Dragon and Judge

And to her mild surprise, it had worked. Her scales, which had been starting to turn black as fear pumped extra blood into her muscles, had already faded back to their normal gray. A nice color, the odd thought ran through her mind, though not nearly as noble and distinctive as Draycos's own golden scales.

As noble and distinctive as Draycos himself. She could only bless her good fortune to have him as a friend.

She took a deep breath, exhaling away the last of the fear. Panic darkens the mind. Thanks to Alison and Draycos and Jack, she now had a perfectly good mind.

It was time she started using it.

Silently, she backed away from the food preparation area, stretching out with all her senses. Sight was of limited use to her right now, but she hadn't lost her sense of touch or hearing or smell. Somewhere in this root-tangle of ducts were the clues she needed to get her back to Alison.

And suddenly she had it. The low rumble of the ship's engines had been behind her as she left their room. She could sense that same rumble now, much softer than it had been then.

But instead of being in front of her, as it should be, it was coming from her left. Somehow, on her way back, she must have made a wrong turn to her right.

She also hadn't yet passed through the extra-warm area she'd noticed on her way out. She needed to find a left-hand turn, then possibly backtrack a little until she found that spot.

It was still a little scary. But at least now she had a plan. Easing past the food preparation room, she headed toward the next turning spot.

The plan worked. Three turns and four ducts later she was back on track. She knew she was back, because now that she was concentrating she found she could smell Alison's scent on the breeze moving across her snout.

Five minutes later, she turned one final corner to see a small flashlight illuminating the duct and the open space where a grille should be.

Thirty seconds later, she was home.

She had expected Alison to be furious with her, especially after spending so much time being lost. To her relief, her host turned out to be mostly just glad she was back safely.

Though Taneem could tell she was a little angry.

"For starters, someone might have seen you," Alison told Taneem as she fastened the grille back in place. "There are also a lot of very unpleasant things that could have happened to you in there."

"It seemed safe enough," Taneem said.

"That's because everything was running smoothly," Alison said. "If, say, there'd been a drop in air pressure—for any reason—there are a whole set of hidden sealant doors that would have kicked in across the ducts, cutting the whole system into a bunch of small pieces. You'd have been trapped in one of them until they'd fixed whatever the problem was."

She eyed Taneem over her shoulder. "That's assuming you weren't unlucky enough to have been in the way of one of the doors when they slammed shut," she added. "In that case, you'd probably have been cut in half. You understand?"

"Yes," Taneem said. In truth, she only understood about half of what Alison had just said. But she got the idea. "I won't go off like that again. I'm sorry."

"I just don't want you getting hurt," Alison said in a gentler tone. Finishing with the last bolt, she hopped down from the chair and ran her hand along the side of Taneem's neck. "If for no other reason than that Draycos would kill me if you did."

"He wouldn't do such a thing," Taneem insisted. A shiver ran through her. "Though even if he wished to, he might never have the chance," she added quietly. "What I heard just now—"

"Hold that thought," Alison interrupted. Picking up the chair, she lugged it back to its usual place and then put her tools away. "Let's get back under the blankets," she said, holding out her hand toward Taneem as she headed back to the bed. "Then you can tell me all about it."

Alison listened in silence as Taneem described the conversation she'd overheard between Frost and Neverlin. "Okay," she said when Taneem had finished. "So they're going to test me. No big deal."

"Yet it worries me," Taneem said. "They have had over four months to open the safes, yet they're still searching for someone to do the job. Are you truly better than all the others who do this sort of thing?"

Alison grimaced. "Not even close," she admitted. "Even Jack's better at it than I am."

"What will they do if you fail?"

Alison had been trying hard not to think about that possibility. "I won't fail," she said firmly. "For one thing, my father trained me himself, and he is one of the best in the business."

"The business of theft."

"Everyone has to make a living," Alison said. "Besides, none of the people he targets will even miss what he takes." Which was not, of course, strictly true. In fact, even non-strictly it wasn't true. But there was no reason to burden Taneem with any more truth than she was already stuck with. "Besides, I have a secret weapon," she said instead. "You."

"Me?"