Dragon and Judge

Not just a stack of stone, but a real bridge. They started the project some twenty feet out from the pillar, manhandling the stones together into an arch curving upward. Jack wondered how they were holding the stones together, and gradually realized that they were using nothing but their own spit.

Within minutes the arch was high and curved enough that it was threatening to tip over. But other Golvins were standing ready, putting in vertical supports beneath the far end as the rest continued working on the bridge itself.

Fifteen minutes later, it was finished: a climbable archway leading from the ground to the second-floor doorway the Golvins had indicated was to be Jack's new home.

"It is complete," the One said with clear satisfaction as a pair of aliens at the top spit-glued the whole thing to the pillar wall. "Unless you will require handrails?"

"No, this will do fine," Jack assured him, wondering what their spit would do to human flesh if it happened to get on him. Best to make sure he never found out. "Thank you. I'd like to rest a bit, and then you can explain my duties."

The One's face wrinkled. "You do not—? But of course. You wish to see the lists of sides and uprights."

"That would be a good start," Jack agreed. "I'll be out presently." Stepping to the archway, he got a grip on the edges and started climbing.

At first he went carefully, not quite ready to believe the thing was as solid as it looked. But there was no give or jostle at all to the structure, and by the time he reached the top he was convinced. Pushing aside the hanging fringe, he went inside.

The apartment turned out to be brighter than it had looked from outside. Though there were no actual windows, there were a half-dozen waist-high openings in the inner walls where slabs of white rock angled against the outer walls sent a soft glow into the room. Between that and the light filtering in through the doorway fringe, there was enough for him to see that the room was furnished with a couch, two chairs, a small table, a battery-powered light, and a small self-contained galley setup that looked like it had been pulled straight out of an old cargo hauler. Through another pair of doorways in the back he could see what looked like a bedroom and a bathroom. The bathroom's inner workings also seemed to have been scavenged from a spaceship.

"The light must be streaming down onto the stones from above," Draycos murmured from his shoulder.

"Keep it down, buddy," Jack warned quietly, walking around the room and making a quick check of the walls and furnishings. He couldn't imagine a simpleminded people like the Golvins bugging the room of their great and glorious Jupa, whatever the blazes that was. But surrounded by unknown aliens in a canyon three hundred feet deep was no place to take chances.

As it turned out, his first gut feeling was right. The living area wasn't bugged, nor were the bedroom or bathroom. "And so here we are," Jack said, dropping tiredly onto the bed. The mattress felt a little stiff, but not too bad. "Wherever in the name of vacuum sealant here is."

With a brief pressure of paws against Jack's shoulders, Draycos leaped out of the boy's shirt and landed with his usual silent grace on the stone floor. "We are approximately four hundred miles east of the NorthCentral Spaceport," the K'da said, stepping over to one of the white-stone openings and twisting his neck to peer upward into the gap between inner and outer walls. "The western edge of the desert is approximately seventy miles away."

Jack winced as he lay back onto the mattress and closed his eves. Seventy miles. So much for any chance they could simply walk out of here. "Any other helpful tidbits?" he asked, more sarcastically than he'd really intended.

"Possibly," Draycos said calmly. "There are the remains of a mining operation less than a mile to the southeast."

"I already told you there was some mining out here."

"Yes, you did," Draycos acknowledged. "You also told me your parents had been killed in a mine accident."

Jack opened his eyes, frowning at the K'da. "What exactly are you suggesting?"

"And," Draycos added, "the people here seem to recognize your scent."

For a long moment the room was silent. Jack listened to the sudden thudding of his heart, the vague and half-formed memories of his parents flooding back through his mind. "Are you saying," he said at last, "that this is where they died?"

"I don't know for certain," Draycos said, padding to the bed and resting his upper body on the mattress beside Jack. "But the facts seem to point that direction."

Jack's gaze darted around the room, a sudden inexplicable panic flooding into him. Get away! was his first reflexive reaction. Run, before they get you, too.

He took a careful breath, forcing down the panic. He wasn't three years old anymore, after all. "Let's assume you're right," he said. "What do they want from me?"