Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave (27 page)

"I came back to get Noy," Jack told him. "I just thought some of
the rest of you would like to get out, too."

Fleck snorted under his breath. "And maybe you're such a good con
man that you can sound as honest as you're sounding right now."

Jack felt a stirring of anger. Here he was, risking his own life
and freedom for these people. Living up to the K'da warrior ethic that
Draycos was always prattling on about. And all Fleck could think about
was that it might be a con? "Look, Fleck—"

Fleck stopped him with an upraised hand. "All I know is two
things," he said. "One, that none of this strange stuff happened until
you showed up. And two—"

He looked at Noy. "There's no way that kid came up with that poem
on his own. No way. Something big
is
going on, and I'm willing
to take a chance on it."

His eyes drilled into Jack's face. "Just remember one thing. I'm
the one responsible for these people. It's my job to keep them in line
so that the Brummgas will stay off their backs. If you're spouting
smoke . . . you understand me?"

Jack swallowed. "Perfectly."

"Jack, may I have a word with you?" Draycos murmured at his ear.

Jack took a deep breath. "I'm going to take a quick look outside,"
he told Fleck. "Be right back."

He could feel the slaves' eyes following him as he made his way to
the door. Maybe they were wondering if he'd given up on them and was
heading out on his own.

Good. A little pressure might help them make up their minds.

He'd half expected to find a ring of armed Brummgas waiting
outside. But the night was quiet. "I know what you're thinking," he
told Draycos before the dragon could say anything. "And I suppose it
is
stupid to trust Fleck. But as near as I can read him, he seems okay."

"I agree," Draycos said calmly. "There is no reason for him to
have stopped Lisssa if he was on the Brummgas' side."

"Unless it's a setup," Jack said, as the thought suddenly struck
him. "Maybe Lisssa never was a spy."

"No," Draycos said. "I had not thought of it before, but when she
came to the frying pan to offer you food, I did not smell any paint on
her. Yet she implied Her Thumbleness had brought her into the house for
that purpose."

"Right," Jack said, nodding. Now that Draycos mentioned it, he
hadn't smelled anything, either. "So she
was
a spy. Good. What
did you want to talk to me about?"

"I merely wondered if you had considered the extra problems
involved in bringing such a large group of slaves with us," the dragon
said.

Jack looked sideways down into his collar. "I thought
you
were the one who hated slavery so much."

"I did not say I did not approve," Draycos said, a little huffily.
"I merely asked if you had considered the problems."

Behind Jack, the meal hall door opened. Jack turned to see Fleck
come out, a small group of slaves behind him. "All set," Fleck said.
"This is it."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Of the hundred and fifty slaves
inside, no more than twenty had elected to come. "This is
it
?"

"Life inside the wall is a known," Fleck said grimly. "Life
outside is an unknown. What can I say?"

"Even when that known is slavery?"

"This is the group," Fleck said. "Take it or leave it."

Jack looked them over. Muskrack the Parprin was there, he saw. So
were Maerlynn, and Noy, and even Greb and Grib.

His mind flashed back to Maerlynn's comment that first night in
the slaves' quarters. That the Jantri twins, who had never known any
life besides slavery, were quite happy under Chookoock family rule. And
yet, here they were.

One of Uncle Virgil's favorite sayings ran through the back of his
mind.
Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven
. . .

Of course, Uncle Virgil had generally used the line in regard to
some job where Jack was supposed to con his way into a particularly
well-stocked vault somewhere. But it applied even better here. "We take
it, of course," he said.

"Good," Fleck said. "What's the plan?"

"Diversion," Draycos murmured in his ear. "Glider."

Jack frowned. He dearly wished Draycos would stop throwing these
short, cryptic messages at him. "First things first," he said. "Do I
understand we have a glider available?"

Fleck blinked in surprise. "You know about that?"

"Of course," Jack said, trying to sound casual. It must be
something Draycos had found on one of his nighttime walks. "The
question is, how do
you
know about it?"

Fleck's lip twitched. "I was the one who helped Noy's parents
build it. Unfortunately, they got caught before they could use it to
take him out."

