Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online

talked to Gazen. Most
of the slaves in here have probably never even heard the name, let
alone talked to the guy." He shivered, a violent shake that ran through
his whole body. "Geez, it's cold."
    Draycos cocked his head. "Put the blanket behind you," he
suggested. "Drape it between you and the wall."
    Jack did as instructed, folding the blanket in half first to
provide the thickest insulation possible. Now his chest was exposed to
the air, but at least he wasn't leaning up against the cold metal wall
anymore. "Good," Draycos said. "Now hold still."
    And with a surge against Jack's shirt, the dragon leaped off his
skin. Twisting around in midair, he managed to avoid whacking his head
on the low ceiling and landed on Jack's chest and hips.
    "Oof!" Jack grunted. Draycos had come down with his paws
straddling Jack's chest and legs, but even with most of his weight
supported that way there was enough left over for Jack to feel it.
"What did you have for breakfast? Cement omelets?"
    "I am sorry," Draycos murmured, his breath warm on Jack's cheek.
"I was hoping I could help you keep warm."
    "I appreciate it," Jack said. Having the dragon three-dimensional
certainly made the packing crate more cramped.
    But on the plus side, the K'da was radiating a fair amount of
heat. Already he could feel the chill starting to leave his skin.
"Matter of fact, I appreciate it a lot," he added. "Thanks."
    "You are welcome," Draycos said. "I agree with Maerlynn, that you
should sleep if you can. It will help pass the time, and the
temperature may become much colder later."
    "Good point," Jack said, swiveling his shoulders and hips into the
most comfortable positions he could. "See you in the morning."

CHAPTER 6

    Between all the preparation, the long walk from the spaceport, and
the burglary itself, it had been a long, hard day. Despite the
uncomfortable position the hotbox forced on him, Jack soon fell into a
deep sleep.
    Sometime in the middle of the night he woke up again, shivering,
to find that his gold-scaled K'da blanket had vanished. Draycos had
reached the end of his six-hour limit and had returned to
two-dimensional form against Jack's skin. Wrapping himself in his
blanket, thinking unkind thoughts about K'da endurance, he huddled in
the cold and tried to get back to sleep.
    He awoke again to find a bright edge of sunlight streaming in
under the hotbox door. The chill of night was gone, and the temperature
in his prison had become quite comfortable.
    But that relief turned out to be as short-lived as Uncle Virgil's
temper in a card game. Within minutes, or so it seemed, the hotbox went
from cozy to warm to uncomfortably warm.
    And it got worse. Soon the thin metal behind his back grew hot
enough to burn skin that lingered against it for too long. Once again
he pressed Maerlynn's blanket into service, folding it between his back
and the wall.
    Sometime around noon he drifted off into a restless sleep, full of
strange and feverish dreams. Old memories mixed with images from past
and present. He saw Uncle Virgil, tall and arrogant, wrestling with
Draycos as he shouted out safecracking lessons to Gazen and a group of
Brummgas.
    The dream faded away and was replaced by another, this one
featuring some of the mercenaries he'd met in the Whinyard's Edge.
Under Sergeant Grisko's shouted direction, Jommy Randolph and Alison
Kayna recited one of Draycos's poems, getting half the words wrong.
    At one point he was back aboard the Star of Wonder , only
it also seemed to be the Essenay 's dayroom. Seated across the
table from him, Cornelius Braxton and his wife were arguing about Orion
Arm history, the future of Braxton Universis, and the price of mangoes
in Sumatra. On the table between them was a huge pitcher of water, an
inch out of Jack's reach.
    Once, he thought he woke to hear voices calling to him from
outside the box. But by then his brain was so blurred that he couldn't
tell what was real and what wasn't.
    It was all so foggy, in fact, that