Dragon and Herdsman

CHAPTER 11

His offer to watch the Phookas, Draycos quickly discovered, was easier to make than to fulfill.

For starters, the creatures were every bit as irresponsible and simple minded as Jack had warned. With the Erassvas mostly out of their sight, it took nothing more than an interesting log or bush or rock to lure many of them off the proper path. No sooner had Draycos gotten one back on-course than someone else would wander away.

It was a constant job just keeping track of them all. From the sounds of rapid footsteps he could hear on the other side of the traveling formation, he could tell that Jack wasn't having any easier a time of it.

What was far worse than the physical activity, though, was the constant pain of seeing his people reduced to animals.

If that was indeed what had happened to them. Because there was another, far worse possibility.

The possibility that this was in fact the natural state of the K'da. That it was only through their long relationship with the Shontine that Draycos's people had been lifted to the level of civilized beings.

It was a terrifying thought. If it was true, it would mean that the legends about their early relationship with the long-lost Dhghem were false. It would mean that stories of how the kidnapped K'da had planned and executed an escape from the Cark slavers were completely made up.

It would mean their entire history was a lie.

To his surprise and shame, he found that he couldn't face such a possibility. He, Draycos, poet-warrior of the K'da, had finally found something he was frightened to face.

So instead, he threw himself into his work, focusing his full attention on keeping his half of the herd in line. Perhaps later, when things were quiet, he would be able to take the time to think about who and what he and his people truly were.

It was just as well that he chose to ignore such questions and turn his full attention on the duties of the present. It was on one of his wider-ranging herding swings that he discovered the Malison Ring's trap.

It came as a distant but familiar whiff of scent as he was corralling a particularly stubborn K'da. Somewhere to their left, he recognized, a group of humans had gathered.

For a few seconds he stood still, his tail hooked firmly in the errant K'da's crest, trying to decide what to do. The humans weren't very close, probably at least a mile away. If he left immediately, he should be able to see what they were up to and get back before Jack and the others got too close.

But if he left right now, this particular K'da would almost certainly wander off again.

The greatest good for the greatest number. It was one of the basic rules of life and warfare, a rule he'd been taught in childhood. From some of the comments Uncle Virge had made over the past three months, he knew it to be a human saying as well.

And yet he also knew that a warrior could focus so much attention on the greater number that the needs of the individual became lost in the mist.

So where did his responsibilities lie here?

From behind him came a soft snuffle, and he turned his head to look. The gray-scaled K'da, the one he'd dubbed Taneem, was watching him, a mildly puzzled expression on her face.

Draycos cursed beneath his breath. He didn't have time for this.

And was instantly ashamed of himself. The needs of the individual . . .

A sudden idea struck him. If Draycos's people had indeed been raised up from the level of animals, maybe that potential lay deep within these K'da, too.

And if Taneem could learn, perhaps he could kill two lizards with one slash. "You," he called softly to her. "Gray K'da."

She cocked her head slightly to the side, her puzzlement deepening. "Yes, you," Draycos confirmed. "You—Taneem. Your name is Taneem now. Come here, Taneem."

Still looking uncertain, she nevertheless came to his side. "Take your friend," Draycos ordered her, unhooking his tail from the rogue K'da's crest. "Go ahead—wrap your tail around his crest and lead him back to the others. Can you do that?"

For a few seconds it seemed that he would have done as well to talk to one of the shrubs. Taneem stared unblinkingly at him, apparently trying hard to sort it all out. Then, to Draycos's mild surprise, she stepped to the other K'da's side and tentatively looped her tail around his crest. "That's right," Draycos said encouragingly. "Perfect. Now take him back to the others and stay there with him. I'll be back soon."

Again, it seemed to take her some time to work it through. Then, with a flick of her tongue she turned back toward the group, the other K'da in tow. With one final lingering look at Draycos over her shoulder, she disappeared around a clump of tall ferns.

Draycos didn't wait to see any more. If they made it, they made it. Turning to his left, he headed toward the distant human scent.

The telltale odor increased steadily as he traveled, but as near as he could tell the intruders were stationary. He kept going until he'd reached a spot perhaps a hundred feet away from them, then shifted to stalking mode. He covered the last bit of distance as silently and carefully as he could manage.

It was just as well that he did.

The primary line consisted of Malison Ring soldiers spaced about a hundred feet apart. All were dressed in camouflage outfits, all of them hidden inside patches of reeds or ferns where they were all but invisible. Sitting silently in concealment, they were waiting for Jack and Alison to walk right into their arms.

Under normal circumstances, Draycos would have had no trouble dealing with them. He would have simply climbed into the treetops, worked his way behind the line, and taken out the soldiers one by one.

