far end beneath a huge wood carving of the Whinyard's Edge insignia. The woman who had escorted the teens in from the bus was seated at one of the desks, while an older gray-haired man sat at the other.
Off to either side of the main room, near where Jack had entered, were a pair of unmarked doorways. One of the doors was slightly ajar, and through it Jack caught a glimpse of the simple desk and filing cabinets of a secretarial work station. On the far back wall, behind the fancy desks and directly beneath the wooden insignia, was a door with a picture of a dagger painted on it and what looked like a motto stenciled around its edge.
The number of teens in the reception room was a surprise. Even huddled together like sheep the way they were, they filled the room all the way to the walls. The bus Jack had seen pull up must have been only the last of a group of them, possibly bringing in new recruits from several different parts of the spaceport. Apparently, the Whinyard's Edge was holding an even bigger recruitment drive than he'd realized.
Briefly, his mind flicked back to his confident statement to Uncle Virge that there were no major wars going on anywhere. He hoped he hadn't been wrong about that.
'Over there,' Draycos murmured, just loud enough for Jack to hear over the soft buzz of conversation. The dragon's snout rose slightly from Jack's upper chest beneath his shirt, pointing to the left. 'That boy has papers.'
'Uh-huh,' Jack said. More than just papers: it was an official looking document with a blue-paper backing sheet. A document that Jack himself didn't have.
This was not good.
Carefully, casually, he eased through the crowd and came up behind the boy. 'Some place, huh?' he commented.
'Terrific,' the other said, his voice trembling slightly. First time away from home, all right.
'Hey, buck up,' Jack said, trying for a cheerfully encouraging tone he suddenly wasn't feeling anymore. The paper the boy was holding was an official indenture agreement.
On an official Whinyard's Edge form. With an official Whinyard's Edge signature on the bottom.
And suddenly Jack's plan of simply talking his way inside as part of the group wasn't looking so hot anymore.
'Yeah, right,' the boy said. 'Just like summer camp. How long you in for?'
'Probably the same as you,' Jack improvised, searching the form for the correct number. There was a small bit of weight at his collarbone as Draycos lifted an eye up to look over the boy's shoulder. 'Two years, right?'
The boy snorted under his breath. 'I guess your folks must not need the money,' he said, waving the form up into Jack's face. The name at the top caught Jack's eye: Jommy Randolph. 'I'm in for five. Five whole years.'
'Put a quark in it,' a girl at Jack's other side growled. She was maybe thirteen, with jet-black hair and eyes that were so dark they were almost black, too.
'You talking to me?' Jommy demanded, his voice threatening.
'You see anyone else in here whining about life?' she countered.
'Maybe it's just that no one else gets it,' Jommy said, taking a half step toward her. Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for criticism.
The girl stood her ground. 'Or maybe it's just that no one else's glue is melting,' she said. 'You'd think they were drop-kicking you into prison or something.'
'Oh, they're drop-kicking us, all right,' Jommy shot back. 'I had an uncle once—-'
'Quiet back there!' a deep voice snapped from the far end of the room, the words cutting through the buzz.
The buzz instantly evaporated. Grimacing to himself, Jack backed away from Jommy and the girl and started to ease his way to the exit. Uncle Virge had been right; this had been a lousy idea. Time to wave bye-bye and head for the tall grass.
'There is a guard,' Draycos whispered.
Jack looked over his shoulder. There was a guard, all right, standing at attention between him and the door. A very big guard, in full uniform, with a very big gun belted at his waist.
So much for a gracious retreat. 'I'm open to suggestions,' he muttered, turning away from the guard.
'To your left,' Draycos said. 'The room with the open door.'
'Good idea,' Jack said, drifting in that direction. The buzz of whispered conversation was starting to come back now, despite the order for silence. Maybe they all thought it was going to be like summer camp. 'We'll try for a window.'
'You will not be going into the room,' Draycos said. 'I will need five minutes alone. Unfasten your sleeve.'
Jack frowned. But he obeyed, unsnapping the cuffs of his leather jacket as he eased toward the slightly open door. Beneath his shirt, he could feel Draycos sliding along his skin, moving as much of his two-dimensional form as he could onto Jack's left arm.
Obviously preparing to spring out the end of that sleeve. Problem was, Jack couldn't see what that would gain them.
He had reached the door now, listening as best he could over the murmurs of the crowd. He hadn't spotted anyone in the room earlier, and he couldn't hear anyone in there now. But that didn't prove anything. They would just have to gamble that the office was indeed empty. 'Ready?' he whispered.
Draycos's affirmative was signaled by a light claw-tap on his arm. Jack stepped to the office door, swung his left hand smoothly into the open gap—
And with a sudden brief surge of weight, Draycos went three-dimensional as he leaped out through the end of the sleeve. Jack caught a flicker of gold scales as the dragon dodged out of sight behind the door, and then was gone.
Keeping his movements smooth, Jack dropped his arm back to his side and kept moving. No startled screams came from behind him; the office must have been empty after all.
He continued his apparently aimless wandering along the edge of the crowd, trying to figure out what Draycos had in mind. Was he planning on going out a window and jumping the door guard from behind? Jack had seen the K'da poet-warrior in action, and knew he could pull it off.
But going outside and coming in again would mean showing himself on a busy street. Surely he wouldn't do that. Not unless they were desperate. They weren't that desperate yet, were they?
The minutes ticked by. Jack stayed near the back of the crowd, occasionally wandering around some more so that it wouldn't look suspicious when he eventually returned to the office. The guard at the door stayed put, and no golden-scaled dragon suddenly appeared from the doorway behind him.
Slowly, the crowd shrank as the teens were processed and disappeared through the
