Dragon and Herdsman

The Erassvas hadn't been much interested in the Essenay's approach. They were just as uninterested in the two humans walking across the hairlike grass toward them. A couple of the aliens looked up but then returned calmly to their work of picking berries off the colorful vines that grew up the sides of the trees.

"What?" Alison asked.

"What do you mean, what?" Jack growled.

"You were muttering something."

"Oh." Jack hadn't even noticed he was speaking. "I was just thinking."

"About . . .?"

He gestured at the Erassvas. "I did some berry-picking work a while back. It wasn't very pleasant."

"Ah," Alison said. "Well, in the future, if you want to talk to yourself, talk a little quieter."

Clamping his jaw firmly shut. Jack kept walking. Focusing his attention on the aliens, he tried to force back the memories of the Brummgan slave camp.

The Erassvas were actually quite human looking, if bald, pale-skinned creatures who looked like overweight sumo wrestlers could be said to look human. The twenty children Jack could see were already starting to fill out, while the thirty or forty adults were just plain huge. It was a wonder that their stubby legs could even carry all that weight.

But apparently they could. The Erassvas seemed quite comfortable as they moved back and forth among the trees, picking berries and either eating them right there or else putting them into one of the massive pockets in the heavy greenish-brown robes they wore wrapped kimono-style around their bulk.

Their arms were as strong as their legs, too. Jack watched as an adult weighing at least three hundred pounds hauled himself up on one of the branches, chin-up style, to check out a vine running along the top.

One of the few aliens who had bothered to watch the Essenay's landing looked over again as the visitors approached. He looked them up and down, then detached himself from the group and waddled over to meet them. "A noon sun and satisfied belly to you," he greeted them in heavily accented English. His smile was wide, seeming to split his face in half, and his eyes were half-closed and rather dreamy looking. "I am Hren."

"A noon sun and satisfied belly to you, as well," Alison said, bowing her head toward him. "I'm Alison. This is Jack."

"Fine names for ones so young/' Hren said approvingly. "Have you come to join in our midday song?"

Jack glanced at the sun, which wasn't even close to being overhead. The Erassvas apparently scheduled their rest breaks early. "I'm afraid not," Alison said. "I've come to meet up with two others of our people."

"None such has been seen here for many songs," Hren said, some of the dreaminess going out of his eyes as he frowned thoughtfully at her. "Are you sure you do have the right place?"

"I'm sure," Alison said. "But they may have been delayed. Would you mind if I waited here for them?"

"Your company would be as sweet as a bishti berry," Hren said. "And since you are here, will you not please join us in our midday song?"

He looked at Jack. "You, especially, would be most heartily welcome."

Jack frowned, throwing a sideways look at Alison. "Me?"

"Yes," Hren said, smiling knowingly. "Because of—" He broke off, waving a hand at Jack's chest. "But come," he went on, looking at Alison. "You all are welcome."

"We all?" Alison asked. "Don't you mean we both?"

A slight frown creased Hren's face. "Perhaps I use the wrong word," he said. Puckering his lips, gazing out into space as if in deep thought, he reached a wide hand to the front of his robe. For a moment he flapped it in and out as he fanned air onto his torso. Then he let go, leaving it partway open at the neck.

And Jack froze. Starting from the big Erassva's right collarbone and curving around over his shoulder to his back was a wide green-and-brown tattoo. An image of a large, serpentine creature.

Only it wasn't just any serpentine creature. And it wasn't a tattoo.

It was a K'da.

'Thank you for the offer—" Alison was saying.

"Yes," Jack cut her off. "We would be honored to attend your song."

CHAPTER 6

Hren led the way toward the forest, Jack following behind him with Alison bringing up the rear. She hadn't said a word about Jack's abrupt decision, and he didn't have a clue as to what she thought of it. But at the moment, he didn't really care.

There couldn't be K'da here. There couldn't. Draycos had told him the refugee fleet was coming from an entirely different arm of the galaxy. It had taken the advance team nearly two years of hyperspace flight to get here.

But if that wasn't a K'da wrapped around Hren's body, it was a terrific imitation.

Had Draycos spotted the tattoo? Jack didn't dare ask, not with Alison right behind him. But he could feel the dragon shifting restlessly, and a couple of times he twitched as sharp claws brushed against his skin. Either Draycos had indeed seen the K'da or else he was a lot more agitated by Jack's decision to join the Erassvas' midday song than even Alison was.