The Enemies Meet

"You are Jess the journeyer?"

"And you…" Jess paused and glanced at his bracelet. "You must be Brockleton, head of the dragon council."

"Only a spy could know such information."

"If I were a spy, I would have been waiting to blast you with the laser cannon on this ship … and if you really believed I was a spy, you wouldn't have come."

"Lasers. Bah. We are nearly invincible."

"Nearly is the key word. It will kill you if it hits you in the right place. And you already know how deadly accurate they are."

Brockleton winced as only a dragert could wince. Jess felt like his words had already wounded him as badly as a laser.

"The bluzzards, as you know, are not monsters. They are machines armored with dragert scales."

Brockleton said something that Jess could interpret as a curse on the zyglots.

"I guess you know they feel the same way about you," he said.

"Do I care how they feel? No."

"You will after I've had a chance to talk to both of you."

"I will not speak with a zyglot."

"All right then, let Huskus rule you until you all die out. I'll just go back home."

The dragert paused. "And you're going to do something about him? Hah."

"I'm going to try - which is more than I can say about you or the zyglots."

The two dragerts beside Brockleton snorted smoke and small bursts of flame. At that moment, a rustling in the trees at the bottom of the hill diverted their attention. Three zyglots emerged from the forest.