Dragon and Judge

The man glanced to the side as another figure came into Alison's view beneath the overhang. It was Gazen, still wandering thoughtfully around. "No, sir, no sign of anyone else . . . Yes, sir, I'll keep you posted." He touched his comm clip, turning it off.

"You're wrong, you know," Gazen told him. "He's here."

"Who, Morgan?" The other man snorted. "That would be a neat trick."

"Morgan specializes in neat tricks," Gazen countered mildly.

"Well, if he's here, we'll get him," the other promised, his voice dark. "We'll get both of them."

"And the dragon?" Gazen asked.

"Him, too." The other gave an audible sniff. "Unless you'd rather we save him for you."

"Don't worry about it," Gazen said. His voice was still mild, but Alison could hear a grim anticipation lurking beneath it. "When he shows himself the next time, I'll be there."

"Yeah," the other man said. "Whatever." Brushing past Gazen, he disappeared out of Alison's sight. A moment later she heard the sound of a car heading north.

Gazen remained where he was, watching the other's departure. Then, slowly, he turned around in a complete circle. Once, he glanced up toward the wall's overhang, and Alison tensed. But he was looking above the spot where the car had crashed, and there was nothing there for him to see. "Come on out, dragon," he murmured aloud as he lowered his eyes again. "Come on out. Time to play."

Alison felt Taneem stirring against her skin. Gazen stood there a moment longer, then turned and headed north. He passed almost directly beneath Alison and disappeared, his footsteps fading into the night murmurs.

Alison silently counted out fifteen minutes. "Taneem?" she whispered at last.

A bit of weight came onto her shoulder, and a K'da tongue flicked past her cheek. "He's gone," Taneem confirmed. "All of them are gone."

Alison took a careful breath. "Well," she whispered. "It worked."

"It would seem so," Taneem agreed cautiously. "What now?"

Alison chewed at her lip. They certainly couldn't stay here forever. "Hang on," she said. "I'm going to try something."

Carefully, she started to lift her knees. The movement shifted her center of mass toward the edge, and for a second she thought she was going to fall. Hastily, she put her legs back down. She waited a moment for her heart to settle down again, then tried lifting just one knee.

Again, her center of mass shifted, but not nearly as far or as alarmingly. Drawing the knee toward her chest as far as she dared, she planted it against the inside of the lip and carefully pushed.

It worked. As she straightened her leg, the rest of her body moved a few inches down the trough. "There we go," she told Taneem, trying to keep her voice light. "It's not fast, but it'll get us there."

"Where will it get us?"

"To the slave areas," Alison said. "That's our best chance of finding food and shelter until the Malison Ring reinforcements Uncle Virge called get here."

"But won't the Brummgas search that area?"

"Trust me," Alison said grimly as she pushed herself another few inches north. "At the rate we're going, they'll have had time to search the whole place twice before we get there." She screwed up her nose as a small feather tickled her face. "I just hope we're not pushing out a trail of feathers even the Patri Chookoock could follow."

"They are surely used to seeing feathers below the wall," Taneem pointed out. "And there should be enough breeze to keep them spread out."

"If not, there's nothing we can do about it," Alison said. "And there's always the chance they won't even bother looking very hard for me. Now that Neverlin has what he wants, he and Frost could easily be gone by morning."

"With the information they need to destroy Draycos's people."

Alison winced. That was, unfortunately, the downside to this whole thing. "We've got over a month before they arrive," she reminded Taneem. "And there's still one safe that has all of that same information. We just have to figure out how to get to it."

"There are many parts of this that I don't understand," Taneem said. "But you have never lied to me before. I will trust you."

Alison gazed out into the night, her throat tight. "Thank you," she managed. "We'd better stop talking now. If we happen on any patrols, it would be nice if we know it before they do."

CHAPTER 27

Privately, Draycos had expected it to be at least a week before the Golvin guards relaxed their watchfulness enough for him to risk another midnight excursion. To his mild surprise—and to Jack's obvious relief—barely two nights later, the K'da judged the time was right.

Man, are these guys amateurs, Jack's scornful thought echoed through Draycos's mind as the boy peeked out between the doorway streamers.