Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge (24 page)

"I'm sorry," Draycos said, looking at Jack. "I was only trying to
disable him."

"It's okay," Jack said. It hurt his throat to talk, and his voice
was unexpectedly raspy in his ears. "Hard floor in here."

"Harder than I realized," Draycos said ruefully, looking Jack up
and down. "What about you?"

Jack shook his head. "I'll be okay. You?"

"I'm unhurt," Draycos said. He looked back down at Bolo. "What do
we do now?"

Jack gazed down at the dead man, a strange mixture of emotions
swirling through him. Uncle Virgil, criminal though he was, had
consistently hammered into Jack that he was never,
ever
to kill
anyone.

Of course, that hadn't been so much from respect for life as it
was the fact that killing during one of their jobs could bring huge
penalties down on top of them. Still, the training was there, and it
had taken firm hold over Jack's heart and soul. So much so, in fact,
that when he and Draycos had first linked up he'd made a point of
explaining to his new partner that K'da warrior rules about summary
justice didn't apply here in the Orion Arm.

And yet, despite all that, Jack couldn't help but feel a dark
satisfaction at Bolo's death. After eleven years, justice had finally
been done for his parents.

Resolutely, he turned his eyes away. "What we do," he told
Draycos, "is get in that aircar and get the blazes out of here."

"What about Jonathan Langston?" Draycos asked.

Jack grimaced. He'd forgotten all about the Golvins' secret
prisoner. "What about him?"

Draycos cocked his head slightly to the side, and Jack grimaced
again. "You're right," he conceded with a sigh. "Fine. We'll go back
and get him out."

"We must at least try to determine whether or not his story is
true," Draycos said, stepping away from Bolo and padding to Jack's
side. "You must find a way to convince the One to allow a hearing."

"Not necessary," Jack assured him. "Langston's telling the truth."

Draycos's neck arched with surprise. "How do you know?"

"Simple logic," Jack said, rubbing at his throat. "Tell you later."

They went out to the aircar and Jack climbed into the pilot's
seat. He glanced around, checking the controls—"Uh-oh," he muttered.

"What is it?" Draycos said, lifting his head from Jack's shoulder.

"That," Jack said, pointing at a small flat box half hidden
beneath the instrument display panel. "It's a UniLink, a gadget for
patching through to the nearest InterWorld transmitter and sending
direct messages." He pulled it out on its attached cable and peered at
the display. "And I'd say it's just been used."

"Do you think Bolo sent out word of your death?"

"Let's hope that's all the message said," Jack said, tucking it
back away out of sight and turning on the main engines.

"Wait a moment," Draycos said. "Can we use that to contact the
Essenay
?"

Jack shook his head. "A UniLink's designed to send to only one
specific location, which means it's got the target receiver preloaded,"
he explained. "They're also typically loaded to the gills with
encryption and ping-testers. No, we'll have to grab Langston and head
back to the spaceport InterWorld building and call Uncle Virge the
old-fashioned way."

As a passenger, Jack had already seen that flying into the canyon
took a great deal of concentration and skill. As a pilot, he quickly
found out that it took all that and then some. Twice the shifting winds
nearly blew the aircar sideways into one of the stone columns, and once
he came within inches of ramming a guy wire he hadn't noticed.

But after what seemed like twice the time all his earlier trips
had taken, he made it through and set the aircar down onto the landing
pit.

A small crowd was waiting there, standing in a nervous-looking
cluster at the northern end of the pit. A pace or two in front of the
others were Thonsifi and the One.

"Good morning, One Among Many," Jack greeted the latter as he
walked toward the group. "My apologies for the delay. I'm now ready to
begin the day's judging."

"Where is he?" the One demanded, his eyes flicking past Jack's
shoulder to the aircar's empty passenger seat.

"You mean Bolo?" Jack asked pointedly. "The man who wrecked your
other Assembly Hall and murdered two Judge-Paladins?"

The One twitched violently, his face turning into a solid mass of
wrinkles. "Disaster and death," he whispered. "I was right. You have
brought disaster and death upon us."

"Relax—I'm not blaming you," Jack said. "Neither will the
Judge-Paladins' Office when they—"

"No!" the One cut him off, his voice edging into panic. "You
cannot tell them! You must not tell them!" He jabbed his right arm
straight up into the air.

And suddenly, the entire front of the waiting crowd sprouted bows
and arrows.

All of the arrows pointed straight at Jack.

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."