"Not so unfortunately," Jack told him. "If they had, all three of
them would be dead. The wall has lasers and flame jets aiming upwards
to stop anyone who tries to get in or out."

"I didn't know that," Fleck said in a low voice. "So I guess
that's it for the glider."

"Not necessarily," Jack said. An idea was taking shape in the back
of his mind as Draycos's cryptic comment started to make sense. "Do we
know how many armed Brummgas they've got in the estate?"

Fleck shrugged. "I'd guess sixty or seventy."

"Vehicles?"

"A couple dozen of those open-topped cars," Fleck said. "There are
also six small airfighters—Clax-7 patrol planes, six-seaters. Those are
probably armed."

"Then we're in business," Jack said. "How long will it take to get
the glider ready to fly?"

"It's mostly ready now," Fleck said. "I just need to wind up the
launcher and fire it off."

"And it'll go over the wall?"

Fleck grimaced. "Halfway over, anyway."

"That's all we'll need," Jack assured him. "How many people will
it take to get it going?"

Fleck was eying him closely. "I can do it myself," he said.

"Okay," Jack said. "That's your job, then."

He gestured over his shoulder. "The rest of us are going to go
through the thorn hedge and head for the front of the house. There are
some transports there, big ones that can get us off-planet. We'll
borrow one, and take it right through the gate."

"Who's going to fly it?" someone asked.

"I will," Jack said.

"How will we get through the hedge?" Maerlynn asked.

"Yeah," Muskrack agreed. "They watch that gap."

"There's another opening we can use, about a hundred yards east of
the road," Jack told him. "Once you fire off the glider, Fleck, you
head there and catch up with us."

"What about the guards?" Noy asked.

"Most of them should charge off to see who was trying to get over
the wall," Jack said. "We'll just have to take care of whoever's left
by ourselves."

"What, with that?" someone asked, pointing to the slapstick Fleck
had given Jack.

Jack smiled. "Hardly," he said. "I've got a friend already on it."

There was a moment of awkward silence. "
A
friend?" someone
asked pointedly.

"Trust me, he's more than able to deal with the Brummgas," Jack
assured him, grimacing to himself.
Trust me
, he'd said; only
these weren't fellow con men he was trying to talk into helping on some
scheme. These were slaves, who'd seen every other escape attempt
ruthlessly crushed by their Brummgan masters.

There was another moment of silence. "Well, then, we'd better get
going," Fleck said with a hearty confidence Jack could tell he didn't
entirely feel. "You have any other instructions?"

Jack took a deep breath. "You've got five minutes to gather
whatever you want to take with you," he said, pointing toward the
sleeping quarters. "Fleck, give us—" he paused, doing a quick estimate
"—give us twenty minutes before you fire off the glider. Can you do
that?"

Fleck nodded. "Sure."

"And really hustle on your way back," Jack warned. "Once we start
our play, we may not be able to slow it down. Okay; everyone go get
your stuff."

The group scattered, the slaves hurrying toward the two sleeping
huts. "Good luck," Jack said, nodding to Fleck.

"See you soon," Fleck said. Giving Jack one last measuring look he
turned and headed the opposite way into the forest.

"What now?" Draycos murmured.

"First job is to get through the hedge," Jack told him, heading
toward a wide tree twenty yards from the light pouring out of the huts.
"Think you can finish that hole you were working on?"

"No problem."

"Gazen may still have guards watching it," Jack pointed out.
"You'll have to deal with them."

"As I said, no problem," the dragon repeated. "And then?"

"I'm afraid you're going to get the heavy end of this one, buddy,"
Jack said. Reaching the wide tree, he slid halfway around it, putting
his right sleeve out of sight from the slave areas. "You're going to
have to clear the path for us through whatever guard posts the Brummgas
have out there.
And
you're going to have to do it without
letting any of our group spot you. I know that's a lot to ask."

"You have not yet truly seen what a K'da warrior can do, Jack,"
Draycos said. "Where shall I meet you when I am finished? At the
mercenary transports?"

