Dragon and Judge

CHAPTER 22

For a long moment no one moved or spoke. Jack? Draycos asked urgently into the taut silence.

Jack measured the distance with his eyes. Way too far, especially against multiple armed opponents. Stay put, he told the K'da. "You don't want to do this, One Among Many," he said quietly. "And there's also no need. You and your people were Bolo's victims in his crimes, not his accomplices. You have nothing to fear from me."

"Do you think it is you we fear, Jupa Jack?" the One demanded, his voice a mixture of bluster and anguish. "It is his people we fear. His people who will now unleash vengeance against us."

Jack felt his stomach tighten. He should have seen that one coming. "Not if I can get the Judge-Paladins' Office on this quickly enough," he said. "Let me go to the spaceport and get a message off to them."

The One's face wrinkled. "We cannot take the risk," he said, his voice regretful but firm.

A chill ran up Jack's skin. "You planned this from the beginning, didn't you?" he said quietly. "Once I was here, you never intended to let me go."

"I am sorry, Jupa Jack," the One said. "I should have sent you away when you first arrived. Now, it is too late." He slowly lowered his arm, and the arrows pointed at Jack dipped slightly to aim instead at the ground in front of him. "You will return now to your apartment."

"As you wish," Jack said, starting to breathe a little easier. He and Draycos were still in big trouble, but at least it didn't look like they were going to be shot. Yet. "But understand this. I said before that you weren't in trouble with the Judge-Paladins' Office. You still aren't. But if you continue to hold me a prisoner you will be."

"Your meals will be brought to you as usual," the One said, as if he hadn't heard a single word of the warning. "Your duties are . . . for the moment . . . suspended." He gestured, and two of the armed Golvins stepped over to Jack's pillar and took up positions on either side of the bridge. "You will go now," he said.

Jack looked at Thonsifi, but her eyes were avoiding his. Clearly, she was upset by all of this. Just as clearly, she wasn't going to interfere. "Very well," Jack said. With as much dignity as he could pull together, he strode between the two waiting Golvins and climbed the bridge into his apartment.

For a moment he paused just inside the doorway, peeking between the colorful streamers as he watched the crowd drift away. Thonsifi was the last to go, her eyes and expressionless face turned up toward his apartment. But finally she, too, lowered her head and walked away. The two Golvins at the foot of his bridge slung their bows over their shoulders within easy reach, and settled themselves as if for a long stay.

Draycos leaped out of the back of Jack's shirt and eased an eye between two of the streamers. "What do you think?" Jack asked.

For a moment the K'da was silent. Then, with a twitch of his tail, he stepped back from the doorway. "They have the look of determination," he said.

"Yeah, so did the One," Jack agreed grimly. "I don't think we're getting out of here anytime soon. Not without a fight, anyway."

Draycos twitched his tail again. "I don't wish to fight these people."

"You think I do?" Jack retorted. "I wasn't just spinning soap dust when I said they were victims. But we can't help them—or ourselves—if we're stuck in here."

"Agreed," Draycos said. "Still, despite their weapons, these are not a warrior people. A few uneventful days, I think, and their vigilance will fade into routine and boredom."

Jack glanced out the doorway at the landing pit. "Though they'll probably stash Bolo's aircar out of sight before then," he warned.

"We'll find it," Draycos assured him. "In a few days we should be able to make our move."

And while they sat here doing nothing, the K'da and Shontine refugees were moving ever closer to their destruction. "I'm sorry, Draycos," he said, dropping wearily onto the couch. "I should have gone straight to Langston's cave, picked him up, and headed straight out again."

"In hindsight, perhaps you should have," Draycos agreed. "But any blame must be shared between us. I also didn't expect such a strong reaction from the One."

"The real irony is that he's probably jumping at shadows," Jack said. "He thinks there's a whole army out there ready to come charging in to avenge Bolo's death."

"You don't believe that will happen?"

"I'm sure of it," Jack said. "You don't share a secret like a double Judge-Paladin murder with any more people than you absolutely have to. I'm guessing that with Bolo gone, the only one who knows anything about this is whoever it was who hired him in the first place."

"Who you believe may have been Cornelius Braxton?"

Jack made a face. "I thought you couldn't read my mind long distance."

"I can't," Draycos confirmed. "But your reaction in the tunnel when Bolo named Braxton Universis wasn't difficult to interpret. And I know that you've never fully trusted the man."

"Do you trust him?" Jack countered.

"I have no reason to distrust him," Draycos said. Which wasn't exactly the same thing, Jack noted privately. "I also see this as more likely the work of Neverlin. It certainly would close the last puzzling links in the chain."

"Which chain is that?"

"How Neverlin knew where our advance team would be arriving," Draycos said. "Our contact group had talked to the Chitac Nomads about buying Iota Klestis for our peoples. The Nomads apparently consulted with Triost, which Uncle Virge said still owned the planet. If Neverlin was in close contact with someone in Triost—"

"Like, say, someone he'd pulled off a double murder with?"

"Exactly," Draycos said. "It would then be reasonable for this person to pass the news about us on to him."

