Dragon and Judge

They had Alison to the car before she could untangle her tongue. "Wait!" she said, the word coming out more like a croak. "Wait! You can't—"

"Good-bye, deserter," Frost said. Turning with military precision, he disappeared back into the house.

"Just relax," Dumbarton advised as Mrishpaw picked her up and deposited her into one of the car's rear seats. "If you struggle, he'll just make it hurt more." He turned his back and started to climb into the driver's seat.

And in that instant, Taneem struck.

She exploded out of the back of Alison's shirt collar straight into Mrishpaw's face, slapping her forepaw against the Brummga's head with enough force to slam him bodily into the car's rear fender. The reaction from the blow sent Taneem herself flying in the opposite direction, dropping her nearly three yards away. She hit the ground and spun around, leaping at Dumbarton just as he turned his head to see what all the commotion was about.

His hand was diving for his gun when the K'da's second blow slammed into his head and dropped him like a limp puppet over the steering wheel.

"Are you all right?" Taneem asked Alison anxiously, her whole body trembling like a leaf as she crouched on the grass beside the car.

"Yes, I'm fine," Alison said, shaking a little herself. This was the second time she'd seen Taneem attack, and there was still something about it that brought out all her deepest, darkest fears. The price of having read too many books of dragon legends when she was young, she supposed.

Meanwhile, she and Taneem had real problems to deal with. "We need to get them out of here before some patrol trips over them," she said, looking around. Mrishpaw had slipped off the back of the car where Taneem's slap had landed him and was now sprawled on the ground. "Give me a hand."

Together, she and Taneem managed to hoist the big Brummga up into the backseat. Pushing Dumbarton out of the way, Alison got into the driver's seat and started the car. Choosing a pathway heading northwest, aiming them midway between the main gate and the slave areas where Frost had been sending her, she drove off. "Where are we going?" Taneem asked, crouching low on Mrishpaw's body.

"I wish I knew," Alison said grimly. "There have to be places in an estate this size where we can hide for a while. Unfortunately, we don't know where any of them are."

"Can't we simply leave?"

Alison shook her head. "The gate is way too well defended," she said. "The wall's even worse."

"Yet Jack and Draycos were able to escape," Taneem reminded her.

Alison hissed a curse at herself. "What am I thinking?" she growled, reaching over to Dumbarton's collar and pulling off his comm clip. "Here—you drive."

"What?" Taneem asked, sounding startled.

"Just take the wheel—I'll handle the pedals," Alison said, leaning out of the way. "Come on, you can do it."

A pair of K'da paws reached over her shoulder and gingerly wrapped themselves around the wheel. Keeping half an eye on the road, Alison tuned Dumbarton's comm clip to the Essenay's frequency. "Thanks," she said to Taneem, taking back the wheel. "Cross your toes." Fastening the comm clip to her collar, she clicked it on. "Jack?"

"This is Uncle Virge," the computerized personality came back instantly. "Are you all right?"

"Not really, no," Alison told him. "We just had to clobber two of Frost's men and we're on the run."

"You don't know the half of it," Uncle Virge said grimly. "I've been monitoring their transmissions for the past half hour. Frost is organizing a group to go back to Semaline. They've figured out that Jack is there."

"He's still there?" Alison echoed, frowning. "Then what in blazes are you doing here?"

"I'm here because once those two goofs picked you up, I knew they hadn't gotten Jack, and I knew then where he had to be," Uncle Virge said. "I figured he'd be safe there for a while."

"Yes, but—"

"And he'd ordered me to watch out for you and Taneem," Uncle Virge snapped. "All right?"

"Sure," Alison said hastily. "Sure. Calm down."

"I am calm."

"I can tell," Alison said. She and Taneem were still in trouble, but with the Essenay here, at least she now had the beginnings of a plan. Maybe. "Okay—first things first," she said. "Do they know where Jack is?"

"Probably," Uncle Virge said.

"How?"

There was just the briefest pause. "I don't know."

"No more games," Alison said coldly. "Jack's in danger, I'm in danger, and if we don't do something about it real quick you're going to find yourself all alone in a very big universe. Understand?"

"Yes," Uncle Virge said, his voice subdued. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with Jack," Alison said. "Who is he?"

Uncle Virge sighed. "The son of the late Stuart and Ariel Palmer," he said. "Both of them Judge-Paladins."

Alison felt her mouth drop open a fraction of an inch. She'd already pegged the Essenay as some kind of diplomatic or governmental ship. She'd proved it, in fact, by activating the computer's built-in privacy lock system on the trip back from Rho Scorvi.