I stared at Elora, then let my face drop back on the wooden skiff with a sigh. Jake cast a horned shadow over me, so I stretched my arms to be in the sun’s rays. Did she propose to me in that cave? Or was Elora messing with me? Either one could have been true.

  Elora crossed her arms, frowning. Akilah caught up, along with Frag and Fig. They all got in my sunlight. Ugh.

  “Dath, did you do something stupid again?” Count on Akilah to call me out.

  “I don’t know her language, so, maybe?” I confessed, opening an eye to look at them.

  Jake peeled back my shirt and tugged the last of the spines from my back. He took a knife to my belt.

  I choked, “Don’t cut that! I’ll take it off.”

  I eased up, the tickle of blood on my sides changing course to trickle following gravity. Paused. Glared at the rest of them, with my hands on the buckle. “Are you here for the show? Cash first, guys.”

  “So you don’t want to marry the Queen?” Elora clarified.

  Akilah snorted. She knew me. Jake smirked. He knew, too.

  “Dath says romance is for suckers. Not likely,” Jake said smugly.

  I cocked a thumb at Jake and nodded. Elora’s brows pinched, and she huffed.

  “Well, we have to fix this,” she muttered, stomping away, as well as anyone could stomp sand.

  Akilah kissed her teeth and watched Elora trudge over the sand toward the fishing village. She tipped her staff in my direction and said, “You’re a jackass, but we love you anyway."

  “Aw. You guys don’t have to fix it for me. I’ll figure it out, somehow,” I said, unbuckling my pants.

  Akilah shot me a look. They were probably right. Diplomacy wasn’t always my strong point. Elora got along with everyone, was easier to talk to than anyone. If anyone could straighten this out, maybe it was her.

  I had too much to do to bother settling down with a powerful, influential reptilian Queen who owned her own district. That sounded insane. Not like my plan to destroy the System.

  I squinted, rubbing my temple. I had to destroy the System. The abductor major. The one that screwed us all over and ruined our lives as we knew them to randomly collect DNA for unknown creepy purposes. I had a righteous, self-imposed quest.

  Akilah turned, slipping an arm through Fig’s to drag her away. Frag followed them, and I turned away from Jake to drop my pants, feeling self-conscious. My ‘bestie is my doctor’ kind of uncomfortable. Why was it that strangers were better when it came to stuff like this?

  I eased down on my stomach again, bare-assed, and he quickly finished the job. I climbed out of the skiff to kneel in the sand beside him, legs tucked under like an old Japanese warrior. Kept the sand out of the holes in my pants.

  “You recovered well. Thought you’d die there, for a little bit.” I said, looking out over the ocean and the spikes of crystals rising from it. I raised an arm to shield my eyes and stared out into the distance, wondering where the invisible city wall was out there.

  “I did, too. But I thought, since you died and you came back okay, maybe it’s not so bad,” Jake said, having settled his back to the skiff, wings flared and draped so he wasn’t leaning on them.

  “We have a long way to go, Jake. Stay safe,” I said, eyes fixed on the horizon. “Who knows what it will be like out there, beyond the city? You’re the one who keeps the rest of us alive. Without you, we’re screwed.”

  Jake didn’t say anything. I didn’t look to see what his face said, either. That was my final word. This was my dumb obsession. No one else had to die for it—even if we did start with five lives.

  We sat there for a while, until the healing itch started to get to me, and I stood up to stretch. A grin tugged my lips. That might’ve been the best fight I’d ever had.

  “Let’s go see if Elora talked the Queen down from the proposal thing,” I said, glancing at him.

  Jake rose, wings flaring and settling against his back again. He’d been staring at the cliffs. I followed his line of sight. Perfect launch point.

  My singular focus fractured.

  “Dude! Fuck that, let’s see you fly!” I forgot about the Queen of Shardshore, turning to face him. His expression lit up, fangish smile blazing.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yeah!” He laughed and ran for the bank. He bounded up the grassy rise and didn’t stop climbing until he got to the top of the caverns, a good thirty feet in the air.

  I watched, feeling a twinge of nerves. If he fell… if his wings failed… Whatever. I’d pick him up and dust him off and give him a jab of his own medicine. He’d be alright, as long as he didn’t land on his head or accidentally impale himself one of the spines rising out of the water.

  He stood up there, wind ruffling his hair, nearly translucent in the pale sun’s rays. Black wings spread, and he stood there, body tilting just slightly, arms spreading wide, breeze buffeting the thin membrane stretched between slender bones. He fell forward.

  Leap of faith just fell and let the wind take him. And it did. A shout—something between wild surprise and giddy joy—ripped from his throat as the air caught him. Carried him. Jake swooped over my head, angling out over the water, rising, falling, wobbling, but gliding. Like the first time a child rides a bike, he was awkward, but doing it.

