See part one for explanation and disclaimers. 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.

“Full house, queens high.”

“Four kings.”

“Sonuva---” Frank dropped his cards on the table, disgusted. The young outsider looked quite pleased with himself, and why not---he had half of the tavern’s profits for the night in those frayed pockets of his. He also had Frank’s remaining stock of the cola and one of the ‘Sports Illustrated’ magazines Karl had found in the yacht wreckage. David had pounced on the magazine like a drowning man hanging on to a life preserver. More annoying still, the kid was being quite obnoxious about being able to flip through the magazine while at the same time humiliating the tavern owner at cards.

Frank collected the cards and began reshuffling them, resuming their conversation, “And you’re still nuts. Any sport that would have an award for ‘gentlemanly play’ is not a sport. I don’t plunk down my money to see guys play nicely.”

“They don’t have the old joke ‘I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out’ for nothing, Frank. Give me a game with some action over a bunch of guys standing around spitting and scratching---jeez, it’s like a night with Le Sage’s crew.”

Frank glared. “Are you insulting our national past time?”

“Just saying give me the ice and the chance for a good fist fight instead,” David said.

The older man nodded, dealing the next hand of cards. “Not much chance of getting either one here.”

“Tell me about it.”

“The last game I saw before we got stuck here was Super Bowl Thirty-Six. Fifteen hundred bucks for tickets---Karl had his nose in a book, as usual, the whole time and Jack was flirting with the girls sitting next to him. So, to impress the girls, he uses his fake i.d. to sneak a beer…long story short, he ended up yakking from the cheap seats down onto a section of the most unforgiving Pats fans I’ve ever met in my life.” Frank felt a headache coming on remembering it.

David laughed. “Must have been a helluva game.”

Frank smiled a bit. “I’m glad we got to go before all this happened. I didn’t think it was going to be our last chance.”

David lapsed into silence for a long while. “Frank, if you had the chance to go----” He regretted the question before he finished it. Frank’s eyes narrowed and stared like a parent trying to figure out what kind of trouble a child was getting into.

“David, are you planning something--”

Movement out the corner of Frank’s eye warned him barely in time for him to duck as a mug came flying across the air. It missed both Frank and David by inches and shattered against the wall behind the outsider’s head. Both turned at the sound of shouting from the other side of the room. A group of spectators were gathered around two outsiders who circled each other with murder in their eyes.

“What’s going on now?” Frank shouted above the roar of the onlookers, moving to intervene.

“Arguing over who’s got the worst b.o. probably.” David followed the older man. He recognized the two brawlers and his stomach sank just a bit. They were part of Payden Borale’s pack. Payden was a staunch ally of Gabriel Dane. That wasn’t good.

“Hey!” Frank pushed through the crowd and inserted himself between the combatants. He pushed them away from each other and fixed them with a stare that warned he was not to be messed with. “Take this outside or sit down!”

David saw the bone dagger before Frank did---months of dealing with the too-excitable outsider packs had made watching for quick movements and the glint of blades a survival reflex. Before the man could turn the weapon on Frank, David was on him. He came up from behind and caught the man’s arm, twisting his arm so that the blade pressed against its owner’s throat. David pushed just enough for one drop of blood spilled from the attacker’s throat onto the metal blade. The man let out a grunt between gritted teeth.

“Sit down,” David instructed the outsider slowly, “and have another drink, Robere.”

Robere---very gingerly, as David was still holding his arm so the blade remained poised at his own throat---sank back into his seat at the table. David released Robere’s arm only when he was sure the outsider was calmed down and would remain put. “You too, Miguel. Sit.” David told the other brawler. Frank retrieved the chair Miguel had upended and righted it, sliding it in front of the outsider.

“No weapons in my place. You know the rules.” Frank held out his hand.

Robere paid no attention to the tavern owner. He was smirking at David. “Well, well, Barrett. You’ve learned a few tricks since you left Dane’s pack. Le Sage teach you that move?” David didn’t bother with an answer. “Word is that you nicked that medallion from the matriarch’s pretty little daughter today…Payden knows, so Dane will soon know. Dane’s going to kill you.”

David didn’t doubt it for one second. He leaned across the table, speaking in a low voice to not be overheard by the patrons watching the spectacle…or by Frank. “Next time you’re licking Payden’s boots, tell him that if Dane wants the sunstone, he can find me tomorrow at the beach…you know, the one where he gave me this.” David pointed to the scar over his brow.

He turned from the table and Robere to see Frank glaring. “You did what?”

David felt more than a pang of sincere guilt at the accusing look the older man gave him. “Sorry to disappoint you, Frank,” the younger man apologized.

“Heads up!”

David had looked away from Robere and Miguel only for an instant. The warning was followed by the scraping noises. He looked up and saw Robere had again raised his dagger…only to be felled when his table skittered, propelled by one powerful kick, across the floor and into his abdomen, doubling him over.

Alano stood over the wheezing outsider, “I learned that from a one-legged carpenter in Gull’s Bay.”

David grinned at the blonde outsider. “Nice entrance, Al. ‘A one-legged carpenter’?”

Alano shrugged. “Jus’ liked the sound of it.”

Frank stormed over to the table and jerked the dagger from Robere’s hand. “That’s it! Out!” He hoisted the panting man by the back of his neck and shoved him towards the door. “And as for you Dav---”

The lecture on stealing the sunstone that Frank was preparing ended before it began: In the seconds it had taken for Frank to toss Robere, David and Alano had both ducked out the back door of the tavern and disappeared.

