Dragonback 04 Dragon and Herdsman (19 page)

"Maybe the Shontine are already so much like you that no one's
ever noticed," Alison suggested. "I'm thinking it might be worth a
little experiment."

"What kind of experiment?" Draycos asked, his voice suddenly
suspicious.

"A very simple one," Alison said. "I take one of the Phookas."

"No," Jack said, the word coming out reflexively.

"Why not?" Alison asked. "You've got a K'da. Why shouldn't I have
one, too?"

"What do you think this is, some kind of style statement?" Jack
growled. "These are living, thinking beings."

"Fine—call it an adoption if you want," Alison said patiently.
"But it's the simplest way to see if it's the environment that's doing
this to them, either the food or their current hosts."

It made sense. Jack had to admit. That was the most irritating
part. But still . . . "I don't know," he said hesitantly. "Draycos?"

"I also do not know," the dragon said, his tail back to its
earlier restless lashing. "It seems wrong to experiment this way with
living beings."

"What are you afraid of?" Alison asked, an edge of challenge in
her voice. "That you'll find out that your particular group of K'da is
the exception? That
this
—" she gestured toward the Phookas—"is
how K'da usually are?"

Draycos seemed to stiffen, and for a moment Jack thought he could
see a little black edging into the gold scales. Was that really what
the dragon was thinking? "That's ridiculous," he jumped in before the
dragon could respond. "Draycos and his people helped plan and stage a
revolt against slavers back when—"

"Yes, Alison," Draycos said quietly. "That is indeed what I fear."

For a long minute no one spoke. "I'm sorry," Alison said at last.
And she really
did
look sorry, Jack thought. "If it helps, I
don't really believe that."

"Yet the universe is what it is," Draycos said. "What we believe
or do not believe does not affect that reality."

"Then let's settle it," Jack said, his mind suddenly made up.
"Uncle Virgil always used to say that no fact was as scary as
uncertainty. Let's grab a Phooka, stick him on Alison's back, and see
what happens."

"You have such a way with words," Alison murmured.

"Shut up," Jack advised her, his eyes on Draycos. "Draycos?"

There was a shuffling sound behind him, and Jack turned to see
Hren waddling toward them. "We are thirsty, young Jack," the Erassva
said.

"There should be some water ahead," Jack told him, getting to his
feet. "If you'll collect the others, we'll get moving."

"Yes, young Jack." Hren headed back toward the other Erassvas.

Jack turned back to Draycos. "We need a decision here, buddy,"
Jack said. "Do you want to pick one of the Phookas, or should Alison
and I do it?"

For another moment Draycos was silent. "Who would you choose?"

"No contest," Jack said. "Has to be Taneem."

"Taneem?" Alison asked.

"The gray one with the silver eyes," Jack told her. "She seems to
have a lot more understanding than the rest of her friends. Not to
mention a lot more curiosity about what's going on."

"Sounds like a good candidate," Alison said, looking around. "You
see her anywhere?"

A bit of gray beside a squat bush caught Jack's eye. "Over there,"
he said, pointing. "I'll go get her."

"Hold it," Alison said. "Let me try something. Taneem? Taneem,
come here."

The gray head appeared around the side of the bush, and Jack could
almost imagine a quizzical look on her triangular face. "Come here,
Taneem," Alison repeated.

And with that, the Phooka came the rest of the way around the bush
and trotted over to them.

"You're right," Alison said to Jack as the Phooka came to a halt
at her side. "So. How exactly do I do this?"

Jack glanced at Draycos, but the dragon remained silent. "Hold out
your hand to her, palm upward," he suggested. "That's how they usually
get aboard the Erassvas."

"Like this?" Alison asked, holding out her hand tentatively toward
Taneem as instructed. Now that the moment had arrived, the girl seemed
to be having a few second thoughts. "I don't need to take hold of her
head or muzzle or anything?"

"No," Jack said. "Okay, Taneem. Go ahead. Go onto Alison."

Taneem looked at Jack, then Alison, then Draycos, and back to
Alison. Then, looking almost as hesitant about it as Alison, she lifted
one of her forelegs and set the paw on Alison's palm.

