneath them, their feet riding the wave rippling beneath the surface.Rocks and the sparse plants buckled upward about a hundred meters from them.
“Frying fungus,” Casey muttered.“That was a bad one.”
“Scarlett, what’s going on?”It was Saber again.“Are you okay?”
Scarlett checked for Ransom’s reaction, and he nodded.
“Tell him,” Ransom said.
“We’re about to break a Maphra prince out of stasis and try to kill him before he slaughters us.”
“Wait for our arrival.”
“We can’t.He knows we’re here,” Scarlett said.
“What’s your plan?”Saber demanded.
“We’re winging it.”
Ransom heard a loud hoot and shocked disbelief coming through his com-circle.
Scarlett grimaced.“Not funny.He’s demanding we release him.He’ll have guards, and our assumption is they’ll wake when we enter the chamber where they’re buried.”
“Wait, the guy is underground?”
“Yup.Under a mound of rock with statues guarding the front.We have to find the entrance and dig our way in to release him.That’s as far as we’ve got with our plan.”
