Dragonback 04 Dragon and Herdsman (8 page)

"That's better," Alison said. "Come on."

She got a grip on his arm and started pulling him back toward the
path. "Where are we going?" Jack asked.

"I've got camping gear in my travel bags, enough for a couple of
weeks if we're careful," she said. "We break it out, pack it for
travel, and find someplace to hole up."

"What if they find us?"

"Then we do what we can," she said. "It's still better than being
caught out here in the open."

Jack took another deep breath. She was right, of course. But the
shock of losing the
Essenay
still pressed like a strangle cord
across his mind. It was hard to think about anything else, even
survival.

But Draycos wouldn't be nearly so handicapped. If Jack could just
talk with him a moment . . .

They reached the first turn in the path. "Go ahead and start
packing," Jack told Alison, waving her ahead as he slowed down. "I need
to do something first."

She frowned. "Like what?"

"It'll just take a second," he promised. "Go on; get going."

She hesitated, then nodded. "All right, but hurry. And stay under
the trees."

She turned and disappeared around the turn. "Probably thinks I
need to cry about the
Essenay
," he muttered, looking down at
Draycos.

"Jack—"

"No, it's all right," Jack cut him off. "The
Essenay
was
just a thing. In the great grand scheme, things aren't important." He
swiped at his eyes again. "And Uncle Virge was just a computer program.
I did my crying for the real Uncle Virgil a year ago."

"I understand," Draycos said. "However—"

"Jack?" Alison's voice wafted over the bushes. "Come on, move it."

"Coming," Jack called back. "What I need to know right now," he
said, lowering his voice again, "is whether or not it's safe for us to
stay with Alison."

"Yes," Draycos said without hesitation. "I do not know why, but I
believe we can trust her. At least, for the moment."

Which wasn't to say she wasn't working some private agenda of her
own, Jack reminded himself. Somewhere along the line, that agenda could
easily branch off from his.

Still, there
had
been that look on her face when Colonel
Frost came on the comm. She apparently didn't want to see him any more
than Jack did. "Close enough," he told the dragon, starting forward
again. "Let's do it."

"Jack—"

"Later," Jack said as he reached the clearing and again threaded
his way through the lethargic Erassvas.

Alison was busily stuffing the contents of the two travel bags
into a pair of lightweight backpacks when he reached her. "You get your
booby trap set?" she asked.

"Booby crap?"

"Isn't that what you stayed behind for?" she asked, frowning up at
him briefly before returning to her sorting. "To slow them down a
little?"

"I was going to," Jack lied. Clearly, his brain was still only
working at half speed. "But I figured the Erassvas might get caught
before Frost's thugs got here."

"Probably right," she conceded. "Maybe we can do something further
on. Give me a hand."

"Sure." Jack dropped to his knees and started sorting a pack of
ration ban into the two bags.

And as he did so, he felt a breath of hot air on the back of his
neck. Twisting his head around, he found himself nose to muzzle with
the gray-scaled K'da he'd noticed earlier.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alison snatch her gun from its
holster. "Easy," he said quickly. For a long moment the silvery eyes
stared into his, as if the K'da was trying to work out who exactly this
new creature was and what it was doing in its nice quiet forest. Then,
the eyes blinked slowly, and the head turned away, and the K'da
wandered off.

Alison let her breath out in a huff. "I sure hope you're right
about them being well fed," she said, setting the gun down on the grass
beside her.

Jack gazed at the gray dragon as it sniffed along the edge of a
fallen tree, an uncomfortable feeling stirring inside him. If Frost was
one of Neverlin's partners, he would know all about K'da. Including the
fact that Jack had one with him.

Which meant that when Frost and his men saw the Erassvas and their
little group of Phookas . . .

"You think we can get this done
today
?" Alison's voice cut
into Jack's musings.

"Sorry." Shaking the thought away, he got back to his packing.

But the thought refused to leave. Frost, Neverlin, the K'da . . .
and by the time Jack and Alison had the backpacks sealed, he knew what
he had to do.

"Okay," Alison said, hoisting her pack onto her shoulders and
bouncing it once to settle it into place. "I thought we'd head west to
the foothills we saw from orbit. They looked pretty rocky—there should
be some caves in there where we can hole up."

