Page 66 of Caveman Alien's Terror

Everyone laughs when they see me move. Except Astrid. All she does is whimper. In contempt, I’m sure. She would have no reason to sympathize with me.

I slowly get up, knees wobbling, and pick my pitiful hoard pouch out of my pocket. One by one I take out the carved rocks and look at them. They all look like gold now, despite being made of all kinds of different rocks. I squeeze them in my hand. But none of them give me any warmth or strength, not even the useless copy of the Chalice of the Sun, so I drop them to the ground and crush them with my foot to make them worthless as trophies for the slayers. The last one is the newest one, the one I just finished.

I squeeze it, too. And some warmth goes up my arm. Nowhere near enough, of course. But it’s there. “Strange,” I ponder to myself, “thatyou?—”

A rock hits the back of my head, making stars appear in front of my eyes.

“You should listen, Darkness,” a caveman says. “We’re talking about how to best kill you.”

I’ve already noticed that it annoys them when I turn my back and ignore them.

But now Astrid is there. So I turn.

“The whole tribe is here,” I comment. “Looking silly, as usual.”

Another rock hits me, this time in the chest.

“Stop it!” Astrid yells in her thin, female voice. “Stop throwing rocks!”

She looks magnificent in her old, stained dress. Her hair is as black as night, yet with a curious sheen that is hard to capture.There’s fire in her eyes, despite their darkness. And for some reason, I can see her clearly. There’s no green haze in front of her. She shines like gold.

I grin. “Told you they were dragon slayers.”

22

- Astrid-

Praxigor looks terrible. His scales are badly cracked still, and his eyes are completely green. His blue is paler than before, and his hair is matted with golden ichor from wounds, probably from the rocks these cavemen keep throwing at him.

“I know they are,” I reply, mind racing. What do I do now? My escort warriors are four, and the tribe is a hundred times that. I can’t rely on force. And am I devious enough to trick these guys?

“Hear how they talk in an unholy language nobody knows,” Tarat’ex says, triumph in his voice. “They’re not only friends and allies, but lovers! She’s part of the Darkness now. Put her in the cage with him! Better still, give her to me. I will take her to my cave and change her right back to a friend. Or perhaps you would like to be first, Chief Sator’iz?”

The chief of the Ceremat strokes his chin, considering it as he looks me up and down. “It does seem unreasonable that a Darkness captive has Mated with this woman, while we tribesmen, his captors and owners of this village, have not.”

My four warriors draw their swords and surround me, facing the Ceremat tribe. “Nobody shall force our Shaman to do anything she doesn’t want.”

There’s the sound of dozens of Ceremat swords being drawn. This could easily turn ugly.

“Stand down, everyone,” the Ceremat shaman says sharply. “There is a way to handle this.”

I give him a grateful glance, surprised that he seems to be taking my side. “Exactly. This is shaman business.”

He looks at me coldly. “But we must make sure that you are still a shaman and not simply a part of the Darkness, Astrid. It is our holy duty to our Ancestors to kill every agent of the Darkness. Very well, now you will kill this one. If you do, you are still a shaman, still a friend. If you can’t… well, none of our men have Mated with a woman. This would be our chance.”

“Chief first,” the chief hurries to say. “Then the shaman. Then the others.”

“As you command, Chief,” the shaman says and bows lightly. “Being Mated to every man in our tribe will certainly chase the Darkness out of this woman.”

Coldness settles in the pit of my stomach. This has already turned ugly.

“Apparently there’s no woman in this village,” Praxigor tells me. “Your friend Cora has never been here. Or did she ever exist?”

My hand seeks the hilt of my knife. “She existed. Or exists still. And I really thought she might be here. But even if she were here, it wouldn’t help you. She has no golden bracelet or any jewelry at all. I’m sorry, Praxigor. That part wasn’t true.”

He nods slowly. “A half lie, then. Being with me has turned you devious, too. It could be worse.”

“Not much worse,” I reply, my voice unsteady. “I had you chase something that didn’t exist. Cora’s gold is why you came to this village.”

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