And with a flicker of gray scales, she vanished up Alison's sleeve.

Alison jerked like she'd touched a live wire. "Good—" She broke
off with a strangled gasp, her whole body twitching violently. "Good
God in heaven," she breathed, settling down a little. "Whoa. That's . .
. that's really intense."

"It'll get easier," Jack said, watching her closely. So far she
looked all right. "How do you feel?"

"Weird," Alison said. She started to rub her stomach, then paused.
"Is it safe to touch her? I mean, I'm not going to accidentally scratch
her off, am I?"

"No, no," Jack assured her. "She's solid and strong and she isn't
going anywhere. At least, not until she decides to get off."

Alison lifted her shirt a little, peering down at her shoulders
and chest. "This is incredible," she said. "I'd never have dreamed . .
. I can't even think of anything to say."

"Well, that's a first," Jack said. "Meanwhile, the Erassvas are
thirsty. You feel up to taking point, or do you want me to do it?"

Alison gave her new companion a last look, then lifted her eyes
resolutely away. "I can do it," she said, all brisk business again.
"Let's go find Greenie and get out of here."

They gathered their traveling companions together, and with Alison
and Greenie in the lead they once again headed north toward the river.

Jack had hoped to stay close to Alison during the march, or at
least to find time here and there to check on her. But with the
Kodiak's attack now in the—for them—distant past, the Phookas and
Erassvas had settled back into their old, careless ways. The Phookas
again wandered freely, rushing off to grab a quick bite or see
something interesting, and Jack again found himself being run off his
feet trying to keep the herd together.

The Erassvas, for their part, began complaining about their thirst
in increasingly loud voices. If the mercenaries were anywhere nearby,
Jack thought sourly, they'd be able to find their quarry with their
eyes closed.

Fortunately, after only about twenty minutes the travelers found a
stream. Everyone drank their fill, and with the Erassvas now at least
quieter they continued on.

The forest's water supply seemed to be getting more abundant. Jack
noticed as he jogged back and forth keeping the Phookas in line. They
were crossing more and more streams now, most of them reasonably
narrow, but a few wide enough to make the travelers get their feet wet
as they crossed.

Possibly as a partial result of the increased water supply, new
plants and trees began to make their appearance. One of them was a
purplish, knee-high shrub with two-inch thorns that reminded Jack of
the hedge wall back on the Chookoock family estate on Brum-a-dum. The
thorns didn't seem to bother the Phookas any, but after nearly impaling
his shin on a pair of the shrubs Jack learned to watch for them and
keep his distance.

Another newcomer was a tall, spindly, and rather rubbery tree that
liked to grow in widely spaced groups of five to twelve. Unfortunately,
they also seemed to come associated with a thin but strong pale green
vine that grew at all angles between the various members of a given
group. Together they formed a netlike structure that had a bad tendency
to block off the best routes through the forest.

The vines were too tough for Jack's and Alison's knives to get
through easily, especially since the springy trees they were attached
to didn't provide a solid foundation for cutting. That meant that
whenever the travelers couldn't go around a group they had to call in
Draycos to slash open a path. Jack tried several times to get the other
Phookas to help out, but the concept of using their claws to cut vines
that weren't concealing food seemed to be completely foreign to them.

Fortunately, not all the new flora was determined to make their
lives more complicated. There was also a yellow-leaved bush with bright
red berries that was greeted with great enthusiasm by the Erassvas. As
near as Jack could gather from Hren's explanation, mumbled around a
mouthful of the berries, it was a plant that grew near the river and
was one of the highlights of their continuous journey around the
forest's edge. The first group of bushes they ran into generated a
half-hour delay as Erassva and Phooka alike happily stood around
stuffing their faces.

Alison wasn't happy with the delay, and wasn't shy about saying
so. But Jack knew that after the scare they'd had earlier a treat like
this would help boost the Erassvas' morale. Sure enough, when they
finally hit the trail again, the uneasy grumbling was gone.

