Dragonback 01 Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online

the howl of a hunting wolf, with the wail of
a banshee from Uncle Virgil's old Irish legends thrown into the mix. It
seemed to come from everywhere and from nowhere, bouncing around the
room and threatening to bring down the rest of the glass from the
broken bubble above them.
    The Brummga reacted instantly, dropping into a crouch and swinging
his gun around to point at the doorway behind him.
    And as he turned away from Jack, there was a sudden surge of
movement and weight at Jack's back, and a twitching at his holster. The
weight disappeared as something fell from beneath his shirt. Jack
twisted his head around, just in time to see Draycos land silently on
the deck behind him . . .
    With Jack's tangler clutched in his front paws.
    There was a soft chuff; and an instant later the tangler
cartridge burst against the Brummga's upper back, sending hundreds of
thick, milky-white threads bursting outward. The threads whipped around
him, wrapping themselves around his torso, head, and arms like an
instant spiderweb.
    He howled, staggering off balance as he tried to turn around. But
he was way too late. Even as he spun back, his gun pointing mostly
upward where the tangle of threads had trapped it, the cocoon completed
itself. With a brief flash, the capacitor built into the cartridge
discharged, sending a jolt of stunning electric current through its
captive. The Brummga gave a pitiful doglike yelp, toppled over onto the
deck, and lay still.
    Draycos was already in motion, bounding over to the fallen
mercenary and giving him a quick examination. "An interesting weapon,"
he commented, turning back to Jack. "We had best get moving."
    It took Jack two tries to find his voice. "Right," he managed.
"That was . . . was that you?"
    "A K'da battle cry," Draycos said, flipping the tangler to Jack.
"It seemed a reasonable diversion. Are you ready?"
    "I'm three blocks past ready," Jack said, dropping the weapon back
into its holster.
    "Pardon?"
    "Skip it," Jack said. "The ladder?"
    "Yes," Draycos confirmed, turning his glittering green eyes upward
toward the bubble. "When I say." Crouching down, he leaped.
    Jack followed him with his eyes, feeling his mouth drop open.
Twenty feet straight up, and the dragon made it with a foot or two to
spare. Twisting around, catlike, on the narrow landing, he got his
front paws firmly wrapped around the upper part of the ladder. "Now;
come," he said.
    "Hang on," Jack said, kneeling down beside the unconscious Brummga
as a sudden thought struck him.
    "What are you doing?" Draycos demanded.
    "Trying to get this thing out," Jack told him, digging into the
tangler webbing over the long holstered wand lying along the
mercenary's left leg.
    "An unknown weapon is dangerous to use," Draycos warned.
    "You mean like my tangler?" Jack retorted. "You seemed to handle
that just fine."
    "I am a K'da warrior," Draycos said stiffly. "The understanding
and use of weapons is my profession."
    "You're still lucky I hadn't put the safety catch back on," Jack
grunted. "Don't worry, a slapstick's the easiest thing in the world to
use. You press the button at your end and touch the other guy with the
other end, and he won't be bothering you for a couple of hours. Rats."
    "What?"
    "It's buried too deep under the webbing," Jack said, standing up
again. "Never mind. Here I come."
    Even with the dragon bracing the top, the ladder felt pretty
shaky. He didn't want to think what it would have been like without the
extra support.
    But the ladder held, and so did the one to the upper control area.
The lower section of the dome wasn't as badly crunched as it had looked
from below, but there were several gaps big enough for them to get
through. A minute later, they were standing outside on the top of the
ship.
    "Where is your spacecraft?" Draycos asked.
    "Way back there," Jack said, pointing toward the forested areas to
the right. "There's a crack in the hull about fifty yards back where I
came in."
    "Good," Draycos said. "Quickly,