"The poem begins this way," the Compfrin beside her offered helpfully.
"The night was calm, the battle near,
The enemy was set with fear.
Their eyes had hearkened,
The sky had darkened
Memories we held so dear."
"No," came a quiet voice from behind them.
The entire group spun around, their weapons snapping reflexively up into ready positions.
And there they froze as a muffled gasp rippled through their ranks.
Taneem was crouched above them on a large tree limb, her silver eyes shining like tiny moons in the darkness. "That was incorrect," she said into the taut silence. "This is the correct poem:
"The night was calm, the battle near,
The enemy was wet with fear.
Their ears were hearkened;
They had darkened
Memories we held so dear."
She twitched her tail, her eyes shifting to the Jantri. "I am not the black dragon," she said. "But perhaps I will do."
"You will, indeed," Stronlo said, and Alison could hear a trembling of excitement flowing into his voice. He turned back to Alison. "The dragons have returned. The time is right."
"Right for what?" Alison asked.
"For hope," Stronlo said. "For freedom." He glanced back at Taneem. "For rebellion."
Alison felt a chill run up her back. "Rebellion?" she repeated carefully.
"It has all been planned," Stronlo said. "We are many, and we are ready."
"And the Chookoock family has all the weapons," Alison countered.
Stronlo gave a wide Eytran smile. "We have you and the dragon."
Alison hissed between her teeth. Two months ago, Draycos had single-handedly cleared out an entire layered Brummgan defense across these grounds. Clearly, Stronlo and his fellow rebels were hoping for a repeat of that victory.
But Draycos was a trained poet-warrior. Taneem was a child in an adult's body.
Even worse, the element of surprise had been lost. The Brummgas had seen Draycos in action once. They would know how to deal with those tactics this time.
But Alison could see that none of that mattered. Stronlo and his people were so hungry for the freedom they'd missed out on once that they would brush aside any risk to avoid missing it again. Even if it meant their deaths.
"All right," she said with a sigh. "But not yet. There are people coming who can help us."
"More friends of the dragons?" one of the Eytras asked hopefully.
"Not exactly," Alison hedged. "But they'll be good allies just the same. They should be here in two to three days."
"That is a long time to keep her hidden," one of the Parprins said uncertainly.
"We can do it," Stronlo said firmly. "We will do it."
"Great," Alison said. "Then we'll stay here, and hidden, and you'll get everything ready from your end."
"How will we know when these allies are here?" one of the Compfrins asked.
"Don't worry," Alison said grimly. "If it works out the way I expect, everyone for ten miles will know they're here."
They talked together for another half hour, mostly about the slave compound and the Brummgas' patrol routine. By the time they were finished, Alison had a pretty good idea of what she was up against.
After that, the slaves made their farewells and slipped away into the night, leaving a fresh supply of food and water behind.
"A rebellion," Alison commented grimly as she and Taneem went back into the hut. "Sticks and kitchen knives against lasers, slapsticks, and machine guns. What have we gotten ourselves into this time?"
"You don't approve," Taneem asked, her voice oddly cool.
"I don't approve of people getting themselves killed for nothing, no," Alison countered, sitting down on the bed. "Because that's what's going to happen."
"You said the Malison Ring would help them."
Alison snorted. "I said that to try to stall Stronlo off for a couple of days," she said. "The strike force isn't going to care if a bunch of slaves get themselves slaughtered."
"The Malison Ring approves of slavery?" Taneem asked, her tail lashing.
"The Malison Ring has its own agenda, and that doesn't include playing white knight to every downtrodden group of people they run across," Alison said. "That's more Jack's and Draycos's style."
The tail lashed a little harder. "But not yours?"
Alison gazed into those silver eyes, her stomach tightening. What was she supposed to say? "We can't fix the whole universe, Taneem," she said. "No one can. Right now, we're in way over our heads. We're going to be lucky if we get out of here with our skins intact."
"I understand," Taneem said. "Like the Malison Ring, we have our own agenda."
Alison winced at the K'da's tone. "If it makes you feel any better, remember that part of that agenda includes protecting Draycos and his people."
Taneem's eyes glittered. "Draycos and my people," she corrected quietly.
"Right," Alison said, searching for a way to get off this topic. "Speaking of which, how in space did you know that poem of Draycos's? It wasn't something the Phookas sang together, was it?"
"Of course not," Taneem said, an odd mixture of pity and revulsion in her voice. "They weren't . . . that is, we weren't able to create such songs. Draycos taught it to me afterward."
"And happened to mention that it was the one he'd sung to Noy?"
Taneem turned her head away. "I asked him to sing that particular one to me," she said. "He had said it was a song of encouragement, and I was . . ." She trailed off.
With a sigh, Alison reached out and stroked the gray-scaled neck. For a moment Taneem seemed to resist the touch, then relaxed beneath it. "We all get discouraged sometimes," Alison said. "It's not a crime."
Taneem flicked her tail. "Draycos doesn't get discouraged."
"I'd bet you my left arm he does," Alison countered. "The trick is to get out of that pity pit as fast as you can."
She exhaled tiredly. "And speaking of getting out of things, we've got no more than three days before Stronlo and his people do a full-bore Light Brigade charge to their deaths," she said. "Let's have a little snack, maybe get a little more sleep, and then put our heads together and figure out how we're going to keep that from happening."
CHAPTER 29
The search for the two humans lasted most of the night, with Golvins and lights moving erratically across the canyon floor. By morning, though, the searchers seemed to have given up and gone back to their normal daily lives.
Which wasn't to say there was no danger. For over an hour around sunrise that first morning Jack huddled in the back of the apartment with Langston, hardly daring to breathe, as the Golvins with apartments above theirs climbed down the pillar's ivy coating on their way to their fields and other jobs.
Fortunately, Langston had lived there long enough to have left plenty of residual scent behind. Apparently, it was enough to mask the fresher scents of the fugitives.
Late that evening, for the same hour, Jack and Langston again had to retreat to the rear of the apartment as the Golvins reversed direction and headed back home.
The next three days passed slowly. Though the morning and evening rush hours were the most dangerous, a scattering of Golvins moved up or down at other times during the day, making casual conversation dangerous.
Besides which, after the first day of the limited food rationing Langston worked out, Jack's stomach was rumbling so loudly and so constantly that it was a wonder none of the passing Golvins heard it.
But of more concern to Jack than his stomach, or even his safety, was Draycos.
His biggest fear on that long first night was that the K'da would be so deeply unconscious that he wouldn't be able to return to Jack's skin when it became necessary. Jack and Langston had solved that problem by having Jack strip off his clothing and stretch out on the cold stone floor with Draycos lying full length on top of him. As the time limit approached, the K'da simply melted back onto Jack's skin.