8
See part one for explanation and disclaimers. I don't own 'Dinotopia', James Gurney does. Hallmark still owns the characters and I'm still not profiting from this. Hope you're enjoying this. Still recommended for teens and up for action/violence and mild language.
Karl was as close to the pack as he could get without breaking cover. Barrett, Le Sage, and her group of Outsiders had traveled on foot, so the skybax rider had followed them on foot. Dad was right---they had headed to a beach near Zuru, quite a long walk from Le Sage's palace. The forest ended a few hundred yards from a plateau that sloped down to the beach. It was the exact beach Marion had said---the one where Karl, Jack, and Cyrus had gone off in the latter's submarine to find sunstones. Another group of Outsiders was waiting in the clearing. Karl couldn't follow when Barrett and Le Sage stepped out into the open space to meet them without being seen, so he stayed put, crouching among the underbrush near the edge of the forest.
This second group of Outsiders made Le Sage's pack look like clean-cut choirboys by comparison. A lanky, scarred, scary-looking man wearing clothing that just had to be made of dinosaur hide moved to meet Barrett and Le Sage halfway. Karl had never seen him before, but was pretty sure the blonde was Gabriel Dane. Dad was right about him, too---he didn't look like someone to screw around with. Even Barrett looked nervous upon seeing Dane, Karl could see it in the young Outsider's eyes, even at this distance. Karl was glad that he'd ordered Pterra to fly Marion back to Waterfall City once she was done playing decoy at the palace. Marion would kill him when she found out, since she was expecting Pterra to bring her back to Karl so she could help catch Barrett, but Karl didn't want Dane getting his hands on her again any more than he wanted Barrett around her…maybe even less.
How was he supposed to cut the Outsider from his pack long enough to arrest him? Karl turned over the problem in his mind. There were way too many Outsiders, between Le Sage and Dane's packs, for Karl to try to snatch Barrett. Pterra was supposed to rendezvous with Romana, which would be his wingmate's cue to bring in the cavalry. Until they got there, Karl had no choice but to sit tight…
One of the Outsiders pointed to the sky. "Skybaxes!" Karl heard him shout.
All eyes, including Karl's, turned skyward. The horizon was dotted with the shapes of pterosaurs…at least a dozen. He grinned. The cavalry was almost here. Now, it was just a matter of finding the opportunity to get to David Barrett, stick his ass onto a skybax, drag him back to Waterfall City, fix whatever that space rock had messed up, and Karl would be glad to never see the man again after that…
The Outsiders were heading towards the tree line, towards the cover of the forest---all of them except Gabriel Dane. The blonde turned to face the oncoming riders with a fearlessness that unnerved Karl. He was as unconcerned as a man waiting for a bus, not like a man facing a small army of pterosaurs.
"Nobody moves!" Dane barked. His men obeyed at once, but didn't appear to share his confidence. Dane waved for Barrett and Le Sage, in particular, to stay in their place on the ridge. "Let them come."
Dane snapped his fingers. Immediately, the Outsiders carrying torches used them to light the bonfires they'd prepared. Thick smoke billowed into the sky…thick green smoke. It had created a haze like fog along the shore by the time Romana's pterosaur and the other skybaxes arched towards the beach.
"What are you doing, Dane?" Karl whispered to himself.
He got his answer as soon as the skybaxes hit the plumes of smoke. The pterosaurs recoiled from the smoke like mosquitoes avoiding citronella candles. Romana's mount bucked wildly, nearly pitching her off its back, trying to do a one-eighty back out over the open water to get away from the smoke. Around Romana, the other skybaxes were veering wildly, disoriented, and the riders were suddenly more concerned with staying aboard the dinosaurs than with the Outsiders. Dane beamed at his handiwork, and his pack and Le Sage's cheered wildly…all except Barrett and Le Sage. The Outsider queen crossed her arms and shook her head. Barrett frowned and bit the corner of his lip, almost giving the impression that he shared Karl's concern for the riders, except that Scott knew better than that.
Someone was going to get hurt…Karl had to do something, and he didn't have a clue what it should be. Not sure how to help, Karl rose from his crouch and headed towards the beach…
…only to find himself staring at two of the particularly scrungy Outsiders.
"You're noisier than a herd of T-Rex, boy. We heard you follow us all the way from the castle," one sneered.
