Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave (26 page)

"I see," Draycos said, his voice carefully neutral.

"You think that's a bad idea?" Jack challenged.

"On the contrary," the dragon said softly. "It is a very
courageous idea. One that is worthy of a K'da warrior."

"In other words, recklessly stupid," Jack grunted, trying the
helmet on for size. It was way too big, of course, but in the dark it
should do. "I've been spending too much time with
you
, I guess.
Come on, let's get out of here."

There were no guards watching the cars. Jack helped himself to
one, and they headed across the Chookoock family grounds.

No one challenged them, either from the house or from the hidden
guard posts, and soon they were through the gap in the thorn hedge.
With Draycos directing, they arrived at Noy's isolation hut.

It was empty.

"He has not been gone long," the dragon said, sniffing at the air
and the cot. "Four hours, perhaps five."

"The empty juice bottles are still here," Jack said, peering under
the cot. "If the Brummgas had hauled him away, they'd probably have
taken those along to try to figure out where they came from."

"Agreed," Draycos said. "Perhaps Noy decided he was recovered
enough to return to the others."

"Maybe," Jack said. "As long as we're out here anyway, we might as
well check."

The meal hall was brightly lit as they arrived at the edge of the
slave colony. The evening meal, clearly, was in full swing.

"Okay," Jack said, shedding his borrowed Brummgan armor and
dumping it in the back seat. "We do this nice and cool. As far as any
of them knows, there's no reason why I shouldn't be back." Crossing the
empty ground, he walked into the meal hall.

It was like stepping back into a bad dream. Or, more accurately,
like stepping from one part of a bad dream into another. The sights,
the sounds, the smells—all of it came rushing back like a multiple slap
in the face.

Even in the few days he'd been away, he'd managed to forget the
squalor these slaves lived in. The squalor, and the filth, and the
hunger.

And the hopelessness.

"To your left, one table back," Draycos murmured in his ear.
"Seated beside Maerlynn."

"I see him," Jack murmured back. Noy was there, all right, looking
tired but otherwise mostly recovered. Ready to go back to picking
rainbow berries and making money for the Chookoock family.

For the rest of his life.

And as Jack thought about that, he felt something stirring inside
him. A strange sort of anger, of a kind he'd never felt before.

This was no place for a child. No place at all.

"You will go see if he is all right?" Draycos prompted.

"Sure," Jack said, heading that direction. The Jantri twins were
there, too, sitting across from Noy and Maerlynn. They looked too tired
to even talk. One of them—Grib—had a slapstick welt across his forehead.

And the stirring anger inside Jack started to burn with a
white-hot glow. "Yeah, we'll check him out," he told Draycos. "And then
we're going to
get
him out."

"What?" the dragon asked, sounding startled. "Are you saying—?"

"Jack!" Maerlynn exclaimed as she caught sight of him. "Welcome
back. We've been wondering where you were."

"Sorry," Jack said, stepping to a spot between the twins. Greb had
a fresh slapstick welt too, he saw now, angled across his shoulder.
Fleck, or the Brummgas, must have been in especially good form today.
"I got delayed. How are you feeling, Noy?"

"Okay," the boy said, smiling wanly up at him. "A little tired,
but mostly okay."

"Good," Jack said. "Then go get your things together. We're
leaving."

"What do you mean?" Maerlynn asked, frowning. "Her Thumbleness
doesn't want him, too, does she?"

"I mean we're leaving this place," Jack said. "Out past the wall.
To freedom."

The conversation at the nearby tables had faded away. "Jack, are
you feeling all right?" Maerlynn asked, her forehead wrinkling as she
stretched out a hand toward his cheek. "Here, let me see—"

"I'm not sick," Jack told her, pushing her hand roughly aside.
"And I'm not hallucinating. I'm leaving. Right now. And I'm taking Noy
with me."

"Wow," Noy breathed, his eyes wide. "Just like he said."

"Jack, you can't just walk out of here," Maerlynn said carefully.
"They'll whip you for even trying. They may even kill you."

"They can take their best shot," Jack said. "It won't do them a
scrap of good."

"Jack, you're scaring everyone," Maerlynn said, her voice low.
"Please. Stop."

Abruptly, Jack realized that the whole room had gone dead quiet.
Lifting his gaze, he looked around.