"Right," Jack said, his throat suddenly feeling dry. The grim
confidence in the dragon's voice was just a little scary. "I'll pick
the best-armored one and set it to ram the gate. We'll take the
next-best-armored one to ride out in."

"You will need to alert Uncle Virge that we are coming."

Jack nodded. "I'll call him as soon as you're on your way. Any
questions?"

"None." With a flicker of weight, Draycos slid out of Jack's
sleeve. "I will see you there."

"Good luck," Jack called softly as the dragon bounded off into the
night.

"Warrior's luck," Draycos corrected over his shoulder.

He disappeared behind a stand of rainbow berry bushes and was
gone. Glancing once more around him, Jack lifted his left foot and
pried back the sole.

Uncle Virge, he thought darkly, was going to love this.

The last hint of glow was gone from the western sky. Draycos moved
across the ground like a golden shadow, quick and silent.

A golden shadow that was rapidly fading to black as his pounding
heart drove dark blood into his muscles and scales. A poet-warrior of
the K'da, in full combat readiness.

Jack had indeed never seen what a K'da warrior could do. He
probably wouldn't see it now, either.

The hidden Brummgan watcher was just settling into position when
Draycos arrived at the hedge. Comfortably concealed, no doubt feeling
quite pleased with himself, the guard was clearly not expecting any
trouble.

He didn't so much as squeak as Draycos knocked him cold.

The hedge itself was still the tangled mess he'd found on his
previous visits. But now that he didn't have to conceal his handiwork,
the thorny branches retreated before his slashing claws like driftwood
before an incoming wave. A few minutes' work, and he had a hole that
even Fleck would find adequate.

So far it had been easy, simple tasks that even a raw K'da trainee
could handle. Now came the tricky part.

The breeze was coming steadily from the west. Crossing through the
hedge, he swung wide to the east, downwind of whatever sentries and
hidden guard posts the Brummgas had set up to watch the gaps in the
hedge. He ran hard and open along the ground, sniffing the air as he
went, trusting his now completely black scales to conceal him.

So the glider had been built by Noy's parents. At least that
explained why he'd detected the boy's scent at the site.

Or did it?

Because it was clear that no one had worked on the glider for
quite some time. From the way Maerlynn had talked, he'd had the
impression Noy's parents had died at least a few months ago.

Which meant that whatever he'd smelled at the glider had gone
through several months of wind, rain, nosy animals, and simple
evaporation. K'da senses were good, but they weren't
that
good.
Not by a long throw. Not by several long throws.

At least, not under normal circumstances.

The odor of distant Brummga touched his snout and tongue, and he
took a quick bearing that direction. There was a stone fountain several
hundred yards away, probably where the guard was lurking. Mentally
marking the spot for future reference, he continued on.

For that matter, his sense of smell shouldn't be good enough for
this task, either. In fact, now that he thought about it, all his
senses seemed to have been gradually improving over the past couple of
months.

The past three months, in fact. Ever since he'd teamed up with
Jack. The question was, why?

There was one rather unpleasant possibility. Ancient legend said
that as a K'da approached death, his senses often sharpened
dramatically.

But that couldn't be it. Draycos had been very close to death
aboard the
Havenseeker
, just before Jack showed up. He hadn't
felt any dramatic surge in his hearing or smell then. At least, he
didn't think so.

For that matter, he felt perfectly fine right now. Better than he
had in years, actually. Certainly nowhere near close to death.

But there was also that strange incident back at the frying pan,
where he'd somehow fallen off Jack's back and through the wall of their
prison. Could Jack have been right about his human body somehow
rejecting the K'da symbiont?

Because if that were true—if humans could only serve as temporary
hosts to K'da—then it was possible that Draycos was indeed near death
right now. Nearer, perhaps, than any symptoms might show.

But true or not, there was nothing he could do about it. And
whatever the future held, right now he had some slaves to free.

He had circled nearly to the mansion itself before he was
confident that he'd marked all the hidden guards. There were three
groups in concealed sentry posts, plus four other groups who had taken
up positions behind flower gardens or trees or fountains. Most likely,
those latter ones had been rushed in as backup troops in response to
Jack's disappearance.