Someone was going to get hurt. David watched as the dino-scouts wrestled with their skybaxes while the creatures fought to escape the offensive, acrid smoke of the fires Dane prepared especially to repel them. Some of the riders had the sense to turn back, but one or two were stubborn and kept circling back, seeking a path around the smoke. He recognized one of them as the rider who'd been flying wingmate to Scott when David had stolen the sunstone medallion.
"Dane---let's go, there's no reason for this," David protested.
Dane fixed him with a glare. "You bring them here, Barrett?" The underlying threat of what Gabriel would do if that were the case was clear in his tone.
Barrett rolled his eyes. "Sort of---they want the medallion, what do you think they want?"
"How they know to find us here?" Dane demanded.
"Like I know!"
"Let go of me! You're breaking about a million laws here!" A voice, tight with indignation and fear, shouted. David, Le Sage, and Dane turned to see Miguel and Robere dragging Karl Scott into the clearing.
David groaned, "Sonuva…"
Le Sage chose to be amused. "He's persistent, I'll give him that," she said to David.
"Idiot. The word is 'idiot'," he disagreed.
Gabriel stared at the kicking, outraged skybax rider without an iota of intimidation. "You know that one?" he asked Barrett.
"…and I should warn you---I'm a skybax rider!" Scott tried to sound threatening. The Outsiders belly-laughed at the warning.
David shook his head. "I could have told him that wouldn't help."
Miguel and Robere dragged Scott to stand in front of Gabriel Dane. The kid obviously recognized the Outsider. He blanched, just a bit, but did his best to hide that fear and to sound authoritative. "Put those fires out! You don't want to be responsible for injuring a skybax, I guarantee it." The pack laughed harder at the feeble attempt at a threat.
Gabriel blinked, mouth set in a scowl as he stared at the younger man. In answer to the command, Dane snapped his fingers again. Their merriment ceased abruptly and his pack scrambled to retrieve spears and bolas that had been buried beneath the dirt or covered by fallen branches and seaweed. Those not armed with pikes and slingshots drew their bone daggers. They formed a circle around the skybax rider. Karl was now surrounded by—the center of attention of---armed and very unhappy-looking Outsiders.
Dane had to lean down a bit to stare Karl directly in the eye. Karl smelled alcohol and decay on the man's breath and tried not to cringe. Drunk and armed wasn't a good combination for a villain…on Dinotopia or anywhere else. "Skybax, T-Rex," Dane shrugged, "It make no difference. A scalie is a scalie. One scalie kill as good as another…" He nodded, and the Outsiders armed with the spears and bolas moved to the edge of the plateau and took aim at the flailing skybaxes, including Romana's mount as Karl's wingmate guided her skybax below the smoke towards the beach, attempting to land.
Karl knew at that moment that he was dealing with a psychopath. Cold terror squeezed at his chest, made his blood run cold. Scott couldn't stare into Dane's eyes: The lack of emotion, the insanity, burning in those eyes made his skin crawl. For reasons Karl couldn't explain, his gaze shifted to Barrett, who had been watching the men and women with the weapons. Sensing the skybax rider's stare, David met Karl's glance.
The armed Outsiders waited for Dane's signal. When Gabriel raised his arm to give the command, Karl snapped out of his fear and struggled against the hands holding him fast. "No!"
Gabriel drew his own bone dagger, raising it towards Karl's throat. "…and one scalie-lover kill as good as another."
Karl's eyes were on the dagger that was about to end his life. He didn't see anything else, so he was unprepared when something suddenly slammed into him and tore him from the grasp of his two Outsider captors. He felt himself lifted from his feet by his collar and pitched in the direction of the plateau's edge. Then he was rolling, stopping near the edge of the downslope. The armed outsiders had to step aside to avoid being knocked over by the teenager. Flat on his back and disoriented, Karl looked up to see David Barrett advancing on him.
"Get out of my life, Scott!" Barrett was snarling.
David hadn't known what else to do when Dane drew that blade on Scott. He wanted off the island, but he didn't want anyone killed in the process…not even Frank's irritating skybax rider offspring. Dane would kill the kid now that he perceived the skybax rider as a threat to the medallion, to the plan to escape the island. Dane would have killed the kid just for kicks. David knew that. And Scott, the stubborn fool, didn't have the sense to know when he was in over his head and stay away. He wasn't going to give up…
…at least not until he caught David.
