“Driok,” I say, but he isn’t paying attention. “Driok!” I pull at his arm, but he continues regardless.
The two aliens are getting closer, and now I look at them, their long front legs look like knives. This is not going to be pretty.
“DRIOK,” I bellow, and this time he does turn, spots the aliens behind me, and I’m swung around behind him as he releases an enormous sheet of flame.
All hell, quite literally, breaks loose. Alarms which sound like klaxons, alarms which sound like birds chirping, alarms which sound like cats fighting all go off at once.
“We need to get out of here,” Driok says.
I don’t need telling twice.
DRIOK
Iwas expecting the baron to double-cross me, but perhaps not as swiftly as he has done. I had mostly expected him to let us get away from Xracak City before doing something unspeakable.
Sending the Lxlt after us at his own gathering seems overkill, but then I get the impression the baron has encountered Sarkarnii before.
Maybe he decided to play his hand early after all.
However, regardless of his plans, I have spent my time putting my own in place. With my hand around Maggie’s wrist, I run out of the secondary, rear airlock as it closes down. I release a further burst of flame at the thing, and it shuts down tightly. No one will be following us through that exit.
“Where are we going?” Maggie asks as we head down the passage with the internal atrium on one side.
“We need to get to the spaceport.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
“I believe flying is the best option.”
Behind us there is the sound of pulsar weapons being discharged.
“How are we going to get to the flyer?”
“We don’t need a flyer.” I grin at her. “I only used one earlier because I didn’t want to attract attention.”
“You mean you think Xracak City would bat an eyelid at a dragon?”
“Hardly, but enough of their inhabitants might be too interested for my liking.” We reach the end of the passage and turn right towards a floor to ceiling window. “However…” I release another sheet of flame at the reinforced plas-glas. “We are out of options and leaving anyway.”
The window bursts, and there is a gigantic rush of wind. I gather Maggie in my arms and make a run for it, leaping through the gap and into the traffic which buffets me back and forth. I close my body around Maggie to protect her as we descend down the side of the building until finally we’re in a clear enough airspace for me to shift into my Sarkarnii form, unfurling my wings as I clutch Maggie in my claws.
“Hold on,” I rumble as I beat hard to gain height.
“Watch out,” Maggie shouts back.
A pulsar bolt sears over my wing, causing me to swing to the left.
“Give me some room.” Maggie is wriggling in my hand. She has the pulsar pistol out.
“You won’t hit anything at this dist?—”
She fires, and behind us there is the sound of an explosion.
“You were saying?” Maggie clutches at one of my claws, which cage her like she belongs to me, which she does.
I quickly check behind me and see a flyer disintegrating. Unfortunately there are two more behind it which are clearly following us.
Xracak City might be huge, but it’s not lawless, even if those who care not for laws abound. A place like this simply could not operate with the efficiency it does if lawlessness was tolerated. I beat my wings up for a second or two until I reach a multiplelane of flyer traffic, one which winds its way in the direction we need to go, and one which is controlled centrally. I maneuver myself underneath the stream of flyers and increase my speed.
