Dragons of Mars Box Set

by Leslie Chase

  Anything that kept her from being easily spotted by her enemies was an edge she'd take.

  The ship's sensors pinged in the quiet of the cabin, and Laura tried to make sense of them. A lot of the survey gear was specialized and far beyond her ability to use, but she quickly found that some of the basic functions were intuitive. And one of them, she was glad to find, scanned the area for obstacles. Breathing a sigh of relief, she switched that on.

  Now that she could set the autopilot to avoid hitting anything ahead of her, Laura turned her attention back to the pirate lair. She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't avoid it: somewhere back there, Rorax was fighting for her life.

  I should be with him, she thought. Fighting beside him, helping him. It wasn't easy for her to accept that she wouldn't be able to do much, even after she'd seen what a dragon could do. Rationally, Laura knew that without weapons she wouldn't stand a chance, but her emotions weren't listening to that. The idea that Rorax was in danger because of her tore at her heart.

  Watching the rear monitors, she saw movement above the pirate cave. Zooming in, Laura swallowed as she saw a dragon gaining height and circling, peering down into the sands below.

  That's not Rorax, she realized, her heart freezing in her chest. Somehow she was sure of that even before she saw the dragon's unwounded wings. They'd gotten past Rorax, somehow, and they were looking for her. If she could see them, then they might be able to spot her too.

  Slowing the Bradbury, Laura tried to blend in with the dust in the air. Speed wouldn't help her now, she not if she attracted the dragon's attention. It was hard to tell how well hidden her ship was, but the flying dragon didn't seem to notice her. Flying higher, it circled and peered down at the storm below, and was soon joined by others.

  Laura frowned. They shouldn't have been searching so hard, not if Rorax had told them the truth. Maybe these were the aliens who'd stolen the Bradbury, wanting to get their pirate ship back?

  Or maybe Rorax hadn't had a chance to tell the pirates that Adele was safely out of their reach. Laura swallowed her rising feeling of dread and carefully slowed the skyship even further before looking back and focusing her sensors on the cave mouth.

  The dust storm obscured her view, but the sensors were able to piece together something from through it. She could make out a writhing mass of dragons fighting outside the cave, one pinned by several others. Laura swore under her breath. Of course the pirates weren't fighting fair, damn them.

  And damn Rorax too, she thought, glaring at the screen. He must have known they wouldn't give him a chance to talk. He was just telling me a story that got me to leave him behind to go to his death.

  His plan seemed to have worked, at least. The searching dragons didn't know where to look, and she'd made enough distance that they wouldn't find her easily. Rorax's sacrifice had bought her life, though it came at the cost of his own.

  No. Damn it, I'm not going to accept that, she told herself, blinking back tears. It's not fair, it's not right, and it's not happening.

  Perhaps if she ran now she could make it back to Olympus before they caught up with her. Perhaps not. But she knew if she turned her back on Rorax now and let the pirates tear him to pieces, it wouldn't matter. The most important part of her would have died here with him.

  And she wasn't about to let that happen.

  Turning the ship back, she slowly built up speed and lowered the vessel until its belly was almost scraping the rocky surface below. She couldn't afford to be seen now.

  Laura's heart pounded, but her hands were steady on the controls. A small smile appeared on her lips as she focused on steering through the sandstorm. At least now she was traveling in the one direction that her enemies would never expect — directly towards them.

  Rorax still struggled under the dragons pinning him, but Laura could see that it was only a matter of time before the fight reached its inevitable conclusion. Outnumbered as he was, she couldn't hope that he'd win. Even fighting free and retreating was too much to expect. As she watched, his struggles weakened, though he didn't give up the fight. Laura knew that he never would, not so long as there was life left in his body.

  I'm sorry, Rorax, she thought. He was fighting for her life, and she was turning her back on that gift. You'll just have to forgive me, or not. At least you'll be alive to make that choice.