With a plan only half-formed in his mind, David had acted. In two steps, he moved from behind Dane to snatch Scott by the collar. Miguel and Robere had been so unprepared that they'd let go at once. The Outsiders had formed a circle around Scott, effectively boxing him in, so David flung the younger man bodily so that the pack had to get out of the way or be mowed down by a rolling skybax rider. The diversion delayed the Outsiders with the spears and bolas from attacking the pterosaurs---no one in the pack would pass up a fight. Luckily, they wouldn't interfere with one either. That's what David was counting on if he was going to save the little twerp's life.
He knelt on one knee and grabbed Karl by the collar again, dragged him to his feet. "I've got enough problems without having you on my ass every time I turn around! Are you a freaking idiot? Do you not get the situation here? You think I'm bad news? Believe me---you do not want to screw around with this group! Didn't your matriarch girlfriend warn you about them?"
The mention of Marion sent another surge of jealousy through Karl. Flushing red, forgetting everything else, he shoved Barrett away, "Get off me!"
Barrett advanced on Karl again, backing him towards the downslope.
"I want that medallion…and then you're coming back with me so that we can fix whatever you screwed up with the fa---" Karl ordered.
A short distance away, Gabriel was watching. "How about we keep the medallion and we make sure you not bother our boy, David, again?" Menacingly, he ran his thumb lightly along the length of the bone dagger.
David grabbed Karl again, spinning Scott so that the 'topian's back was to Dane, Le Sage, and the rest of the pack. "You are an idiot! How do you and Frank share DNA! I'm sure the hell not going back to Waterfall City. I don't know where your medallion is…" David glanced over Karl's shoulder and his eyes met Le Sage's, speaking to Scott but nodding imperceptibly at her. "…but I swear to God, if Freefall wasn't in Rock Cove, I'd fly you out to the Razor Reef and drop you there myself!"
Le Sage hid her smile from Dane. She returned David's subtle nod.
David spun Karl again and gave him a shove towards the edge of the slope. Karl shoved back, eyes blazing anger. "Don't touch me!"
Barrett had Scott's number now. With a malicious grin, David reached over and shoved the skybax rider's shoulder. Karl lunged, putting the Outsider into a headlock. David hooked Scott's leg with his own and tossed him back to the ground, but Karl wouldn't relinquish his grip on Barrett's neck and dragged David to the ground with him. That worked just as Barrett had planned: Wrestling the skybax rider, David rolled towards of the slope, tugging Scott along with him to the edge and then over. Both tumbled, head over heels, down the slope…
…and for a moment, the fleeting glimpse of blue images filled both of their minds with uncomfortable déjà vu. Barrett had the sensation of hands gripping him by the throat, was staring into Scott's eyes, blazing fury then as well, and saw his own hands grappling with Scott. It was Karl Scott, clearly, the only difference being the younger man was in civilian garb instead of his uniform…and David saw that he was clad in the woeful clothing of the 'topians. In the vision, the two of them were on a small balcony, intent on throttling each other, until they managed to trip over the railing in a tangle of arms and legs and fell…way, way down. The balcony overlooked a waterfall, and the two of them plunged the length of the drop until the impact with the river below knocked the breath from David's lungs…
This time, the drop was much slower and gentler. Barrett and Scott rolled down the short downslope onto the beach below. Smoke blanketed the beach like a noxious fog, stinging their eyes and burning into their lungs until both the Outsider and skybax rider were hacking. And still, they grappled.
Romana had managed to land her resistant pterosaur on the sand not far from the two combatants. The skybax wailed unhappily, even more sensitive to the smoke than the humans, but stayed put only at her unwavering urging. She saw her wingmate struggling with the outsider and ran to help. Before Barrett knew what had happened, two arms—petite but strong and definitely belonging to another skybax rider---inserted themselves between him and Scott and took a grip on the front of the Outsider's shirt. A leg hooked David's and he felt himself lifted away from Karl. Next thing he knew, he was on his back staring up at Scott's wingmate.
"Wow---nice move," David praised.
Romana beamed. "Thank you."
Karl wasn't finished. In a flash, he was back on the Barrett, intent on whaling the tar out of the Outsider who had caused so much trouble. Romana threw up her hands, giving up on separating them. David reflexively started to ball his hand into a fist, but couldn't quite bring himself to throw a punch. He tried instead to pry the kid's fingers from his neck.