*

“Stupid, stupid, stupid! You’ve gone and stuck your foot in a T-Rex’s nest this time! Dane was only annoyed with you before…” Alano never bothered with pleasantries. They hurried out the back door of the tavern and towards the nearby forest, where Freefall waited. Alano wasn’t even going to ask where his friend had procured a skybax. David kept one eye on the sky, expecting the skybax patrols or a messenger bird from Marion any time now.

When they were a safe distance from the tavern, Alano stopped. He stared at his friend as if reading David’s thoughts. “Will you stop worryin’ ‘bout upsettin’ your off-worlder mate back there and think for a minute…Robere’s right, Dane’s gonna kill you this time sure as I’m standing here. And if he doesn’t, I might!”

The pterosaur growled and bobbed his massive head at David.

“See? The beastie agrees. You’ve gone off your nut. Again. ” Alano continued his reprimand.

“That was not agreement. Was it?” David asked the pterosaur.

Freefall bobbed his head again.

“Traitor,” David muttered. He relaxed a bit once they’d reached the cover of the trees. “Al, did you see it or not?”

The blonde sighed. David clearly wasn’t going to be talked out of this scheme of his. If Alano didn’t help, his friend would get himself killed. “Yeah, I saw it, all right. It’s there---at the bottom o’ the bay.”

David wasn’t worried about that. He felt the thrill of hope for escape from the island for the first time in what seemed like forever. “And Dane?”

“Oh, he’s there, too, big as life, smelly as a dung heap. Got his people ‘round the entire cove. No one’s getting in ‘less they get past him.” Alano confirmed. “I can tell you this much--- even if we get past Dane, we’re not goin’ anywhere in that tub. It’s a wreck.”

“I can handle Dane,” David said.

“Just ‘cause this vein in my temple s’about to go ‘pop’, would you mind tellin’ me how?”

David reached into his coat and for the sunstone medallion. While groping for the pendant, his fingers brushed the smooth surface of his own antique ‘topian space rock. The fleeting touch produced another vision:

“I should warn you,” he heard the David in the vision saying, “I’m a skybax rider.”

The recipient of the warning---Alano and two more outsiders from Le Sage’s pack---laughed outright at the comment. The blonde outsider didn’t find the smaller, less musclar man or his warning the least bit intimidating. To prove it, Alano reached out with one arm and gave a shove that knocked David off his feet and sent him sprawling into a large heap of what he hoped was mud…

David blinked, withdrawing his hand from his pocket and the ‘topian space rock. Alano was still staring at him, waiting for an answer. “Did you see that?” David asked.

“See what?” Alano asked impatiently.

“Never mind.” First chance I get, I’m dropping that rock into the ocean, antique or not, David vowed silently. Carefully this time, avoiding touching the ‘topian rock, he drew the sunstone pendant from his pocket. “This is the power source for that boat. Dane’s not going anywhere without it. As long as we have it, he’s not going anywhere without us, either. Why do you think I went to all that trouble to get this thing before he did?”

Alano was not reassured. “Dane’s bloody well going to kill you,” he said again.

“Not like he hasn’t tried before. He can kill me once we’re back on the mainland if he feels that strongly about it,” David said.

Alano flicked David’s ear just to get his full attention. “Are you listenin’ to me?! The boat’s a heap---looks like somethin’ very large took a big bite out of it and chugged the leftovers onto the reef. Even if Dane decides not to feed you to the scalies, even if you can pull the tub out of the bay…”

David gestured to the pterosaur. “Freefall can get it out of the bay.”

“…and would you mind telling me why you can ride on that beastie when you can’t stand on a bloody ladder without going light in the head?”

“Given the choice between flying with vertigo and getting arrested or eaten…the boat, Al?”

“…it’s gonna take years to fix it.”

“Not with Le Sage’s help,” David disagreed.

Alano paused. “You’re not seriously thinking of bringing her along?”

David hesitated. He knew his friend’s opinion of the pack leader. “We’re going to need the extra men. Besides, I gave her my word if I found a way off the island---”

Alano sank down on a nearby rock, rubbing his eyes for frustration. He had warned David about trusting Le Sage the first time the off-worlder had stuck his neck out on her behalf against Gabriel Dane: “That woman needs chivalry ‘bout as much as she needs a third breast. She sure as hell wouldn’t come charging to your rescue if it was your neck on the chopping block.”

“---just like I gave you my word,” David pointed out.

There was nothing Alano could say to that. “She’s agreed?”

“She will.”

“How are you going to talk her into that---?” Never mind, I don’t want to know.” Alano decided. “I don’t have a good feeling about this one, David.”

“I know.” He waited, but Alano said nothing else. David passed the sunstone medallion to his friend. “I’m not a fool. I’m not going to go walking into Le Sage’s camp with this---it’s the only bargaining chip I have. Until you hear from me, stay out of sight, and I mean completely out of sight. Gabriel knows you’re my friend. Once he finds out I’ve crossed him, he wouldn’t be above using you to get to me. Go to Rock Cove and wait until you hear from me. Can I count on you, bro?”

Alano stood up, putting on a show of mock offense. He put the medallion into his own pocket, where it would be very safe indeed. “I said I have your back, mate, and I aim to keep my word.”

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