Dragon and Judge

Alison swallowed. "I'm sure you will," she said. "Well, then. If you don't mind—"

"Go back to the house, little girl," Gazen said. Backing up a step, he settled himself again on a low bench between the two bushes, laying his laser across his knees. "Go back to sleep."

"Yes, sir," Alison said. Keeping an eye on him as long as she could, she made her escape.

Neither she nor Taneem spoke again until they were safely back in bed. "Draycos told me stories about this Gazen human," Taneem said softly.

"So did Jack," Alison said, shivering. In some ways, she knew, Gazen was no more evil or vicious than men like Frost and Neverlin. Neverlin, after all, had ordered the destruction of Draycos's advance team. Gazen, as far as she knew, hadn't even been present during that attack.

But Frost and Neverlin were also smart and calculating. They were in this for profit and power. Men like that Alison could understand, and could deal with.

Gazen, in contrast, was just plain crazy. She could see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice. And she wasn't used to dealing with men like that. They scared her, right down to her core.

Distantly, she wished Draycos were here.

"Is there anything I can do?" Taneem asked anxiously, lifting her head a little from Alison's shoulder.

With a smile, Alison reached up to stroke her companion's smooth gray scales. No, Taneem was no poet-warrior of the K'da. But she was loyal, and she was willing, and she was doing the best she could. "No, that's all right," Alison assured her. "I'm fine."

She took a deep breath and tried to push Gazen from her mind. "Better get some sleep," she said, pulling the blankets a little tighter around her chin. "Tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

CHAPTER 20

Two days after his trip to the mine, Jack emerged from his apartment for the morning's schedule to find that Bolo had returned.

"Good morning, Judge-Paladin," the other said politely from the foot of the stone bridge. "I see you're an early riser."

"Comes with the job," Jack told him, looking over Bolo's shoulder to where Thonsifi and the two escorts were waiting. None of them looked very happy. "Speaking of jobs, how's yours going?"

"Almost finished," Bolo said. "A few more hours of actual surveying, and I'll be ready to start working up my report." He waved a hand, the gesture taking in the entire canyon. "So I thought I'd drop by and see if that dinner invitation was still open."

"I'm sure something can be arranged," Jack said as he reached the ground. "Is any of this last bit of work going to be in the area?"

"Actually, all of it is," Bolo said. "In fact—and you might find this interesting—the first thing I'm going to do is take a look in that abandoned mine out there."

Jack suppressed a grimace. Why, he wondered, wasn't he surprised?

Be careful, Jack, Draycos's warning whispered through his mind.

Bet on it, symby, Jack assured him. "You think there might still be something worthwhile in there?" he asked.

"No idea," Bolo said. "But according to the records, Triost still owns the rights to it."

"Really," Jack said. "I understood the ownership was still in dispute."

A flicker of something crossed Bolo's face, gone again almost too fast to see.

But Jack saw it. More to the point, he recognized it.

Jack had already known that Bolo wasn't who he pretended to be. Now, Bolo knew that Jack wasn't, either.

"Interesting," Bolo said, his voice under easy control. Definitely a professional. "Could be my information's out-of-date. Still, as long as I'm here anyway I might as well check it out."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you'd like to come with me? Just in case the rights aren't completely ours?"

"You mean to make sure you don't stuff your pockets with rocks on the way out?"

Bolo smiled faintly. "Something like that." He looked at Thonsifi. "You think you can spare your Judge-Paladin for a couple of hours?"

"Yes, they can spare me," Jack said before Thonsifi could answer. "Let me go back and change and I'll be right with you."

Bolo was sitting in his aircar when Jack emerged from the apartment again, this time in shirt and jeans. "I hope you know what you're doing," Draycos murmured from his shoulder.

"I don't like it, either," Jack conceded. Getting in a vehicle with a known enemy was not usually considered a smart thing to do. "But we need answers, and he's probably the best source we're going to find anywhere around here."

"And overconfident people tend to talk too much?"

"Exactly," Jack said as he headed toward the aircar.

A few minutes later they were rising through the chilly early-morning air. "This place is a real obstacle course, isn't it?" Bolo commented as he maneuvered them through the arches and guy wires. "No wonder most Judge-Paladins who come to Semaline never make it down there."

"No wonder," Jack agreed. "Though I understand there were two who made it in a few years back. Eleven years, to be exact."