Dragon and Herdsman

"I saw what the Malison Ring did to Draycos's advance ships, Alison." Jack cut her off. "I know the sort of people Arthur Neverlin and the Chookoock family are. If the Valahgua are some poor, put-upon victims, they've picked themselves some really strange allies."

"Okay, fine," Alison said. "I'm sorry—I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset," Jack insisted. From behind a row of tall ferns to the right came a soft sound like a multiple cough. "And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go help one of my herd."

"Help him do what?" Alison asked, frowning as she looked around. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing serious," Jack said, levering himself to his feet and brushing the leaves off the back of his jeans. "It's just Dumb Dog. That's the other big green Phooka—I call him Dumb Dog to distinguish him from Greenie. He has a habit of poking his head under roots to chase grubs and then not being able to get back out again."

"Oh," Alison said, looking rather taken aback. "I never heard about that."

"That's because you're just the leader," Jack said loftily. "I'm the herdsman."

"I guess so," she acknowledged, a slight frown on her face as she looked up at him. "You need any help?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I just have to tuck his ears back and hold them there while he pulls his head out. Anyway, you should probably give Hren a nudge and get everyone ready to move again."

"Okay," Alison said, standing up and picking up her machine gun.

Jack frowned as something about the weapon caught his eye. "What happened to the gun?" he asked, pointing to the spot where the front handgrip used to be.

"Oh, there was a second tracker in the front grip," Alison said matter-of-factly, holding out the weapon for closer inspection. "Like you said, Frost likes to keep things fresh. No big deal—I spotted it last night, right after we headed out again, and had Taneem slice it off."

"What did you do with it?"

"We put it on a big piece of bark and sent it sailing off on the next stream we passed," she said with a mischievous smile. "Taneem seemed fascinated by it all."

"Like you said, it's all new and exciting," Jack said. From behind the ferns came another series of coughs, this batch louder than the last. "I wish I could say the same about Dumb Dog," he added with a sigh. "Go get Hren, and let's get out of here."

Draycos had also been unaware that the Kapstan transport had returned the previous night. Rather to Jack's private annoyance, he seemed as unconcerned as Alison had been that the girl hadn't mentioned it to them earlier.

"Actually, I've been expecting it to return for the past two days," the K'da told him as they trudged along at the rear of the group. "To be honest, I am somewhat surprised Colonel Frost brought it in along such a vector that Alison was able to hear it at all. Had I been in command, I would have tried to avoid that."

"Maybe he doesn't care whether we know it's back or not," Jack said with a grimace. "Maybe he's got so much firepower now that he thinks he can just charge in and roll over us. Means our best bet is to get to the river and whistle up Uncle Virge before they're ready to make their move."

For a minute Draycos was silent. "What will you do if Uncle Virge and the Essenay did not survive?" he asked at last.

"They did," Jack said firmly. Automatically. "He'll be there when we need him. I know he will."

"I hope you're right," Draycos said. "But a warrior must always make certain there are avenues for retreat. Perhaps we should watch for caves in which we could wait for Alison's friends."

Jack shook his head. "We'll never make it that far west," he said. "Especially not with Frost already expecting us to jump that direction. We have to do something completely different."

"You have an idea?"

"Yes, but I don't think you're going to like it," Jack said. "Do you remember what the terrain is like to the east of the forest?"

"As I recall, there were quite a few miles of plains and grasslands," Draycos said. "A few groups of trees, but otherwise very little cover."

"Which should make it the last place Frost would expect us to go," Jack said. "I'm thinking we could borrow the trick you used to draw out that ambush line a couple of nights ago."

"Where we pretended you were floating down the stream breathing through a reed?"

"Right," Jack said. "Only this time we do it for real. Maybe stick the reeds up through hollow logs or something to help camouflage them. Then we just float away down the river, right under their collective nose. Hopefully, we'll be through the grasslands to whatever's past them before Frost figures it out."

"This would be you and Alison, I presume?" Draycos asked, his voice flat.

"Actually, I was thinking it would be just you and me," Jack said. "Alison and Taneem can stay behind with the Erassvas and Phookas. Maybe they can all head east, away from the caves, and hunker down until Alison's friends get here."