They didn't see any more Kodiaks that afternoon, but near sundown
they did run into another herd of the horn-headed plant-eaters Draycos
had told Jack about. The creatures themselves were about the size of
large elk, with roundish bodies and rather mouselike faces. Each had
two sets of horns: one that looked like extra-long wild boar tusks set
into the sides of their heads just behind their mouths, plus a second
set farther back that reminded Jack of the flat fan shapes of moose
antlers. Nonpredators or not, Alison made sure to give them a wide
berth.

With the day's delays clearly on her mind, she kept them going
until the blue had faded from the sky overhead before finally calling a
halt. With Draycos's help Jack got the Erassvas and Phookas settled
amid a grove of the rubbery trees, situating them where the vine mesh
would give them protection from predators from at least that direction.
Then, leaving Draycos on guard, he went to find Alison.

He found her kneeling beside a stream twenty yards farther along
their path, filling her canteen. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine," she said. "Never better. Why?"

"Why do you think?" Jack growled, studying her profile as he
crouched down beside her. She certainly looked okay. "Taneem been
giving you any trouble?"

"Not really," Alison said. "There was a time a couple of hours ago
when she felt kind of itchy, and back when we were crossing that
extra-wide creek she was moving around or something and tickling me."

"Probably bringing her claws a little ways into their 3-D form and
scratching your skin," Jack said. "Draycos does that sometimes in his
sleep. Never tickles, though."

"You're probably not as ticklish as I am," she said, pulling her
canteen from the creek and recapping it. "Do I need to get her off me
for a while or anything?"

Jack shook his head. "The only limit is how long they can stay
off
you," he said. "Draycos once had to stay on me for three days straight,
and it didn't seem to bother him any."

"Except probably drove him a little stir-crazy," Alison said,
getting back to her feet. "Do we want to bring them in shifts for some
water, or just move the whole camp here for the night?"

"Let's do the shift thing," Jack suggested. "If the mercs decide
to come hunting, they'll probably expect us to park by water."

"Good point," she said. "Okay. If you and Draycos want to start
shuttling them over, I'll go take guard duty with the main group."

"Right," Jack said. "By the way, how many rounds does your Corvine
have left?"

"Eleven," Alison said. "We'd never make it through another
firefight like the one we had two nights ago."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The stars were starting to appear through the treetops by the time
they finally finished getting everyone to the stream and back. Only
then, as they settled in for the night, did Jack and Draycos finally
have a chance to talk.

"What do you think?" Jack asked quietly as they sat together.

"I see no signs of trouble," Draycos said. "Though I am a little
concerned by the fact that Taneem stayed with her the entire day
instead of coming off to eat."

"It sounded like she was sleeping a lot of that time, too," Jack
said, frowning across at Alison. She was little more than a dark
silhouette against the fading light, sitting against the vine netting,
her head slumped forward onto her chest. "Is that abnormal?"

"Not necessarily," Draycos said. "It sometimes takes a while to
adjust to a new host, especially when the K'da is young. Of course,
Taneem
is
an adult."

"On the other hand, this is a radically different host than the
one she's used to," Jack reminded him.

"True," Draycos said, clearly still not convinced. Or else he was
simply afraid to let himself hope that anything would come from the
experiment. "She may simply come off Alison very well rested."

"No, there's more going on here," Jack said, scratching his cheek.
"Remember the red Phooka who fell down that cliff? He didn't want
anything to do with me, and in fact resisted the whole idea until it
was either that or run off the end of his time limit. And even then he
got off me just as soon as he could."

"I'm certain he found the change confusing."

"Confusing and uncomfortable both," Jack agreed. "Taneem, on the
other hand, seems to have taken to Alison like a cat to nip."

For a moment Draycos was silent. "We will have to wait and see, I
suppose," he said at last. "On another more serious subject, did you
hear the air vehicle passing back and forth over the forest for much of
the afternoon?"

"No, I didn't," Jack said, frowning. "How come you didn't say
something earlier?"

"Because you and Alison were busy," the K'da said. "Also, there
was little that either of you could do about it."