backpacks sealed, he knew what
he had to do.
"Okay," Alison said, hoisting her pack onto her shoulders and
bouncing it once to settle it into place. "I thought we'd head west to
the foothills we saw from orbit. They looked pretty rocky—there should
be some caves in there where we can hole up."
"Sounds good," Jack said, bracing himself. Alison was not going to
like this at all. "But we're taking the Phookas with us."
To his mild surprise, she didn't explode in anger or disbelief.
She just stood there, one hand gripping her backpack strap, staring at
him. "And how exactly do you propose we do that?"
It was, Jack decided, a very good question. Unfortunately, he
hadn't yet come up with an answer for it. "I'll go talk to Hren," he
said, taking a couple of steps back and turning around. He spotted the
big Erassva at the far side of the clearing and headed in that
direction.
"Jack, what are you doing?" Draycos asked from his shoulder.
"You want to leave your fellow K'da to the mercenaries?" Jack
asked.
"Perhaps they would be better off dead," Draycos muttered, his
voice dark.
Jack looked down at him. "You really believe that?"
Draycos sighed, a touch of warm dragon breath across Jack's chest.
"No, of course not," he said reluctantly. "What is your plan?"
"Still working on it," Jack said between clenched teeth. Fifty
K'da wandering around, plus however many were currently riding their
Erassva hosts. Call it sixty or seventy. If he wanted all the K'da,
that meant sixty or seventy Erassva hosts as well, all of them bulling
their way through the forest. It would leave a trail Frost's men could
follow in their sleep.
Unless . . . "Draycos, how long does a K'da have to stay on his
host?" he asked.
"He can stay on as long as he wishes," Draycos said, sounding
puzzled.
"I know he can ," Jack said. "But how long does he have to? An hour? Two hours?"
"No more than an hour to fully recover," Draycos said, suddenly
thoughtful. "Perhaps less."
"So that means each Erassva should be able to carry seven K'da,"
Jack said, trying to work it out in his still-sluggish mind. "One hour
on, six hours off."
"Yes, that may work," Draycos said slowly. "Though it would be
safer to include a margin of error."
"Okay, we'll put six with each Erassva then," Jack agreed. "Any
idea how many there are?"
"Sixty," Draycos said. "I counted them."
"So we'll need ten Erassvas," Jack concluded. "Unless you think I
should take a few of them myself."
"We would still need ten Erassvas," Draycos said. "Besides, I must
be free to act at any time."
"Point," Jack agreed with a shiver. Even with a poet-warrior of
the K'da on their side, the odds here weren't looking very good.
"Of course, that also assumes we can make the Phookas understand
all this," Draycos went on. "That may prove difficult."
"Maybe Hren can help," Jack suggested. "They must have some way of
communicating with them."
"Perhaps," Draycos muttered. "Assuming Hren himself understands."
CHAPTER 8
Hren, of course, didn't.
"You want to take our Phookas ?" the big Erassva asked,
blinking his eyes a half-dozen times as he stared at Jack. "But why?"
"Because there are bad men who want to hurt them," Jack said for
the third time. "I want to take them into the forest where they'll be
safer."
"But why would anyone want to hurt them?" the big Erassva
persisted, still blinking. "They don't hurt anyone."
"I know that," Jack said. "As I said, these are bad men."
One of Hren's hands slipped into his robe and began restlessly
stroking his shoulder where the K'da head draped over his skin. "Yet
you are a good man?"
"I try," Jack said, feeling sweat collecting beneath his collar.
They didn't have time for this. "You have to believe me when I say I
care as much about your Phookas as you do."
Hren shook his head slowly. "They cannot go alone," he said, his
forehead creased with concentration. "Not even with you."
"Yes, I know," Jack said. "I'll also need ten Erassvas to come
with us. Maybe you'd
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