"Regretfully, no," Draycos said. "Both abilities could be very useful."
"I've always thought so," Langston said. "Okay, I'm ready."
He rolled over. Even in the dim light Draycos could see his face suddenly tighten. "Floos on a frissle. You weren't joking, were you?"
"Did you think I was?"
"Yeah, mostly." Langston reached out a hand, paused. "May I?"
"Certainly."
Gingerly, Langston touched the side of Draycos's neck. The touch steadied a little, and he ran his fingertips down the scales to Draycos's shoulder. "Well, if you're robotic, you're the best floosing robot I've ever seen."
"What would convince you I'm a living being?"
"Actually, right now I don't care what you are," Langston said. He threw off his blanket, and Draycos saw that he was fully dressed in a dark green jumpsuit and low boots. "Not as long as you get me out of here."
"That is the plan," Draycos agreed. "Collect anything you wish to take with you."
"It's collected," Langston said, reaching to the floor and picking up a handkerchief tied into a bundle. "How do we do this?"
"I climb sideways away from the cave," Draycos said. "You hold on to my tail."
"Ah," Langston said, sounding suddenly doubtful. "Your— uh—?"
"It will work," Draycos assured him. "You're not much bigger than my symbiont, Jack, and I have successfully carried him that way."
"Your symbiont?"
"Yes," Draycos said. "A symbiont is one who shares—"
"I know what it is." Langston shook his head. "I can see we're going to be having a long talk when this is over." Taking a deep breath, he stuffed his handkerchief bundle into the front of his shirt. "Let's do it."
The first stage of the journey was the hardest. Draycos had to climb quietly, without knocking any bits of stone onto the lounging Golvins below. More than that, he had to do it with a hundred and forty pounds of dead weight hanging on to his tail.
Fortunately, he'd done the trip enough times that he knew a route that would work. A few tense minutes later, they were safely away from the guards and starting down. A few minutes more, and they'd made it to the canyon floor.
"That was interesting," Langston said, crouching behind a cluster of tall grain plants as he rubbed at the cramped muscles in his hands. "What's next?"
"We collect our transportation, pick up Jack, and leave," Draycos told him. "Though flying through the canyon's many obstacles may be difficult in the dark."
"Don't worry about that," Langston assured him grimly. "Just show me to the pilot's seat and get out of the way."
"The vehicles are across the river," Draycos said, pointing with his tongue. "The nearest bridge is this way."
They had made it across the cropland to the river and were nearly across the bridge when the nighttime silence was suddenly pierced by a warbling shriek.
Draycos leaped the rest of the way across the bridge, landing in a crouch on the far side. Langston was right behind him. "What the floos was that?" the human demanded.
"I would guess someone has discovered my sabotage," Draycos said, turning his head to look behind them. Across the canyon, shadowy figures were climbing rapidly up the cliff face toward Langston's former prison. "They're about to discover your absence, as well."
"Terrific," Langston growled. "What's Plan B?"
"The same as Plan A, only noisier," Draycos told him, flicking out his tongue. So far there didn't seem to be any Golvins between them and Jack's apartment. "We free Jack from his guards, attempt to fight our way through to the aircar, and escape."
"Simple, but lunatic," Langston said. Probing briefly into the river mud, he came up with a pair of fist-sized rocks. "After you."
Draycos headed off, angling their course so as to approach the pillar from the rear. Somewhere along the way, the K'da combat pattern kicked in, pumping extra blood into his muscles and turning his scales from gold to black.
But it was growing more and more clear that all the camouflage in the world would be of limited value. As they traveled, he heard a half dozen more of the shrieks, some from the direction of the vehicle shop, others from Langston's now empty prison.
The alarm was out. By the time they reached the pillar the whole canyon was starting to come awake.
"How many guards?" Langston whispered as they sidled around the cold stone toward the front.
"Two when I left," Draycos whispered back, slowing down. They rounded the final curve and came within view of the bridge.
To find that the two guards had been joined by two more. All four were standing alertly at the bottom of the bridge, two of them looking up toward Jack's door, the others looking back and forth across the area around them. All four had arrows out and nocked at the ready in their bowstrings.
"Not good," Langston breathed in Draycos's ear. "Mostly open ground, too."
"But delay will only make the odds worse," Draycos pointed out. "I'll circle around the other side and try to draw their attention and fire. If I succeed, move in and try to take them from the rear."
"Got it."
"And don't forget that these aren't our enemies," Draycos added firmly. "They're as much the victims of evil as we are."
"I'll try to remember that," Langston said sourly. "Good luck."
Draycos backed up and retraced his steps around the pillar, swinging wide toward the river. A minute later, he once again came within sight of the four guards.
For the first few crucial seconds they didn't seem to notice him among the shadows as he turned inward. Then, one of them jerked in shock as he spotted the black creature racing toward them. Gurgling something incoherent, he snapped up his bow and fired.
The shot went wild, the arrow swishing into the plants two yards to Draycos's left. But the gurgle and shot were enough to alert the other three. They twisted around to face Draycos, and three more bows were lifted toward him. Draycos dug his claws into the ground and dodged to the side, switching to an evasive zigzag pattern.
And suddenly Langston was there among the Golvins, clubbing coolly and methodically with his rocks. By the time Draycos reached them, all four guards were sprawled on the ground. "Piece of cake," the pilot said, a note of grim satisfaction in his voice. "Man. If I'd known it was that easy, I'd have done it a long time ago."
"This was the easy part," Draycos reminded him, peering at the fallen Golvins as he trotted to a halt. He couldn't tell if they were still breathing, but Langston's blows hadn't seemed overly violent. "The next part will be—"
"Draycos!" Jack's voice shouted from overhead.
Reflexively, Draycos leaped to the side as he twisted his neck up to look.
But the move was too late. Even as his eyes registered the fact that there was a fifth Golvin just emerging from Jack's apartment, he heard the snap of a bowstring.
And a searing jolt of pain exploded into his side.
With a desperate lunge, Jack hurled himself through the streamers at the doorway, slamming his shoulder into the Golvin's back with everything he had.
But he was too late. Even as the Golvin gave a strangled little squeak and toppled off the bridge, Jack saw Draycos jerk violently as the arrow buried itself into his side.
"No!" he yelped. Throwing himself onto the bridge, he half ran, half slid down the rough rock to the ground.
Draycos was lying on his side when Jack reached him, panting with shallow breaths, the arrow sticking out of his rib cage. "It's okay," Jack breathed, his heart thudding violently as he dropped to his knees beside his wounded friend. "We'll get this out." Steeling himself, he reached for the arrow.
"No—leave it alone," someone said from behind him.
Jack turned as a heavily bearded man—Langston?—dropped to one knee beside him. "He's hurt," he snarled.