They were all looking back at him. All the slaves. Sitting
silently, their meager meals forgotten. Most of the faces held scorn,
he could see, or simple flat-out disbelief. Some of them, like Maerlynn
had said, were clearly frightened by Jack's attitude.

Scorn, or disbelief, or fear.

But no hope.

They had been here too long, he realized. Whatever hope they might
ever have had, Gazen and the Brummgas had burned out of them.

No, this was no place for a child. It was no place for anyone.

And it was about time someone did something about that.

"I'm leaving," he called, raising his voice so that it could be
heard throughout the whole room. "Tonight. Anyone else hate this place
enough to go with me?"

"You're a fool," an Eytra growled from two tables over. "Many have
tried. None have succeeded."

"Then I guess Noy and I will be the first," Jack said. "Does that
mean you're not coming?"

"Jack, this isn't funny," Maerlynn said in a low voice. "Noy's
parents tried to escape. They died. The Brummgas beat his father to
death. Can't you see that all this is doing is bringing back horrible
memories?"

"It's not bad to have memories, Maerlynn," Noy said. He was
looking up at Jack, an oddly intense expression on his face. "Memories
anchor us to the past, give us a sense of the present, and point the
way to the future."

A tingle ran up Jack's back. That did not sound like Noy. Not at
all. In fact, it sounded exactly like—

"What's that supposed to mean?" the Eytra asked with a sniff.

"It's something the gold dragon told me," Noy said. "He said that
memories are what give us strength and courage."

"Noy, you have
got
to stop this nonsense," Maerlynn said
firmly. "It was a dream. I told you that. Nothing but a dream."

"It was
not
a dream," Noy insisted. Abruptly, he stood up,
wavering a little. "Here's what he said."

THE NIGHT WAS CALM, THE BATTLE NEAR,

THE ENEMY WAS WET WITH FEAR.

THEIR EARS WERE HEARKENED;

THEY HAD DARKENED

MEMORIES WE HELD SO DEAR.

AND NOW AT DAYBREAK CAME THE TEST.

AGAIN WE CHARGED, STRAIGHT TO THEIR BEST.

WE CUT THEM DOWN:

SWORD, GUN, AND CROWN.

THE BATTLEFIELD WITH BLOOD WAS DRESSED.

OUR VENGEANCE THUS WE HAD ACHIEVED,

THE RELICS OF OUR HOPE RECEIVED.

AND TO THE SONG,

TWELVE EONS LONG,

WE ADD THE LIVES OF COMRADES GRIEVED.

He took a deep breath and looked at Maerlynn. "See?" he said
defiantly. "I didn't make
that
up, either."

Maerlynn had a stunned look on her face. "Where did you hear
that?" she asked.

"You couldn't just sit with him," Jack muttered toward his collar.
"You had to sing, too."

"I told you—the dragon sang that to me," Noy said. "And he told me
not to give up hope. That someday I would be free."

"That day is today, Noy," Jack said. "For you, and anyone else who
wants to go."

"This dragon," a Parprin from across the room said in a husky
voice. "What did it look like?"

"It was all gold," Noy said. "Smaller than dragons you hear about
in stories. He gave me food and juice, and he sang."

The Parprin flexed his ears and stood up. "All right. I'm in."

"What?" the Eytra demanded, turning in his seat to look at the
Parprin. "Have you gone crazy, Muskrack?"

"The gold dragon is a symbol of hope and change," the Parprin
said. "And what have we to lose?"

"Our lives, for starters," the Eytra said scornfully. "If you two
humans want to be insane, go be insane somewhere else."

"I intend to," Jack promised. "On the far side of the wall." He
looked down at Maerlynn. "Well?"

Maerlynn gave a deep sigh. "Jack . . . I can't. I have Grib and Greb
and Lisssa to think about. What would they do without me?"

"So bring the twins along," Jack offered. "As for Lisssa, maybe we
can pick her up on our way out."

"Pick her up where?" Greb asked. "She's—well, she
was
right here."

Jack frowned. "What do you mean, right here? She's at the
Chookoock family mansion."

"No, she's not," Maerlynn said, frowning back. "How would she get
there?"

