Dragon and Liberator

"That's not what I want," Harper assured her. "But even if I did, you'd still do better to stay with me. Mr. Braxton is a much better person to deal with than General Davi."

Taneem flicked her tail in frustration. "I don't know what to do," she whispered. "I don't understand any of this."

"I know," Harper said sympathetically. "It's a crazy business, keeping up with us humans. All you can do is hold on to the fact that Alison's still your friend, and that I'm your friend, and trust us to protect you as best we can."

Taneem looked back at the grille. "Maybe I should go and see if Alison's all right."

"I wouldn't," Harper said. "In fact, I'd stay away from her completely for the next few days. Neverlin's going to be keeping her close from now until the refugee fleet arrives. We don't want him or any of the others spotting you."

"Whereas no one's going to look at you?"

Harper smiled. "Exactly," he said. "Sometimes it pays to be a prisoner."

He pointed toward the small bathroom. "But you should probably go hide in the bathroom for a bit," he said. "They'll be delivering my breakfast soon, and we don't want the delivery boy to see you."

"Very well," Taneem said, padding toward the door. Suddenly, she realized how long it had been since her last meal. "Is there any chance I might be able to take a little of your food?"

"Every chance in the galaxy," Harper assured her. "From now on, what's mine is yours."

He smiled again. "And while we eat," he added, "perhaps you'll tell me more about yourself. And about Jack, and Alison, and Draycos."

The next three days went by slowly for Taneem. Slowly, but in some ways far too fast.

She spent a fair amount of her time roaming the Advocatus Diaboli's ventilation ducts, keeping an eye on Alison and watching Neverlin and Frost at their various activities.

For much of that time, watching the latter two meant crouching by the bridge air duct. Taneem couldn't tell what exactly was happening with the attack force, but they seemed to be moving their various ships in strange ways.

Harper, when she brought back the news of these events, concluded they were doing something he called maneuvers. Those were practice sessions, he told her, to make sure all the ships' crews knew what they were supposed to do when the refugee fleet arrived.

He was eager to learn the details of the maneuvers, and Taneem tried her best. But many of the words Neverlin and Frost used were ones she didn't know and because of that were difficult to memorize. She could only remember bits and pieces, not nearly enough for Harper to put together into a clear picture.

She could tell he was frustrated by her fumbled words and half-remembered phrases. But he never complained. Nor did he criticize Taneem for her shortcomings.

Taneem was grateful for that. She was grateful to him for many other things, too. She still missed Alison, missed her terribly, in fact. But though Harper was a different sort of friend, at the end of those three days Taneem knew that he really was a friend. Like Jack and Draycos, she was slowly coming to realize, friends came in different forms.

Oddly, though, in many ways Harper reminded Taneem more of Alison than he did of either Jack or Draycos. She wasn't sure why.

She was still pondering that puzzle when their friendship came to its end.

CHAPTER 25

Taneem knew something important was happening the minute she eased her head around the edge of the grille and peered down into the Advocatus Diaboli's bridge. Not only were Neverlin and Frost present, but so were Alison and the chief Valahgua, the one they called the Lordhighest.

And all of them had the same sense of tension and alertness about them.

Had the refugee fleet arrived?

Taneem listened closely, trying hard to sort through all the strange terms and phrases. Harper had taught her some of them, so it was a little less confusing than it had been in the beginning. But there were so many of them, and all this was still so very new to her.

Once, she saw Alison glance directly up at the grille she was hiding behind. Taneem tensed, but the girl looked away again without any reaction or comment.

And then, Taneem heard the word Harper had told her specifically to listen for. "Hammerfall One, deploy," Frost ordered toward the radio microphone. "Hammerfall Two, prepare to deploy on my command. Hammerfall Three, continue to hold position."

Deploy. Taneem flicked her tail. Harper had made it clear what she was to do when she heard that word. Letting her eyes linger for a moment on Alison, Taneem backed away from the grille and headed back for Harper's stateroom prison.

He was lying facedown on the floor in his underwear when she arrived, doing an exercise he had told her was called pushups. "Harper?" she called softly from the grille.

"Yeah," he grunted, hopping back to his feet and stepping to the grille. Lately they'd been leaving the grille in place, lest one of the Malison Ring mercenaries catch it open.