  He stayed airborne maybe thirty seconds before turning back to shore. Wings spread, limbs flailing, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be a pretty landing. It wasn’t. He hit the sand hard and crumpled, rolling until he stopped.

  I ran over and dropped to my knees beside him. “You okay?”

  “Gotta work on that part,” he grunted. He sat up and brushed sand off his arms. A fat clump of sand stuck to his cheek like a slap mark.

  I couldn’t stop grinning. “That was cool, but yeah—landing practice. We’re in a good place for it.”

  “I’m gonna try again,” he stated, pushing up to his feet.

  “Do it,” I agreed.

  We stayed on the beach until the sun hung low. My wounds healed well in the meantime. By the time night fell, we’d sat beside the skiff again, watching the little fishing village light up. No electricity like some districts. They were more old school, like bauring. Torches and lamps with real fire flickered to life, casting shifting shadows across the stilt houses one by one.

  After a while of silence, I asked, “Where did everyone go, anyhow?”

  “The village. Probably negotiating your bride price,” Jake chuckled.

  I hadn’t forgotten, but I’d kind of put it off as a later problem. It could be solved whenever, or so I figured. With a long sigh, I pushed to my feet and offered him a hand.

  “Guess I should go see how much I’ve been sold for.”

  He snickered, and we strolled the beach in the incredible twilight toward the tall, stilted houses clustered like driftwood flowers around the smoking ovens in the heart of Shardshore village. It had a similar rustic charm to the yurts and buffalo lizards, but the smell of the herd animals was replaced by the reek of fish.

  When we got there, the villagers that spotted us pointed at me. I attempted to not be unnerved. After all, I’d boxed myself in with Shivrith and survived. That had to account for a lot of the pointing and smiles. The Queen probably only offered marriage because I was green. I had a fun time coming up with excuses for my sudden popularity, but I did accept a strip of the smoked fish I was offered by someone. I was hungry.

  Back at Bauring Tok Kraup Patarshan, I’d counted a dozen real individuals among the NPCs. Here, there were more—easily twice the abductees as my district mingling around the smoke ovens, sitting on wood benches weaving nets, and doing a handful of various chores.

  With no sign of the other Outliers, I figured they must have gone to the main house, set higher on the hill, well above the sand. Jake and I climbed the path, fringed by tall sea grasses. The district lord’s house was long, nothing like the small shacks propped on stilts below. Big enough to serve as a meeting hall as well as the Queen’s abode.

  My steps slowed. Jake bumped into my shoulder, then gave me a questioning look. I tilted my head to hear. Zeke’s talking box was speaking the gurgle-hiss of the reptilians. I could hear the Queen’s reply, but not what it meant.

  Jake nudged my shoulder and passed me, whispering, “Come on.”

  I held up a finger. Eavesdropping before we showed up might be better than not knowing where the negotiations stood. Jake huffed and continued up the hill and through the open doorway. I listened a moment longer, but then Elora said, “We keep going in circles.”

  Great. Resigned, I started up the hill and stopped in the doorway of the building marked on my map as Windfoam. I guessed it was like Gleamholt, a named building belonging only to the district lord. Kinda formulaic names. System didn’t have much imagination when making those up.

  I glanced at the striking horizon before stepping in. Another grouping of lights winked in the distance, half shrouded by the suggestion of trees in the night. It was in the fog of my minimap, but a fair guess that it was Lacunae. With a deep breath drawn, I turned to face the heart of my current predicament.

  Hythsaa curled on a dais of seashells, and seated to either side of her, upon a shiny teak wood floor, my party. Jake had just settled down beside Fig. The Queen sat on her hip, probably because sitting like the rest of us with that thick tail she had would be impossible. Honestly didn’t know how Jake did it, with his long, rattish tail.

  I nodded, unsure of what customs I should be observing, and went to sit beside Akilah, until the Queen waved me toward her. Was gonna be like that, huh? I raised an eyebrow at the group, then shot a look at Zeke.

  “So, what’s the story? Is this just a formality, or do I really—I mean. Hi.” I said, easing to the spot she’d patted on the dais. And then she leaned on me instead of her elbow, as she had been. A low, gurgling thrum rolled from her throat, and I froze in a panic.

  Maybe it was because I was green.

  Akilah looked mildly upset. Jake looked worried. Elora looked horrified. Glasses giggled and didn’t bother to hide it. I didn’t bother to check Frag and Fig’s expressions after that.

  Zeke, standing nearby, said, “You said yes. This cowboy’s translator ain’t the finest, ol’ hoss. Negotiations fell through. Train robbery.”

  For want of a good translator, I was still engaged to the affectionate reptilian Queen.

  Sounded about right.

  -ARCHIVE-