"But—"

And then, the horrible truth hit him. Lisssa, stealing out to the
frying pan every couple of hours. Lisssa, who had told him she only
looked out for herself, coming to see how he was doing. Lisssa, risking
her life with the Brummgan patrols to bring him food and blankets.

Lisssa, helping Gazen make sure Jack stayed put throughout the
night.

Lisssa, a Brummgan informant.

"See?" Grib said, pointing behind Jack. "There she is."

Jack spun around. There she was, all right, slipping out the door
into the night to report to her masters.

Jack snarled one of Uncle Virgil's favorite curses, his eyes
darting to the floor and the tables. The floor? Too crowded. He'd never
make it around everyone and catch up with her. Not with the lead she
already had.

The tables, then? Leap up onto one of them, bound across to the
next, and so on to the door? But there were just as many people around
the tables as there were in the narrow aisles between them. And the
tables were loaded with dishes and cups besides.

No, there was only one way to stop her now. Only one person who
could catch her before she blew the whistle and brought the whole
Chookoock family down on them.

"Draycos," he hissed. "We haven't got a choice." The dragon didn't
answer, but Jack could feel him coil himself to spring. Jack braced
himself, wondering dimly what all the scoffers would say when the
golden dragon actually appeared.

Then, from the direction of the doorway came a sudden squawk.
There was a second squawk; and to Jack's amazement, Lisssa reappeared
in the doorway. She hesitated, as if unwilling to continue; and then a
large human hand appeared from the darkness and shoved her roughly all
the way inside.

And stepping into the hut behind her—

"Here you go, Jack," Fleck called cheerfully across the room as he
gave Lisssa another shove. "This what you were looking for?"

Jack felt his knees go suddenly weak. Fleck. Bright red sash
across his chest. Slapstick at his side. Full authority of the Brummgas
at his back.

But he, Jack, had Draycos. A single command, and the K'da warrior
would leap out of his collar and tear Fleck into small, bloody pieces—

"Here," Fleck said, flipping something small toward Jack.

Automatically, Jack reached out and caught it. It was a comm clip,
one side colored and shaped just like a Dolom scale. "What's this?" he
asked, frowning up at Fleck again.

"
This—
" Fleck shook Lisssa's arm "—is a Brummgan spy. Gazen
gives them special privileges in exchange for information." He spun
Lisssa around and gave her a final shove that landed her on one of the
benches. "I've suspected her for a long time."

"Ask if she communicated with them," Draycos murmured in Jack's
ear.

"Was she able to get off a message just now?" Jack asked.

"I don't think so," Fleck said. "But my guess is they already know
something's up. If we're going to go, we'd better be quick."

Jack blinked. " 'We'?"

"Sure." Fleck smiled tightly, sending a look around the room.
"Like Jack said," he went on, raising his voice. "Anyone else hate this
place enough to go with us?"

"It's a trick," someone growled. "Fleck's one of them, too."

"None of the rest of us carry weapons," someone else added
pointedly.

Fleck didn't even bother to glance that direction. He started
toward Jack, the crowd melting away from in front of him.

And as he got within arm's length he drew his slapstick.

Jack tensed. But Fleck merely turned the weapon around and handed
it to him, handle first. "I'm willing to take a chance," the big man
said, looking around the room again. "How about you?"

For a moment the room was silent. Then, in twos and threes, the
slaves began murmuring quietly among themselves. "If this
is
a
trick," Jack said quietly to Fleck, "I'll make it my business to be
sure you're the first one in the Brummgas' line of fire."

"It's no trick," Fleck said, just as quietly. "Strange things have
been happening around here lately. Odd footprints in the dirt. Odd
activity by the Brummgas at night. Someone carefully cutting their way
through the thorn hedge."

He must have seen something in Jack's face, because he smiled
suddenly. "Oh, yes, I knew about that. The Brummgas tried to keep it
quiet. But I knew."

He nodded fractionally to the side. "And now we've got Noy coming
back from an isolation hut with stories about gold dragons."

"What do you think it all means?" Jack asked, keeping his voice
even.

"Maybe it's nothing but wishful thinking," Fleck said bluntly.
"Maybe you're just a con man playing on old legends and gullible types
like Muskrack who find omens in everything they see or hear. Maybe all
you're doing is trying to turn us into a distraction so you can sneak
out alone." He paused, his eyes steady on Jack.