"I suppose," Jack conceded. "That still doesn't let Braxton entirely off the hook, though. In fact, maybe he and Neverlin planned this genocide thing together."

"Neverlin tried to kill him."

"Maybe they had a falling out."

For a moment Draycos didn't respond. "I don't believe Braxton is involved," he said at last. "But you're right, I have no proof. And as you suggest, until we have such proof, it would be prudent to assume all around us are enemies. Or at least potential enemies."

"Yeah," Jack said. "What still gets me is why they were murdered in the first place. If someone was worried Triost was going to lose control of the mine—"

He broke off as the truth suddenly slapped him across the face. "No," he breathed, sitting bolt upright. "They weren't worried about Triost losing the mine. They were worried about them getting it."

Draycos cocked his head in a frown. "I don't understand."

"That's because you're an honorable poet-warrior and not a sleazy-minded corporate thief," Jack said bitterly. "Look. Braxton Universis wants to buy Triost Mining. But they don't want to spend any more money on the deal than they absolutely have to."

He waved a hand upward in the direction of the mine. "But in the middle of their negotiations they find out there's this little mine out in the middle of nowhere that's tied up in a dispute with the locals. They also find out that a pair of Judge-Paladins have been called in to settle the issue."

Draycos's neck arched. "And if the Judge-Paladins ruled for Triost, the company's value would have gone up."

"And so would its price," Jack said, his stomach churning with anger and disgust. Was this all his parents had died for? "So someone decided to make sure there wouldn't be any ruling until after the deal had gone through."

Draycos lashed his tail. "But to commit murder? Weren't they afraid there would be an investigation?"

"Maybe they thought they could cover it up," Jack said. "Besides, even if there was, who would the investigators look at? Not Triost. You heard Bolo—the ruling eventually rolled over in their favor."

"I assumed he was lying about that."

"I assumed so, too, but maybe not," Jack said. "Triost got the mine, Braxton got Triost, and everyone's happy."

"Except your parents," Draycos said quietly. "And you."

Jack stared past the K'da at the colorful streamers rustling in the breeze. His whole body felt like it was on fire, his mind churning back and forth between the urge to scream and the urge to hammer his fists on the stone walls.

And the urge to kill.

"Jack?"

With an effort, Jack pulled his eyes and mind back to his companion. "Tell me, Draycos," he said. "What's the official K'da poet-warrior ethic on the subject of hatred?"

For a moment Draycos didn't answer. "Hatred is an emotion," he said at last. "An honest expression of your feelings of the moment, and therefore nothing to be ashamed of."

"But if I actually did what I want to do right now? I suppose you'd say that was wrong?"

"You cannot find satisfaction in revenge, Jack," Draycos said. "Revenge is a trap which promises something it cannot deliver."

Jack hissed a sigh. "Only justice works, huh?"

"That has been my experience." Draycos's tail twitched. "However, the end result of justice is often the same as the end desired by revenge."

Jack frowned. "Meaning?"

The K'da's tail arched slightly. "If you can prove Cornelius Braxton ordered your parents murdered, and if you wish me to do so, I will kill him."

A shiver ran up Jack's spine. To think it in the dark corners of his mind was one thing. To hear it stated aloud was somehow something else entirely. "I'll keep that in mind," he managed.

For a long moment they gazed at each other in silence. Then, with another twitch of his tail, Draycos turned toward the galley. "In the meantime, we can probably both use some extra healing time. Are you hungry?"

"No, thanks," Jack said. "But go ahead."

"Thank you," Draycos said, popping open the refrigerator and pulling out a plate of meat and fruit. "You said earlier you were convinced of Langston's innocence?"

"Well, his story fits the facts, anyway," Jack said, getting up and sitting down at the table. "We know now why those four Golvins he creamed with his Djinn-90 were poking around topside in the first place. Bolo had warned them not to go into the mine. But like an idiot, he'd also told them the lower parts were flooded."

Draycos's neck arched in sudden understanding. "They were attempting to dig a new tunnel to the water?"

"You got it," Jack said, vaguely pleased that he'd figured it out before the K'da. "I'll give you four to one odds that their families' land is all the way on that side of the canyon, probably as far away from the river as you can get without running into the trees. If they could tap into this supposed new water supply, they could pipe it over to the edge and voila—instant rainfall."

"They were near the mine," Draycos murmured, his tail lashing restlessly. "The One was afraid that if he let Langston leave, Bolo would find out."

"Exactly," Jack said, nodding. "He couldn't take the chance that they'd been close enough to the mine to make Bolo mad."

Draycos's tail tip was making the slow circles of deep thought. "Only it didn't," he said. "We know that because Bolo's informant Foeinatw would surely have sent a message to him about the incident."

"Which Bolo apparently ignored," Jack said grimly. "Which means that Langston's been rotting away out here for five years for nothing."

Draycos flicked his tongue out. "He will not be happy when he finds that out."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not planning to be the one to tell him," Jack said candidly. "Let's at least get him back to civilization before we mention that part."

"Agreed," Draycos said. "Now all we have to do is decide how best to do that."

Jack looked back at the doorway. "Like you said, we've got some time. We'll think of something."