Dragon and Judge

Начало книги

" 'The quick red fox jumps over the—' " Taneem paused, her glowing silver eyes narrowing in concentration, her whiplike K'da tail making little circles in the air behind her long, gray-scaled body. " 'Lassie dog'?" she suggested.

" 'Lazy dog,' " Draycos corrected, keeping his own tail motionless. Having grown up among the Phookas instead of proper K'da, Taneem's body language was very different from his. He didn't want to make any gestures that she might interpret as impatience. "The 'y' at the end of the word makes the 'a' long."

" 'The lazy dog.' " Taneem gave her tail another flick. "There are so many rules to this language," she said ruefully.

"And so many exceptions to those rules," Draycos agreed, his mind going back to his own introduction to written English. He and the others of the K'da/Shontine advance team had learned a fair amount of the spoken language from their peoples' earlier contacts with the Chitac Nomads. But it wasn't until the advance team had been ambushed and destroyed, and Draycos had linked up with Jack Morgan, that he'd been introduced to the written form. "But you'll make it through," he assured Taneem. "I know you will."

Читать дальше →