Karl snapped. "I've been wanting to throw you down the deepest hole on Dinotopia since the day we met…"
The Outisder grunted, "You need a life, Scott…you're not getting…that I'm trying to…save your life here!" David squeaked out the words from a severely constricted throat. He'd saved Karl from getting his throat cut right on the spot, got him away from Dane temporarily, but he had to get the dino-scout's ass off the beach and into the air. For that matter, David had to get his own ass off the beach. He could always escape from the 'topians later---it wasn't as if he hadn't done it a dozen times before. When he had Frank's son out of the line of fire, David could always find his way back to the pack and justify his actions as using himself as bait to get the dino-scouts off Dane's back. But they had to go now---the smoke wouldn't conceal them from Dane and the other well-armed pack members standing on the plateau above the beach for very long.
"You're not interested in helping anyone but yourself, Barrett!" Karl said.
Then a whistling sound cut through the air and a spear imbedded itself in the dirt. It had missed Karl and David by inches. Scott forgot his intentions to strangle the Outsider and scrambled away from the pike in case another one followed. "Jeezus!"
Through a break in the smoke, Karl, David, and Romana saw Dane, Le Sage and the other Outsiders staring down at them. Le Sage and Dane were arguing even as Gabriel waved his arms and shouted orders at the men and women holding the spears. The Outsiders hefted their weapons again. Romana ran for the skybaxes.
David smirked at Karl. "See?"
Scott was open-mouthed. "That guy is psycho!"
"Think so?" Barrett rolled his eyes.
"You sure they aren't trying to kill you, Barrett?"
"Not entirely sure, no…" David followed Romana. Karl wasn't far behind.
Le Sage grabbed a spear out of Dane's hands before he could pitch it down at David and the dino-scouts. "Hey, bright boy, Barrett's on our side," she reminded Gabriel.
"We need our medallion. If they take Barrett, we have nothing…no way off this island," Dane rationalized.
Le Sage smiled, "I know where the medallion is…" 'Rock Cove' David had said. He'd been saying more than Dane or the 'topians knew. "…and if you kill the dino-scouts, this island's going to be crawling with more of them---all looking for you."
Gabriel hesitated. There was disdain, directed at her, in his snarl. "You get soft, Doris."
She crossed her arms. "Don't bet on it. Barrett's only good for keeping those dino-scouts out of our hair right now…but not if you kill him. He's what they really came here for, not us, they think he has the medallion. If you let them take him, they'll leave us alone and we can pick up the sunstone and then get your sub. As long as we have the submarine and the sunstone, the dino-scouts can keep Barrett as far as I'm concerned."
Dane mulled that, and finally lowered the spear. "You always practical, Doris." He snapped his fingers and his pack members lowered their weapons.
Le Sage's smirk returned, "Well…"
"What?"
"A little more—encouragement---might get the dino-scouts out of here faster," she suggested.
More spears whistled through the air, narrowly missing Karl, David, and Romana as they raced to the pterosaurs. The Outsiders may have been throwing blindly, since smoke obscured their vision, but they were doing a helluva job for shooting blind. Seeing the peril to their comrades, two more riders approached the beach and urged their pterosaurs down.
"You're coming back with us, Barrett," Karl ordered.
No, I thought I'd stick around and let Dane turn me into a shish-ka-bob, David thought. "Yeah, yeah, I'm under arrest, I know, Marshal Dillon. You really are a pain in the butt, Scott," he said.
Romana and two other riders were waiting to give Scott and Barrett a lift. David chose to climb on the pterosaur piloted by Karl's wingmate---if he had to ride double, practically on top of a stranger, it might as well be with a pretty stranger. "So," he greeted her, flashing a wide grin, "any more like you back at the base or do they all look like Scott?"
"Don't get cute or I'll break you like a twig, Barrett," Romana warned, smiling back nevertheless.
Karl didn't miss the way his wingmate was looking at the Outsider and groaned inwardly. Et tu, Ro? "Unbelievable…" he muttered.
Dane watched as the dinosaurs carrying Barrett and the scalie-lovers banked skyward and glided out over the open water, away from the pack. He signaled for the pack to let them go. Doris was right---for now, they needed Barrett to keep the scalie-lovers busy.
"Robere?" Dane summoned the lackey. Robere joined him at once. "I think you be right about Barrett's weakness," the pack leader said quietly.
"So, you don't want me to call off Payden?" Robere asked, surprised. He'd assumed that, since things had worked out well with Le Sage and Barrett, Dane wouldn't need their…contingency plan.
Gabriel was stoic, "We have our sunstone…but I not finished with Barrett yet, sunstone or no sunstone. You send messenger bird to Payden. Tell him to do just what we planned."