Dragon's Heart by Jane Yolen Read Free Book Online Page A

Golden said.
No more bond.
    "Slakk, that's great," Jakkin said.
    "Not just me, Jakkin.
All of us,
" Slakk said. His hands gestured to the entire room, even as his whiny voice made it sound like a complaint.
    "I get it," Jakkin said. "Golden told us."
    But they wouldn't let it go. "A charter from the government, filling all our bags," Arakk added.
    Both Arakk and Slakk were smiling broadly, and Trikko's face was all grin, but Errikkin was unaccountably grim and his normally blue eyes seemed to have gone the gray of stone.
    Slakk put a comforting hand on Jakkin's. "Don't mind Errikkin. Old Mope Face always did prefer being a slave. Remember how proud he was to have you as his master?"
    For a moment Jakkin remembered. Errikkin
had
been proud. At first. But all Jakkin had felt was how embarrassing it had turned out, with Errikkin even trying to take a cloth and wash his face for him. And after, they'd had a horrible fight. Funny how he could hardly remember what the fight had been about. Later, believing Jakkin had actually blown up Rokk Major, Errikkin had led the wardens right to him.
But I've forgiven him that.
Jakkin bit his lip.
In a way, Errikkin was right. But how strange, that my best friend—my bonder, Errikkin, who loved me—turned me in to the wardens. And Likkarn, who hated me, lost an eye giving Akki and me a chance to escape.
    "Now," Slakk continued, "we work for wages, for our food and our housing. And we share in the nursery profits as well. But no work—no pay. Errikkin hates
that
part!"
    "Don't put words into my mouth," Errikkin said loudly.
    Equally loudly, Slakk said, "If I had my way, we wouldn't put any
food
there, either. Not when you haven't earned it."
    Errikkin swung his legs over the bench and stood in one graceful, sure movement. He didn't say a word more but walked off, holding his shoulders squared and never looking back, his sandals making a
snick
ety sound as he strode away across the dining hall.
    Jakkin was reminded of a dragon hackling.
    In the sudden silence, Jakkin called Errikkin's name. At the same time he searched his friend's mind. Of course it remained absolutely closed. Errikkin didn't show that he'd heard anything, just flung open the dining hall door and walked through.
    Pulling his hand out from under Slakk's, Jakkin slammed it against his own chest, a gesture left over from the time he'd worn a bond bag.
Everyone free!
Maybe true, but hard to believe. He thought,
There's always been bonders and masters, from the very beginning. Austar was settled by jailers and prisoners.
Then he bit his lower lip.
Surely this is a good thing, being free.
    But something about the news bothered him. Not Errikkin's anger. Not even Errikkin's hackled response. Errikkin had always ducked out of work when he could, and that was an old argument between them. However, Jakkin wondered if his own unease had more to do with the fact that he'd had to win his own freedom with hard work.
    Bonders used to say, "I fill my bag myself.
" Did they anymore? Why would they, if somehow the hard work of filling a bag no longer mattered? He shook his head. He'd never thought about such things before. Of course freedom for everyone was more important than how hard he'd worked in the past. He was suddenly ashamed of having thought otherwise.
    "Anything else I should know?" he asked at last.
    Trikko said, "The rebels."
    "Senator Golden told us something about them."
    "Rounded up," Trikko said.
    "The rebels," L'Errikk added, then wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "They were all rounded up. And rounded upon." It was a stupid joke, but that was L'Errikk.
He,
at least, hadn't changed in the year.
    "Of course they no longer have anything much to rebel against," Slakk said, smiling. "No bonders, no rebels. What do you think of that?"
    Jakkin returned the smile, but then remembered that Golden had added that the
worst
of the rebels—the ones who'd set off bombs and planned other disasters—had been sent offplanet to