"For slaves?"
Alison shrugged. "Slaves need someone to speak for them as much as anyone else. Probably more so."
"Probably," the sergeant conceded, his eyes flicking to the mixed group of aliens standing silently behind her. "Sorry, Kayna, but my orders are to keep the place bottled up until the major finishes his search. That means nobody leaves."
"But these aren't anybody," Alison reminded him. "By Brum-a-dum law, they're property."
Behind the sergeant, one of his men stirred. The other mercenaries didn't look all that comfortable, either. "Yeah, I know," the sergeant said, his voice darkening with contempt. "But we didn't come here to free a bunch of slaves."
"You're not here to keep them in, either," Alison countered. "Or did the Patri Chookoock hire you to do that?"
"Hardly," the sergeant said sourly. "In fact, he may be looking down the barrel of some real trouble right now, depending on what the major finds."
"Then you don't owe him anything. Right?"
The sergeant's face pinched uncertainly. "Well . . ."
"Sergeant?" the soldier who had reacted called. "Do we need to keep this gate closed? It's feeling kind of stuffy over here."
For a long minute the sergeant studied Alison's face. Then, his lip quirked. "Go ahead and open it," he ordered.
"The gate squad might object," one of the other mercenaries warned.
"Make sure they don't," the sergeant said flatly. "Janus formation—we don't want anyone sneaking in behind us."
He motioned Alison forward. "You wouldn't mind marching your livestock past my men, would you?" he asked. "Just to make sure the guy we're looking for isn't tucked away in the crowd."
"No problem," Alison assured him, gesturing in turn to Stronlo. The Eytra lined up his people and led them toward the waiting soldiers.
Shoofteelee, the house slave, was the last in line. His face was rippling with Wistawk emotion, his eyes already gleaming dreamily with the glow of freedom.
Alison waited until they had all cleared the gate before stepping forward herself. "Thank you," she said quietly.
"Like you said, they're property," the sergeant reminded her. "You have someplace to take them?"
Alison nodded. "I understand the Daughters of Harriet Tub man have a station nearby."
The sergeant nodded back. "Good luck."
And a minute later, for the first time in nearly a month, Alison found herself breathing free air again.
She'd almost forgotten how good that felt.
Stronlo was standing nearby, waiting silently with his newly freed compatriots. "Well, come on," Alison said briskly, heading down the entry drive toward the public street and the city beyond. "Your future's waiting."
CHAPTER 30
"There were forty-five in all," Alison commented as she sat down across the dayroom table from Jack. "And did I mention they got Gazen along the way?"
"Yes, you mentioned it," Jack said, his eyes on Draycos and Taneem lying side by side on the dayroom floor, talking together in low voices. "I'm glad for you," he added.
"Thank you." Alison gestured. "You always make sandwiches just so you can ignore them?"
Jack looked down at his plate. There was a sandwich there, all right, with two bites missing. He'd forgotten all about it. "I guess I'm not hungry."
Alison sighed. "Look, Jack. This self-condemnation isn't doing you any good. It's tearing you up inside, not to mention making Taneem, Draycos, and me walk on eggs whenever you're around. You've got to snap out of it."
"That's easy for you to say," Jack bit out, his dark depression abruptly turning into anger. "You freed a bunch of slaves. I got a bunch of Golvins killed. And Langston."
To his extreme annoyance, Alison didn't even flinch at his outburst. "You didn't get anyone killed," she said calmly. "Except this Bolo character, and it sounds like he deserved it. Frost's men are the ones who killed Langston and the Golvins and blew up their crops. Not you."
"They wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been there," Jack shot back. "And I wouldn't have been there if I hadn't decided to play detective."
"You weren't playing anything," Alison said sternly. "You were being a Judge-Paladin." She paused. "Like your parents before you."
Jack closed his eyes, tears welling up as the anger subsided again. "At least they only got themselves killed," he murmured. "I did it to a bunch of innocent people."
"Innocent people are usually the ones who get the short end of the stick," Alison agreed. "That's why it's so important to go after the ones at the top. People like Neverlin, Frost, and the Patri Chookoock."
"And maybe Braxton."
"I already told you Neverlin basically confessed to your parents' deaths," Alison said. "Don't worry—if Braxton's involved, too, we'll get him. But right now it's Neverlin we need to concentrate on."
"We?" Jack echoed. "There's no we here, Alison. There's just Draycos and me. Next decent planet we hit, you're gone."
Across the room, Taneem's head lifted, her eyes glittering toward Jack. "What about me?" she asked.
"You go with her."
Taneem's tail twitched. "I would rather stay with you and Draycos."
"Tough," Jack snapped. "You're both gone."
"No," Alison said firmly. "Not if you want to save Draycos's people."
"And who is it who put them at risk in the first place?" Jack lashed out. Abruptly he stood up, his hand snapping up almost of its own accord and slashing toward her face. "You rotten—"
The blow never reached her. In a single, smooth motion Draycos leaped up from the deck and bounded to Jack's side, his paw catching Jack's hand in a solid grip. "She's not to blame, Jack," the K'da said firmly. "Her life was at stake."
"Is that the kind of excuse a K'da poet-warrior would use?" Jack demanded, struggling to get his hand free.
"No, a K'da warrior would have skipped the excuses and used his time to best advantage," Alison said. Again, she hadn't even twitched. "He would have tried to sow dissension among his enemies." She raised her eyebrows. "And he would have figured out what Neverlin's new plan is."
Jack paused in his struggling, his anger foundering against fresh uncertainty. "What do you mean?"
"Remember earlier, when we discussed their plan and decided that Neverlin couldn't get at the Braxton Universis security ships he originally wanted?" Alison reminded him. "I know where he's planning to get his replacements."
"Where?"
"First a deal," Alison said. "I'm in for the duration. So is Taneem."
"This isn't your fight," Jack insisted.
"It is now," Alison said. "Frost tried to kill me." She considered. "And come to think of it, Neverlin still owes me twenty thousand for opening that safe."
Jack ground his teeth. "Why, you—"
"We're in, or you figure it out yourself," Alison said flatly. "Take it or leave it."
Jack looked helplessly at Draycos. But there was no help for him there. "Fine," he growled. "We take it. Let's hear the big secret."
"Uncle Virge, give me a star map," Alison called, taking both her plate and Jack's off the table. "Make sure the scale includes both Semaline and Rho Scorvi."
The table's surface changed, and a star chart appeared. "Now, when Neverlin had me kidnapped on Semaline, he told me the Advocatus Diaboli was four hours away," Alison said as Taneem padded to her side and peered over her shoulder. "Add that to the map."
A small bubble of space appeared around Semaline, marking the farthest distance a ship with the Advocatus Diaboli's speed could get in four hours. "We also know that the ship was coming from Rho Scorvi, where it had picked up Frost and the rest of his crew," Alison said. "Mark that."