"Sounds good," Jack said, bracing himself. Alison was not going to
like this at all. "But we're taking the Phookas with us."

To his mild surprise, she didn't explode in anger or disbelief.
She just stood there, one hand gripping her backpack strap, staring at
him. "And how exactly do you propose we do that?"

It was, Jack decided, a very good question. Unfortunately, he
hadn't yet come up with an answer for it. "I'll go talk to Hren," he
said, taking a couple of steps back and turning around. He spotted the
big Erassva at the far side of the clearing and headed in that
direction.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Draycos asked from his shoulder.

"You want to leave your fellow K'da to the mercenaries?" Jack
asked.

"Perhaps they would be better off dead," Draycos muttered, his
voice dark.

Jack looked down at him. "You really believe that?"

Draycos sighed, a touch of warm dragon breath across Jack's chest.
"No, of course not," he said reluctantly. "What is your plan?"

"Still working on it," Jack said between clenched teeth. Fifty
K'da wandering around, plus however many were currently riding their
Erassva hosts. Call it sixty or seventy. If he wanted all the K'da,
that meant sixty or seventy Erassva hosts as well, all of them bulling
their way through the forest. It would leave a trail Frost's men could
follow in their sleep.

Unless . . . "Draycos, how long does a K'da have to stay on his
host?" he asked.

"He can stay on as long as he wishes," Draycos said, sounding
puzzled.

"I know he
can
," Jack said. "But how long does he
have
to? An hour? Two hours?"

"No more than an hour to fully recover," Draycos said, suddenly
thoughtful. "Perhaps less."

"So that means each Erassva should be able to carry seven K'da,"
Jack said, trying to work it out in his still-sluggish mind. "One hour
on, six hours off."

"Yes, that may work," Draycos said slowly. "Though it would be
safer to include a margin of error."

"Okay, we'll put six with each Erassva then," Jack agreed. "Any
idea how many there are?"

"Sixty," Draycos said. "I counted them."

"So we'll need ten Erassvas," Jack concluded. "Unless you think I
should take a few of them myself."

"We would still need ten Erassvas," Draycos said. "Besides, I must
be free to act at any time."

"Point," Jack agreed with a shiver. Even with a poet-warrior of
the K'da on their side, the odds here weren't looking very good.

"Of course, that also assumes we can make the Phookas understand
all this," Draycos went on. "That may prove difficult."

"Maybe Hren can help," Jack suggested. "They must have some way of
communicating with them."

"Perhaps," Draycos muttered. "Assuming Hren himself understands."

Hren, of course, didn't.

"You want to take our
Phookas
?" the big Erassva asked,
blinking his eyes a half-dozen times as he stared at Jack. "But why?"

"Because there are bad men who want to hurt them," Jack said for
the third time. "I want to take them into the forest where they'll be
safer."

"But why would anyone want to hurt them?" the big Erassva
persisted, still blinking. "They don't hurt anyone."

"I know that," Jack said. "As I said, these are bad men."

One of Hren's hands slipped into his robe and began restlessly
stroking his shoulder where the K'da head draped over his skin. "Yet
you are a good man?"

"I try," Jack said, feeling sweat collecting beneath his collar.
They didn't have time for this. "You have to believe me when I say I
care as much about your Phookas as you do."

Hren shook his head slowly. "They cannot go alone," he said, his
forehead creased with concentration. "Not even with you."

"Yes, I know," Jack said. "I'll also need ten Erassvas to come
with us. Maybe you'd be willing to be one of them?"

For a long moment Hren stood without speaking, still stroking his
K'da as he gazed out into space. Then, abruptly, the look of
concentration disappeared. "Then we must go at once," he said, hauling
his bulk to his feet. "I will gather the other"—he held out his hands,
frowning hard at the fingers—"the other nine," he concluded. "We will
meet you there." He pointed to the far side of the clearing, where Jack
could see the entrance to another path.

"Thank you," Jack said. "One other thing. My friend Alison must
not be allowed to see how the Phookas come onto and off of your skin."

"Why not?"