But as Jack had warned, Colonel Frost knew what he and his men were up against. This time, they'd come up with a new twist.

Just behind the main picket line a second line had been set up in various tree branches twenty feet off the ground. If Draycos had carelessly gone with the standard approach, he would have ended up squarely in their line of fire.

And as an extra added touch, the upper line consisted of nonhumans of species Draycos hadn't yet encountered in his travels with Jack. Frost had probably hoped their unfamiliar scent would help conceal them.

Slowly, carefully, Draycos backed away, watching for any other surprises the enemy might have planned. But the double picket line appeared to be the full extent of their cleverness. At least for the moment.

He took the long way back to Jack and the others, paralleling the picket line at a cautious distance. After a quarter mile the double line ended, replaced by a single line of soldiers spaced much farther apart.

Apparently, Frost had followed Alison's same line of reasoning regarding the caves to the west. He was expecting the fugitives to head in that direction, and had arranged his forces with that in mind.

Still, even a thin picket line could be trouble, especially to a crowd of unstealthy Erassvas and Phookas. Draycos and Jack would have to find a way to slip the group past the sentries without being detected.

Draycos had worried a little that Alison might have made too much progress toward the hidden enemy in his absence. To his relief, he found everyone sitting or lying comfortably on the ground not far from where he'd left them.

Jack was walking the perimeter, his tangler ready in his hand. Draycos waited until he was looking in his direction, then lifted a paw into view. Jack changed direction, and half a minute later Draycos was once again pressed against his host's skin.

"You okay?" Jack murmured as he resumed his patrol.

"Yes," Draycos said. "Why have we stopped? Is it the bellwether's turn for a host?"

"No, not yet," Jack said. "I saw Taneem come back leading one of the other Phookas and figured you'd spotted trouble. I thought it might be a good idea to go to ground for a while, so I called a rest break."

"It was well that you did," Draycos said. "We have a problem."

Jack listened in silence as Draycos laid out the situation. "And you don't think we can slip past them even if we keep going north?" the boy asked when he'd finished.

"You, I, and Alison could," Draycos said. "But the others could not."

"So what we need is for all the soldiers to go away."

"Yes," Draycos said. For all the danger they were in, he felt a trickle of encouragement that the thought of abandoning the Erassvas and K'da had apparently not even crossed Jack's mind. The me-first attitude that Uncle Virgil had spent all those years hammering into the boy was fading away with gratifying speed. "Perhaps I can arrange a diversion."

Jack shook his head. "A K'da diversion is the first thing they'll expect," he said, chewing thoughtfully at his lip. "I wonder how clever they think we are. And how stupid."

"What do you mean?" Draycos asked.

"This." Reaching to his collar, Jack removed his comm clip. "I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but there's a way to gimmick comm clips so that they can be made to work as transmission scanners."

"With the ability to search for enemy transmissions?"

"Exactly," Jack said. "You usually can't actually eavesdrop on anyone, since most comm clips operate with full encryption. But if we had a clip like that we could estimate the strength of the mercs' own comm clip signals and get an idea of how close they were."

"Do we have such a device?" Draycos asked.

Jack shook his head. "There are a couple on the Essenay, but neither of the two I have with me can do that. But Frost has to know about the technique. If he thinks I'm clever enough, and if my comm clip suddenly goes on without me talking to anyone, he may think that's what I'm doing."

"But as Alison said earlier, turning it on may also give them the ability to locate us," Draycos warned.

"Right," Jack said, grinning tightly. "And that's the how-stupid-am-I part. How far away did you say you drove that herd of horn-headed plant-eaters?"

Draycos cracked his jaws open in a smile of his own. "Not far," he said. "How shall I attach it?"

"Use this," Jack said. He glanced toward Alison, then surreptitiously slid one of the cartridges out of his tangler. "If you pop off this cap, the netting will just slide free instead of blasting out."

Draycos lifted his head slightly from Jack's shoulder for a closer look. The technique seemed straightforward enough. "What about the electrical shock?" he asked.

"Good point," Jack said, frowning. "I'd better take out the capacitor."

"Or you could simply adjust its strength," Draycos suggested. "We don't wish to put the animal to sleep, but a small jolt may encourage him to leave his grazing and move away from the area more quickly."

Jack cocked his head in salute. "Good point number two," he said. "Let's see what I can do."

Three minutes later, the cartridge was ready. "Remember, just attach it and then get back here," Jack said. "And don't get him moving too fast. We don't want Frost wondering why Uncle Virgil trained me to be a thief instead of an Olympic distance runner."

"I know what to do," Draycos assured him. "Don't leave this place until I return."

"We won't," Jack promised. "Good luck."