  Aiming the prow for the largest of the dragons, the one she knew must be Korgan, she pushed down the throttle and felt the skyship surge forward. In the thin air it made no sound, and she was nearly on him before one of the dragons noticed and pointed in her direction.

  Korgan twisted aside, desperately flinging himself out of the way and abandoning his grip on Rorax to do so. He was almost fast enough. Instead of striking him head on, the Bradbury clipped him, knocking him aside and sending the huge dragon slamming into the rocks beside the cave mouth. Laura yelled in triumph as Rorax took advantage of the distraction to tear at the throat of the dragon pinning him to the ground.

  Laura heaved at the controls, pulling the ship around in a wide circle and cursing its slow response. But the ship wasn't made for combat, and she didn't know how to pilot it properly anyway. By the time she had it turned back towards the fight, the dragons were ready for her second pass.

  Doesn't matter, she thought, aiming at the nearest dragon and leaning on the throttle. Ready or not, I'm coming for you.

  The dragon in her sights leaped skyward, and his powerful wings would have taken him right over the Bradbury if Rorax hadn't caught hold of his tail and dragged him back down into her path. The look on the dragon's face was almost comical as the prow hit him squarely in the chest, and Laura felt the crunch of the impact shake the skyship. The dragon fell to the ground, broken and unmoving.

  That's two down, Laura thought, seeing the body of another dragon with his throat torn out. That must have been the one who'd been holding Rorax down.

  But a third dragon had made it into the air, and that was bad news. Laura tried to see where he'd gotten to, cursing the fact that the Bradbury's bridge had no windows in its roof. The survey equipment was designed for looking at the ground, not the sky, and the designers hadn't expected pirates to be a problem.

  Rorax took to the skies and she relaxed a little. As long as he wasn't badly outnumbered, she'd bet on him against any of the pirates. Time to get out of here, she thought, steering away from the cavern mouth. Rorax can cover the sky, and maybe we can actually get away with this.

  Ahead of her, a giant gray wall emerged from the pirate lair. The biggest of the pirates' stolen ships pulled out at full speed, and it was all she could do not to run into it headlong. There was no way to avoid the ships colliding side to side and the Bradbury's hull scraped across it with a grinding sound. Laura felt her ship shudder with the impact and then panels tore away from her hull.

  Wind whistled through the bridge as, stressed, some of the outer bulkheads failed. Cracks appeared and by trained instinct, Laura grabbed at her belt for her helmet.

  It wasn't there.

  Shit.

  Of course it wasn't. Korgan had it hidden somewhere. Laura swallowed her panic and leaped at the emergency locker at the back of the bridge as the pressure alarms sounded, red lights flashing. Sometime after the ship had been taken, someone had pillaged it pretty thoroughly. The emergency supplies that should have been there — a spare suit, hull patches, a first aid kit — had been removed and replaced with bottles of alien booze.

  Laura bit back another curse and turned to the crack in the hull. It wasn't big, that was the only good news. The air was escaping faster than the oxygen tanks could replace it, but not so fast that she didn't have time to act. The only problem was, there wasn't much she could do, and the crack was widening visibly as the ship shook with stress.

  Off to the side, the ship she'd hit turned back towards her. Laura grabbed the controls and pulled away from it, glad that the Bradbury was smaller and nimbler than that monster of a ship. But the strain of
the turn tore the gaps wider, and now the whole ship was shuddering as it pulled itself apart.

  What does it matter if I can get away from them? I'll just die when the air runs out, and there's no way I'll make it back to Olympus before that happens. If I'm going to die here, I might as well achieve something doing it.

  At least Rorax would live. She'd saved him, and he'd avenge her. She managed a grim smile at the thought — she'd managed to save Adele first and then Rorax. If it cost her life, well, that was still two for one. Not bad. And I can make those bastards pay on my way out, too.

  With that, she steered towards the enemy ship. It was bigger, much bigger than the Bradbury, but she could see the deep gouges the earlier impact had made in its side. Aiming for those, she pushed down the throttle as far as it would go, ignoring the alarms warning her of a collision.

