"Terrific," Jack growled. "And you were planning to mention this when?"
"I wasn't, because it wasn't any of your business," Alison said. "I was expecting you to just drop me and take off."
Jack made a face. But in all fairness, she had told him he didn't have to stay with her. "Yeah, whatever. So bottom line is that they probably won't get here until it's all over."
"Basically," she conceded. "Which means it's up to you and me and Draycos."
"And Uncle Virge," Jack reminded her.
"Assuming the ship survived," Alison agreed. "Incidentally, not that it matters right now, but I don't think Uncle Virgil could have pulled off a personality imprint like that with a P/S/8. That's got to be at least a ten or eleven in there."
Jack shrugged. "He upgraded everything else on the Essenay. Why not the computer system, too?"
"Point," she said. "So if the Essenay doesn't come for us, we'll need to think about a place to hole up for a couple of weeks."
"You speak of the rocky area at the western end of the forest?" Draycos asked.
"Unless you saw something better as we were coming in, I'd say that's our best bet," Alison said. "The problem is that we have a lot of bodies to hide. And a lot of associated mouths to feed."
She looked over at the Erassvas huddled together around their trees. "Unless you're ready to cut them loose."
"No," Jack said firmly.
"It would be easier for us," Alison persisted. "And in all honesty, it might be better for them."
"What, getting abandoned in the woods with a lot of predators they've probably never even seen before?" Jack growled. "How does that qualify as good for them?"
"Because it would get them out of the sights of the predators with guns," Alison said bluntly. "Once we aren't with them anymore, what reason would Frost's men have to bother them?"
"Because they're K'da," Jack said.
Alison raised her eyebrows. "Are they?"
"Of course they are," Jack said. But even as he said it he could feel the sand sliding out from under his argument. After all, Draycos himself had called them animals. Did the physical form matter when the mind wasn't there?
He set his jaw. No. Whether they were as alive and intelligent as Draycos or not, the Phookas still deserved to be treated with dignity. "They are," he repeated firmly. "Besides, we've also dragged the Erassvas out here. We just going to abandon them, too?"
"Well, there's definitely no reason the Malison Ring would care about them," Alison pointed out, looking at Draycos. "You're the local expert, Draycos. Are these K'da, or aren't they?"
Draycos turned to look at the Phookas as they dug for grubs. "They have the form," he said, his tail lashing again. "But for the rest . . . I do not know what could have happened to make them this way."
"Something in the food, probably," Jack said. "It's the same biomass the Erassvas eat from, after all, and they're nearly as oblivious as the Phookas are."
"Though that predator—what did you call it again?" Alison asked.
"A Kodiak," Jack said. "I think it's a kind of bear."
"I notice that Kodiak didn't seem especially lethargic," she said, her voice suddenly thoughtful. "And he's eating from the same biomass. Draycos, you called your relationship with Jack a symbiosis. Does that mean you take nutrients from him?"
"No," Draycos said, his eyes still on the Phookas. "There is no chemical transfer. I take merely a place to rest, and give only companionship and protection in return."
"And advice," Jack added, trying to lighten the tone a little. He couldn't afford to let Draycos slip back into one of these black moods of his. "He gives a lot of advice, too."
"And I'll bet it's sorely needed," Alison said dryly. "No, I was just wondering if there might be more to it than just the Phookas' food."
"Like what?" Jack asked.
"I'm just guessing here," Alison said slowly. "But remember, I saw you playing soldier in the Whinyard's Edge a couple of months ago. You're a lot more confident and capable now than you were then. A lot more."
Jack shrugged. "Maybe I'm just a late bloomer."
"Maybe," Alison said. "But maybe you and Draycos are doing some trading in something besides nutrients. Something like attitudes and skills, maybe."
Jack opened his mouth . . . closed it again. Some of the decisions he'd made back at the slave camp had been suspiciously like those of a certain K'da poet-warrior of his acquaintance. "Draycos?" he invited.
"I do not know," the dragon said. His agitated tail swishing had settled down to the slow circular tip movements that showed he was thinking hard. "No one has ever suggested that such a transfer takes place between K'da and host."
"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 so
mething. 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."
CHAPTER 18
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."
br /> "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."