Dragon and Judge

Alison gazed into those silver eyes, her stomach tightening. What was she supposed to say? "We can't fix the whole universe, Taneem," she said. "No one can. Right now, we're in way over our heads. We're going to be lucky if we get out of here with our skins intact."

"I understand," Taneem said. "Like the Malison Ring, we have our own agenda."

Alison winced at the K'da's tone. "If it makes you feel any better, remember that part of that agenda includes protecting Draycos and his people."

Taneem's eyes glittered. "Draycos and my people," she corrected quietly.

"Right," Alison said, searching for a way to get off this topic. "Speaking of which, how in space did you know that poem of Draycos's? It wasn't something the Phookas sang together, was it?"

"Of course not," Taneem said, an odd mixture of pity and revulsion in her voice. "They weren't . . . that is, we weren't able to create such songs. Draycos taught it to me afterward."

"And happened to mention that it was the one he'd sung to Noy?"

Taneem turned her head away. "I asked him to sing that particular one to me," she said. "He had said it was a song of encouragement, and I was . . ." She trailed off.

With a sigh, Alison reached out and stroked the gray-scaled neck. For a moment Taneem seemed to resist the touch, then relaxed beneath it. "We all get discouraged sometimes," Alison said. "It's not a crime."

Taneem flicked her tail. "Draycos doesn't get discouraged."

"I'd bet you my left arm he does," Alison countered. "The trick is to get out of that pity pit as fast as you can."

She exhaled tiredly. "And speaking of getting out of things, we've got no more than three days before Stronlo and his people do a full-bore Light Brigade charge to their deaths," she said. "Let's have a little snack, maybe get a little more sleep, and then put our heads together and figure out how we're going to keep that from happening."

CHAPTER 29

The search for the two humans lasted most of the night, with Golvins and lights moving erratically across the canyon floor. By morning, though, the searchers seemed to have given up and gone back to their normal daily lives.

Which wasn't to say there was no danger. For over an hour around sunrise that first morning Jack huddled in the back of the apartment with Langston, hardly daring to breathe, as the Golvins with apartments above theirs climbed down the pillar's ivy coating on their way to their fields and other jobs.

Fortunately, Langston had lived there long enough to have left plenty of residual scent behind. Apparently, it was enough to mask the fresher scents of the fugitives.

Late that evening, for the same hour, Jack and Langston again had to retreat to the rear of the apartment as the Golvins reversed direction and headed back home.

The next three days passed slowly. Though the morning and evening rush hours were the most dangerous, a scattering of Golvins moved up or down at other times during the day, making casual conversation dangerous.

Besides which, after the first day of the limited food rationing Langston worked out, Jack's stomach was rumbling so loudly and so constantly that it was a wonder none of the passing Golvins heard it.

But of more concern to Jack than his stomach, or even his safety, was Draycos.

His biggest fear on that long first night was that the K'da would be so deeply unconscious that he wouldn't be able to return to Jack's skin when it became necessary. Jack and Langston had solved that problem by having Jack strip off his clothing and stretch out on the cold stone floor with Draycos lying full length on top of him. As the time limit approached, the K'da simply melted back onto Jack's skin.

But as Langston had predicted, the bandage came off when Draycos went two-dimensional. Every time after that, whenever he came back off Jack's skin, they found that a little more fresh blood had oozed from the wound.

And while the K'da soon came back to a sort of dreamy consciousness, he remained weak and unable to do much except eat and sleep.

"I just hope he didn't take any damage he can't heal by himself," Langston commented midmorning on the third day as he carefully wiped off the latest bit of blood. "If your numbers areright, the rest of his people are still over a month away."

"He's going to get well," Jack growled. "He is."

"I know, I know," Langston said quickly. "I'm just saying, that's all."

But he was right, Jack knew as he gazed down at his sleeping friend. Draycos was recovering, but slowly. Much more slowly than he'd bounced back from other injuries. He needed medical attention, and medical treatment.

And he wasn't going to get either trapped in the Golvin canyon. "You're right," Jack said with a sigh. "We need to get him out of here." He looked up at Langston. "Tonight."

"Let's not go off half-charged," Langston warned. "If he's got internal injuries or bleeding it might actually be more dangerous to move him than to let him just lie here quietly and heal."

"And starve to death?" Jack countered.