  The Bradbury wouldn't survive this impact, that was for sure, but she doubted the pirate ship would either. Baring her teeth in a snarl, she watched as the pilot of the larger ship realized too late what danger he was in, trying to steer away.

  Just before the two ships met, Laura felt an impact above her. Looking up, she watched with horror as a dragon's talons tore through the roof of the bridge, wrenching it open. The prow of the Bradbury met the pirate ship's hull with a horrible shudder, and as the two vessels started to sink, the dragon grabbed her from her place at the controls and leaped into the sky.

  She saw the hole in the dragon's wing, and her heart sank. It was Rorax, returning to save her again. Giving up his chance to escape and coming back for her.

  Neither of them were getting away today.

  Remembering her survival drills, Laura didn't try and hold her breath. That would only make things worse, she'd been told — the vacuum would tear the air from her lungs and wreck them too. So she exhaled as she squirmed in Rorax's grip and he dove towards the safety of the pirates' cave and its atmospheric shield.

  Behind them, the big ship hit the rocks and, with a bright flash, it's engines overloaded. Laura felt a faint and distant satisfaction at the sight as everything went dark around her.

  18

  Rorax

  The cage hung high above the pirate camp, and it made a good prison. The bars were too thick for Rorax to tear apart in his humanoid form and it was too small to contain his warform. He'd almost certainly crush himself if he tried shifting, and he couldn't risk trying it anyway. Not with Laura in the cage with him.

  It was possible, barely, that he would survive the shift. But she definitely wouldn't.

  Things had moved quickly once he'd carried her back into the cave. Rorax hadn't had much of a plan when he snatched her from the bridge of her dying stolen ship. Once he'd landed amongst the massed pirates, surrendering had been the only choice. And now here they were, waiting to meet their fate. The pirates below were arguing heatedly about what, exactly, that should be.

  At least I got to see the smile wiped off Korgan's face, Rorax thought with a grim smile of his own. It wasn't much of a silver lining, but he'd rather dwell on that than the failure of his plan to get Laura to safety.

  On the floor of the cage, Laura stirred and her eyes flickered open. It took her a couple of tries to focus on him, and she frowned as she pulled herself to her feet. The two of them looked at each other from opposite sides of the cage.

  "Why the hell did you come back?" The two spoke in unison, glaring as they snapped. A little smile appeared on Laura's lips at that.

  "It's not funny," Rorax said with a growl, though it was hard to keep from smiling himself. He growled and turned away. "I didn't want you in danger, Laura."

  "I know," she said, and he felt the cage shift as she stepped up behind him. Her hand rested on his back and he felt some of the tension and fear drain out of him as she continued. "But I don't want to see you in danger either, Rorax. Don't think that I'm going to let you go to your death for me, not when I can do something to stop it."

  "Only now they hate us both," Rorax rumbled, looking at the pirates gathering around their fire below. "The only reason you're still alive is that they haven't given up on the ransom. And the only reason I'm alive is that they haven't decided how they're going to kill me yet."

  Laura shivered and leaned against him, her arm sliding around his waist and holding him tight. "I'm sorry, Rorax," she whispered. "I hoped you'd be able to get away."

  He hugged her back, turning to face her and smiling a sad smile. The pain in her eyes stabbed at him, and for a moment he wondered if he should have taken the chance to flee. But how could he turn his back on his mate? Even the thought of it made his heart hurt. No, he'd die before he abandoned her.

  Unfortunately, he had the sinking feeling that she felt the same way about him.

  "I won't ever leave you," he said, trying to explain. "I don't care what that costs me, I'm going to fight to protect you from anything and anyone who threatens to harm you. You don't have to protect me from the consequences of that."

  "You arrogant idiot, I don't want you to die for me," she hissed, tears welling in her eyes. Despite her angry words, she hugged him tighter. "I'm supposed to protect the people I care about."

  "Not me," Rorax told her firmly. "I'll stand between you and harm. I'm not looking to die for you, Laura, but if I have to I will."

