And aside from the crops and a couple of the apartment pillars, the only thing in this direction was the shuttle.
Draycos lashed his tail thoughtfully. Unfortunately for him, the Golvin didn't have to worry about being seen out here. Draycos did, which meant that in a straight head-to-head skulking race through the cropland, the alien would almost certainly reach the shuttle first.
But there was nothing that said Draycos had to keep to the cropland.
The river water was cool, but not nearly as cold as he'd thought it might be. He slipped beneath the surface, leaving only the top of his head above water, and paddled quickly and quietly toward the landing pit.
He reached it well before the Golvin and eased up out of the river. Crouching in the shuttle's shadow with the water dripping off his scales, he gave the vehicle a quick look.
As he'd seen on their earlier trip, the passenger compartment contained front and rear bench seats, each capable of seating three Golvins. There was also a wide hatchway in the rear of the vehicle, he could see now, probably leading to a storage area.
But there was no connection between it and the passenger compartment. If Draycos wanted to be able to see anything, the storage area was out.
The Golvin was only about seventy feet away now. Scooping up a small stone from the riverbed, Draycos wrapped the tip of his tail around it and flipped it, sling style, over the alien's head.
It landed with a soft rustle in the plants behind him. Startled, the Golvin spun around, his head wagging back and forth as he searched for the source of the noise.
And with the other's back turned, Draycos popped the shuttle's rear door and slipped inside.
Pulling the door closed again, he lay on his side on the rear seat floor and looked around. The back of the front bench seat was upholstered with a thick dark blue cloth, he saw, as were the rear seats. Extending a claw, he cut the cloth away from both the bottom and the side edges of the front seat, creating a wide flap.
Rolling onto his other side, he did the same with the cloth extending down from the front of the rear seat. Then, flipping both flaps up, he lay down on the floor and arranged the flaps on top of himself.
It was an absurdly simple deception, and in the full light of day it wouldn't hold up for a second. But the night was dark, and the Golvin out there was in a hurry. Chances were good he wouldn't give the rear seat even a first look, let alone a second.
The front driver's side door opened, and Draycos braced himself. But from the quick and shifting pressures on the seat cushions in front of him, it appeared the Golvin was intent on just getting in and getting away.
A few seconds later, the shuttle lifted off into the night. Cutting hard away from the center of the canyon and the party still going on in the Great Hall, they headed up. Draycos eased the corners of the flaps away from his eyes and settled in to wait.
They'd been flying for nearly an hour when Draycos's sense of balance told him they were starting down. The starlight was joined now by a diffuse glow reflected from the shuttle ceiling, indicating the lights of civilization below. Draycos arranged the camouflaging flaps over himself again, and a few minutes later they were down.
The door opened, there was another quick shifting of the Golvin's weight on the seat, and then he was gone, closing the door behind him.
Draycos gave it a twenty-count. Then, pushing aside the flaps, he eased up to the level of the window and looked out.
They had landed in a large parking area, apparently not far from the spaceport where the Essenay had arrived a few hours earlier. Surrounding the landing area on three sides were squat buildings housing various small shops.
And on the fourth side was a single, large building. Above the door, in glowing letters, were the words InterWorld Corporation, NorthCentral Semaline.
Draycos felt his claws scratch gently against the shuttle floor. So that was the reason the Golvin had sneaked away from the big celebration. He'd had an urgent offworld message to send.
Right after Jack's arrival at the canyon.
Fifteen minutes later, the Golvin emerged from the InterWorld building and headed toward the shuttle at a fast jog. Draycos was back under his camouflage flaps before the door was pulled open. Once again, the Golvin didn't bother to check his rear seat before taking off.
This time, that inattention was going to cost him.
The flight back to the canyon was uneventful. Draycos waited patiently . . . and as the Golvin eased the shuttle into the landing pit, the K'da silently brushed aside the flaps and rose up behind the other. "Don't turn around," he growled.
The Golvin jerked as if he'd been hit by a bolt of lightning. Reflexively, he started to turn his head.
He brought the movement up short as his cheek came up against a waiting K'da claw. "Who are you?" he gasped.
"I ask the questions," Draycos said. "You sent an InterWorld message. What was the message, and to whom did you send it?"
"I sent no—"
He cut off in a strangled gasp as Draycos pressed the claw firmly into his skin. "What was the message, and to whom did you send it?"
"I have no name," the Golvin said, his voice starting to take on an edge of panic. "Only a number."
"Give me the number."
The Golvin did so. It was a long number, and Draycos could only hope he would be able to remember all the digits. "Now the message," he said.
The Golvin didn't answer. Draycos prodded him again—"I was just to let them know if another Jupa came to the canyon," he said, the words practically tumbling over themselves in his effort to get them out. Apparently, no one had told him there might be danger involved in this little errand.
"And then what?"
"That's all," the Golvin said. "I was just to tell them. That is all I know."
It probably was, too, Draycos knew. No one would be foolish enough to trust a pathetic creature like this with any genuine secrets. "You will tell no one about this conversation," he said. "And you will make no further trips outside this canyon."
"I will do as you say," the Golvin said. "You may trust my word in—"
The rest of the promise was lost as Draycos slapped him firmly across his neck below his ear.
He slumped down in his seat, unconscious. Draycos waited a moment to be sure, then opened the rear door and slipped outside.
The Great Hall was quiet and dark, he noticed, the party apparently over. Still, there might still be stragglers wandering around the cropland. Lowering himself once again into the river, he headed upstream.
He reached Jack's pillar without incident. The bridge the Golvins had constructed was the obvious way up, but it might be interesting to see if he could climb the ivy plants the way the Golvins did. Setting his front claws into the mesh, he started up.
It was a mixed success. The ivy was strong enough to support his weight and was solidly rooted into the stone. But Draycos's claws were sharper than whatever small barbs or hooks the Golvins had in their hands that allowed them to climb. He had to be constantly on the alert lest he slice through the plants and dump himself onto the ground.
If worst came to worst, he decided, it would probably be faster to ignore the plants and dig his claws directly into the small cracks in the stone, the way he'd done on his way out of the Great Hall.
The apartment, when he reached it, was dark and quiet. But a quick tasting of the air confirmed that Jack was there, and that the boy was alone. Padding silently across the main room, he slipped into the bedroom.
"About time," Jack said quietly from the bed. "I was starting to wonder if you'd gotten lost."
"My apologies," Draycos said, coming up to him. "I ended up taking a small side trip."