He hopped up onto his stump again, peering off into the night. Jack found himself studying the dragon's silhouette, a black shadow against a slightly lighter background. 'It was different for you, wasn't it?' he asked. 'I mean, your people were fighting for their lives. That must make a difference.'
'It does,' Draycos agreed. 'There were still objections at times, of course, but they were settled by the leaders.'
'Pretty quickly, I'd guess,' Jack said. 'Did all of you have to become warriors?'
'All had to have soldiers' training,' Draycos said. His voice was soft and oddly distant. 'Those who did not serve directly were required to fill support positions. There was no other way.'
'I suppose,' Jack said. So when Draycos called himself a poet-warrior it wasn't really that big a deal? Or was it maybe the poet part he was so proud of? 'So basically any K'da can do what you do?'
The dragon seemed to draw himself up. 'Not at all,' he said stiffly. 'All indeed can become soldiers. But not all are warriors.'
Jack frowned. 'What's the difference?'
'A warrior of the K'da is a special person,' Draycos explained, and there was no mistaking the pride in his voice. 'He or she has certain inborn talents and abilities, plus the desire to turn those talents in the direction of protecting the K'da people. We are found at an early age, and offered this position.'
The tip of his tail twitched. 'No, Jack. One without poetic talent may be able to make two sentences rhyme on occasion. But you would not call him a poet, with the true gift of poetry. So is the difference between soldier and warrior.'
Jack nodded. He'd tried writing a poem once, back when he was ten. The result had been pretty pitiful. 'So how old were you when they started your training?' he asked. 'You said once you were younger than I was when you had your first battle.'
'That is true,' Draycos acknowledged. 'I was not yet a warrior at that time, though, but was still in training. My full training lasted nearly four years.'
'Four years'?'
'Yes,' the dragon said. 'Though I was of course a soldier during much of that time. We could not afford for warriors-in-training to merely be students during a war for survival.'
'Yeah,' Jack murmured. Four years, compared to the ten days he'd just gone through. 'I guess I must seem pretty pathetic to you. I'm barely even a soldier, let alone a warrior.'
'You do as well as your abilities allow,' Draycos said diplomatically. 'Your talents lie in other areas.'
'Right,' Jack said with a sigh. 'And I bet you'd trade three of me right now for a single good soldier.'
'Perhaps that could be arranged,' the dragon suggested dryly. 'Shall I go get Alison?'
Jack glared at him, a waste of effort in the darkness. 'Very funny.'
From behind them came the faint sound of lifters. 'There goes the Lynx,' Jack commented, turning to look.
But nothing could be seen though the trees. The sound changed pitch as the transport shifted to horizontal motion and headed away from the camp. Jack looked up, trying to catch a glimpse of it through the trees. Again, nothing. 'Could you tell which direction it was headed?'
'From the sound, it appeared to be traveling southwest,' the dragon said.
'Back to Mer'seb,' Jack said. Somehow, the sound of the departing shuttle made the darkness out here seem a little deeper. 'Well, good luck to them. They're sure not going to find a welcome carpet spread out.'
'Do you refer to the citizens?' Draycos asked. 'Or do you expect another Shamshir attack?'
'I was talking about the people,' Jack said. 'But as long as you've brought it up, I did overhear Lieutenant Basht telling someone they'd found two Shamshir mercenaries in one of the buildings. They'd been knocked cold, but weren't hurt otherwise. Your handiwork?'
'Yes,' Draycos said. 'The tides of warfare flowed to my advantage.'
'Whatever,' Jack said. 'How come you didn't kill them?'
The dragon's tail arched. 'There was no need. I wished merely to halt their attack. That I did.'
'Yeah, but they'd already killed about ten Edgemen,' Jack pointed out. 'I thought you didn't approve of killers.'
'I do not approve of murderers,' Draycos corrected. 'There is a difference between murder and warfare.'
'That's not what some of our people say,' Jack told him.
This was, he realized dimly, a pretty stupid argument to be having at a time like this. Especially out here, with him wearing a soldier's uniform and carrying a soldier's gun.
But there was something about the darkness and the noises that was making him unusually talkative tonight.
Or maybe it was the silence between the noises that he was trying to fill. 'There are people—a lot of people—who think warfare is just the government's way of—'
'Quiet!' Draycos cut him off. He twisted his head away from Jack, his pointed ears suddenly standing straight up.
For a second, Jack stared past him into the darkness. There was nothing out there he could see. Then, suddenly, his brain caught up with him, and he turned instead to the Argus monitors.
The dragon was right. Something had moved into view on one of the monitors. The image was fuzzy, but it definitely had the basic shape of a human being, and it was moving toward the camp.
Moving toward Jack.
He flipped up the schematic showing where the Argus eyes were positioned, his pulse thudding hard in his neck. Okay; this was Eye Number Three. That was there; which meant the figure coming toward him must be there ...
He didn't realize Draycos had moved to his side until the dragon spoke. 'They are approaching,' he murmured, his breath warm on Jack's ear.
Jack's pulse picked up speed. 'They?' he muttered back. 'There's more than one?'
The dragon's tongue flicked out at one of the other monitors. 'There,' he said. 'And there,' he added, pointing to another.
Jack gripped his flash rifle like he was trying to squeeze it in half. There were two more figures, all right, half hidden behind rocks or trees. Even as he focused on one of them, it moved away from its hiding place and crossed quickly to another one. 'How many are there?' he asked.
There was no answer. 'Draycos?' he repeated, twisting around.
The dragon was gone.
'Draycos!' he called as loudly as he dared, his eyes darting around the darkness.