  Before she could answer, the cage shuddered under them. Chains squeaked and squealed as they were lowered toward the ground. The pirates had finished their argument and watched them descend, anger in their eyes. It looked like all of the dragons under Korgan’s command had gathered for this. Even Grorg and Tamak were there, at the back, trying to avoid Rorax’s eye.

  Shaking his head, he looked away from them. He’d known that he wouldn’t be able to trust them from the start, but it still stung a little. I guess they’ve made their choice.

  Beside him, Rorax felt Laura tense and held her tight, trying to think of something comforting to say. But he didn't want to lie to her, and he couldn't think of anything honest to say that would reassure her.

  At least we're together, he thought. That was something, even if he'd rather that she'd lived.

  The cage hit the floor with a crash and Korgan stepped out of the crowd surrounding them. He had lost his mocking friendly look and now glared with undisguised hatred at the pair of them. Rorax couldn't blame him, not when he could see the damage they'd done between them. Korgan's right wing was twisted where the Bradbury had struck him, and the marks of Rorax's claws marred his chest.

  "I should kill you both here and now," Korgan began. His voice was all the more dangerous for not being loud — he was too angry to show off. "But my men want to be paid and I need to replace the ships you've cost us, so the girl gets to live and go home. I hope that'll bring you some satisfaction, little brother, as you die for your treachery."

  Rorax let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding, trying to keep his relief from showing. Laura still had a chance. As long as the pirates hadn't yet worked out that she wasn't Adele, that there was no ransom, there was hope. She might get away if the human attack gave her the opportunity to run. A slim chance, one he didn't believe would work, but better than nothing.

  That he wouldn't be there to see it was a small price to pay. And he wasn't going to give up on his own life just yet.

  "It's no treachery to try and save my mate from you," he said, narrowing his eyes and gripping the bars of the cage in his hands. "But if you want me, brother, come and get me. A fair fight, dragon against dragon, winner takes it all. Or are you afraid to face me?"

  Korgan laughed, a cold and hard sound that echoed from the crystal pillars around the camp. "You don't deserve that honor, not after you turned your back on your family and on our hospitality. You wrecked two of our ships, you've insulted all of us, and you tried to steal our greatest prize. Do you really think I'll let you challenge me to single combat to resolve all that?"

  "Coward," Rorax spat at him, hoping that he could push his brother into a rage that wouldn't let h
im back down from the fight. It was the only chance he could see, the only way out that might work. But looking over Korgan's shoulder, he saw the raw anger and hatred of the rest of the pirates. Maybe it would have worked before they'd lost comrades and ships to him, but now too many of them had reason to see him dead.

  Korgan saw his glance and a shadow of a smile flashed across his face.

  "No, brother, you won't get out of this with a quick death in combat," he said. "We're going to take our time with you."

  A quick gesture brought his crew forward, the same nasty smile on each of their faces. Rorax took a step back, crouching and getting ready for a fight, but there was nowhere to go. Surrounded by enemies and trapped in the cage, his only hope was to put up enough of a fight that they had no choice but to kill him.

  Maybe he'd even be able to take some of them with him.

  The lead dragon unlocked the cage and pulled the door open, and Rorax gathered himself to charge out into the enemies. Before he could launch himself at them, though, Laura stepped into the way.

  "Back off," she shouted at the advancing dragons. The first through the cage door chuckled and grabbed for her, only for her to duck under his arm. Her hands took his wrist and, with a subtle twist, pushed him into the side of the cage in an armlock.

  The rest of the dragons froze in astonishment, staring at her. "Do you think you can stop us taking your man?" the one she was holding hissed, pushing back against her. Rorax stepped forward to help Laura restrain him, but she didn't seem to need assistance. Twisting hard she made her prisoner yelp in pain and he stopped struggling.

  "I can't keep you off him," she said, addressing her words to the pirates gathering outside. "We can all see that. I'm just a fragile human. But I bet I can put up enough of a fight that you'll kill me by accident. And then none of you get paid."