Immediately after they had left Dante's Moon air space, a dozen other transport vehicles went into formation and escorted them to the rendezvous point.
Two hours of gunning it at maximum speed took them to the perimeter of the rendezvous point on the royal blue world of Emporia.
Emporia was a water world and as such, had only a few large land masses. Most of what was above ground were archipelagos and coral reef islands, with a few volcanic protuberances jutting out of the deep blue ocean that encircled the world.
High above Emporia on one of the land masses was an abandoned sky walk that jutted up out of a large glass dome.
The dome was an amazing piece of architecture, made of a continuous grid shell supported by 14 ring-like columns and ring beam at the roof's edge, extending more than 650 feet across.
Unfortunately, half of the dome had partially caved in from some catastrophic event that destroyed the entire area, turning it into a desert landscape.
Whatever had caused the destruction of this glass dome had also caused all the life around it to be obliterated. There was nothing around it except desert sand and a few scruffy palm tree heads bravely sticking up above the shifting sand dunes.
"Wow. It looks desolate."
Leonardo nodded.
"Twenty years ago, a young Emporian King was murdered here. He was in that dome, waiting to leave the world when it got blasted by a weapon from space."
Candi covered her mouth with shock.
He pointed to the end of the Sky Walk that allowed passengers to board a small starship from one of the platforms in the sky.
"We are going to attach this transport pod to the end of that Sky Walk and you are going to have to walk all the way over to the platform by yourself."
"I understand." Candi steeled herself.
Leonardo's aqua blue eyes were sorrowful as he manipulated the ship into docking space. "I am so very sorry. I'm not allowed to accompany you."
"What about Slate? I will not turn myself over to them until I know that he is unharmed!"
"He will be on that platform and the two of you will exchange places."
"How?"
Leonardo gestured with his head at the glass walkway.
"You will both walk until you meet in the middle, at which point, we will be able to extract him. They will not allow us to leave with Slate until you have reached the other platform. That is the agreement."
"How do you know they will stick with their agreement?"
"We don't, but right now, we have no choice. As long as Slate is in their hands, they call all the shots."
He pointed to all the Emporia hover pods around them. They massively outgunned the dozen pods that followed Leonardo and Candi.
"Plus, we are in their territory. I have a dozen ships from Erenveil. They have an entire world of ships all around us."
As the ship settled into place, Leonardo sighed with resignation and opened the hatch. All she had to do was walk through the opening and she would immediately be on the walkway.
Candi nodded and was about to step through the open hatch when she felt strong arms pulling her back.
"Take heart." Leonardo whispered into her ears with intensity as he clasped her in a tight embrace. "I will come back for you."
She inhaled the sweet scent of mint and sandalwood on his body and nodded. Somehow, that scent calmed her down and gave her an added boost of strength.
"I am an Avgo woman, not some sacrificial lamb." She turned her head to face him about to say something else when his hands cupped her face and his lips descended onto hers.
It was a chaste quick peck of the lips.
The quick peck turned a bit deeper as he suckled her gently with his sensuous lips, licking her mouth lightly with his tongue.
What should have been a quick kiss deepened within seconds as something broke inside Leonardo.
With a groan of defeat, he gripped her hair with fervent fingers and probed deeply into her mouth with his tongue.
For a moment, she froze from the intensity of his kiss.
The unique scent of Leonardo mixed with mint and sandalwood, resulted in an intoxicating aroma that she could barely resist.
As she began to melt into the kiss, he plundered her lips one last time before lifting his head.
"This is not the time and place to make love to you, but there will be a time and place for us, I promise you this." He released her from his ardent grip.
Candi turned blindly away from the intensity that was Leonardo, trying to put some distance between them. She could not be distracted by him at this moment. She had to focus on what was before her.
With one swift intake of breath, she swallowed her fear down and stepped onto the glass walkway.
High above the ground, the swaying glass walkway crackled and snapped as if at any moment, it would splinter into tiny pieces and plunge her to the ground…it was truly terrifying if she gave in to the frightful experience.
From within the partially sunken glass dome, two men led the unmistakeable form of a powerful Prince of Erenveil up onto the platform.
It should have been a simple walk across a glass bridge for someone like Slate, but nothing was ever simple.
He was dressed in his warrior outfit. His powerful chest and leg muscles dwarfed the two men who led him, but something was horribly wrong.
They had tied a bag over his head, and his hands were secured behind his back. It looked like he was drugged because he was unsteady on his feet and barely able to stand.
He was only 150 feet away from where she was standing but it could have been a world away.
The expanse across from the Sky Walk was a long straight line made of clear glass that had a 100 feet drop to the ground. It was barely three feet across without a single handrail to grip onto.
One of the men, the short fat one, kicked him from behind and he landed on his knees, tumbling forward on the platform, unable to break his fall without his hands in front of him.
"Slate!" Candi called out, unable to contain her fright that he would fall off the platform.
His body stiffened and then perked up as he heard her voice from across the chasm.
Struggling, Slate got up onto his knees and then, slowly, he got back onto his feet.
"Slate. I'm here Sweetheart." Candi called out to him, afraid to talk too loud for fear of startling him.
"You're turned the wrong way, Love. Turn ten degrees to your left."
He turned towards the sound of her voice.
"A tiny bit more. Perfect. I'm right across the sky walk from you Sweetheart. You have to walk towards me. I will meet you half way across this sky walk."
"I promise you it will be okay. Just follow my voice and walk. I will guide you."
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
"Take two steps forward. It will take you to the edge of the sky walk."
He took two steps and stood, poised at the edge of the glass walkway.
"Good job, Sweetheart. One more step will take you onto the walkway."
He took one step and hesitated as he could feel the undulating vibration of the sky walk.
"That's right Slate. Walk straight to me, Darling. Follow my voice."