Dragon and Herdsman: The Fourth Dragonback Adventure

Dragon and Herdsman: The Fourth Dragonback Adventure by Zahn, Timothy. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780765314178.

Jack Morgan has had it rough. He was orphaned at three, then lost his Uncle Virgil ten years later. But the plucky fourteen-year-old didnt know what rough was until he met Draycos, sole survivor of an advance force of alien refugees that had been brutally ambushed over the world where Jack was in hiding from the authorities. The Kda poet-warrior needed to bond with a host, or he would die; the reformed boy thief and con artist needed a friend, someone he could depend on as he tried to clear his name. Since then theyve formed a unique team, determined to find and expose those responsible for the slaughter of Draycoss team. In the months since fate threw them together, theyve been through a lot. But when Jack tries to hack the computer in an office of the notorious Malison Ring, their quest nearly ends in the jaws of that mercenary organizations trap. Luckily, Alison Kayna, a girl Jack had worked with as a reluctant mercenary for another outfit, comes to his rescue. Evading pursuit, they escape to the primitive world of Rho Scorvi, where shes planned a rendezvous with friends. But at the edge of Rho Scorvis hundred-mile-wide forest, they make a shocking discovery: traveling with a group of the planets native Erassvas is a small lost colony of Draycoss own race, the Kda. But unlike Draycoss people, these Kda--known as Phookas--are slow, lethargic, and unintelligent. When the Malison Ring tracks Jacks ship, the Essenay to Rho Scorvi, Jack realizes that unless he and Draycos and a reluctant Alison can lead the Phookas to safety in the forest, these unfortunate creatures will become the latest victims of the genocide that threatens to wipe out their entire race. Jack has already been a thief, a soldier, and a slave. Now he must become a herdsman, protecting the Phookas from danger as they travel deep into the unexplored forest. But even more importantly, he must protect from the mercenaries and Alison the dark secret of the herd and Jacks poet-warrior ally. Only if they succeed do they stand a chance of surviving Rho Scorvi to continue their quest . . .