"Because she won't understand," Jack told him. "The whole thing
may terrify her, and cause her to abandon us and run off. We can't let
that happen, for her sake as well as ours. Can you make sure the
Phookas and other Erassvas understand that?"

Hren eyed Jack closely. "You have many secrets, young Jack," he
said. "Perhaps too many. Very well. I will make the arrangements."

Alison was still standing where Jack had left her. "Well?"

"He's coming," Jack said, grabbing his pack and hoisting it onto
his back. Settling it in place, he walked over to a pair of K'da who
were probing with their muzzles at the base of a patch of reedy plants.
"And he's bringing a few more of the Erassvas to help."

"To help with what?" she called after him. "Breaking trail?"

"They'll meet us at that path," Jack said, ignoring the comment.
The two K'da, he saw now, were busily gobbling down some small lizards
they'd flushed from the reeds. "Okay, Phookas," he said soothingly,
waving his hands in a sweeping motion that probably looked as
ridiculous as it felt. "Time to go. Come on—that way."

The two dragons paused in their meal long enough to bring their
heads up and look blankly at him. Then, without budging an inch, they
returned their attention to the lizards. "Draycos?" Jack muttered. "You
people have a 'mush' command or something?"

"Try pulling gently against their crests, at the point where they
descend from the back of the head down the neck," Draycos suggested.

"Okay," Jack said doubtfully. Stepping between the two K'da, he
got a hand behind each of their crests. Trying not to think about Uncle
Virgil's old warning about never bothering a dog when it was eating, he
gingerly applied some pressure.

The two K'da looked up again, and Jack had the distinct feeling
that they were mildly surprised at the liberty he was taking with them.
But neither seemed inclined to run or, more important, to bite.

"A little harder," Draycos said.

Setting his teeth. Jack did so. This time, to his amazement, the
K'da stood upright and began walking in the direction he was pulling.
"I'll be fraggled," he muttered, keeping the pressure steady as he
settled in between them.

"So that's the technique, huh?" Alison said from behind him.

"It'll do for a start." Jack said, looking around. Unfortunately,
it was going to take way too long to get sixty K'da moving this way.
"What we need is the head Phooka," he said, searching his memory. Uncle
Virgil had often used animal and nature examples and analogies in his
training. "The bellwether, I think it's called."

"The one everyone else follows," Alison said, nodding. "Great. Any
idea how we figure out which one that is?"

"Give me a minute," Jack said, doing a slow turn to give Draycos a
good look. "Mm?" he murmured toward his shoulder.

"There," Draycos murmured, his tongue lifting slightly from Jack's
skin to point at a large emerald green K'da with three smaller dragons
of different colors following closely behind him. "Try him."

"Let's try him," Jack said, pointing to the green dragon.

"I'll go," Alison volunteered. "You might as well get those two on
the path."

She headed off. "Jack, I must speak to you," Draycos said as the
boy got his two K'da moving again. "We cannot follow Alison's plan of
hiding in the foothills."

"Why not?" Jack asked.

Draycos hesitated. "Because there is a chance the
Essenay
is still intact and functional."

Jack felt his chest tighten. "Why didn't you say so before?" he
demanded.

"I tried, but you gave me no opportunity," the dragon said. "Do
you remember my telling Uncle Virge to use the Saga of Fristra?"

Jack nodded. "You called out one of your fancy K'da maneuvers,
then said that."

"Correct," Draycos said. "Fristra was a young Shontin who was
trapped by enemies at the edge of a grassy cliff. With no other hope of
escape, he set fire to the grass, and under cover of the smoke leaped
into the river below."

"That last explosion, and then the ship disappeared," Jack said
slowly, thinking back. "And he was just about over the river, wasn't
he?"

"Yes," Draycos said. "The questions are two. First, could the
Essenay
survive such a dive into the water? And second, would it be able to
conceal itself afterward from the transport's sensors?"

"Yes to the first, I think," Jack said, his pulse pounding with
new hope. He should have known Uncle Virge wouldn't have gone so
easily. "The
Essenay
was pretty tough to begin with, and Uncle
Virgil put a lot of money into building it up. And I'd say a probable
yes to the second, too. You've seen the chameleon hull-wrap in action.
It's as close to invisibility as you can get."