Read Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave for Free Online Page B

"Noy's parents used to call me the Den Mother before
they died. A human term, I suppose. You are human, aren't you?
Greb couldn't see very well when they brought you in, but he thought
you were. He said he thought you were young, too. Are you?"
    Draycos's head rose again from Jack's shoulder. "Move to the side
wall," the dragon whispered into his ear.
    Jack nodded and started to ease himself around. "Yes, I'm human,"
he acknowledged. "And I'm fourteen. I don't know if you count that as
young or not. Who's Greb?"
    "One of my children," Maerlynn said. "He's sixteen, so he probably
does consider fourteen to be young."
    "Yeah, I've known some sixteen-year-olds," Jack grunted. "What
about you?"
    "I'm Maerlynn, as I said," she said. "I'm an Ysanhar. Female. And
I'm not going to give you my age."
    "I wasn't going to ask," Jack said. He was in position now, with
his back pressed against the side wall of his prison. In their
two-dimensional forms, K'da had a handy trick of being able to see
through walls, provided the barrier was thin enough. From his angle,
Draycos might not be able to see Maerlynn where she was right now, but
she should come into view as soon as she headed back to the slave
buildings.
    Assuming she did go back to the slave buildings. He still
wasn't convinced this wasn't some trick of Gazen's to get him talking.
"Are you a slave?" he asked.
    "Everyone on this side of the thorn hedge is a slave," Maerlynn
said, an odd sadness in her voice. "You, too, it would seem. Here—take
this."
    Something poked at Jack's feet through the crack under the door.
He reached down a hand, being careful not to pull his back away from
the wall. He didn't know what would happen to Draycos if he moved while
the dragon was looped over the wall that way, but it wasn't something
he wanted to find out the hard way.
    His fingers touched an edge of rough cloth. "What is it?"
    "A blanket," Maerlynn said. "It's going to get pretty cold in
there tonight."
    Colder than this ? Jack wondered, suppressing a shiver. "So
how come Gazen called it a hotbox?"
    There was a slight pause, just long enough for Jack to wonder if
he'd said something wrong. "You'll find out about mid-morning,"
Maerlynn said. "How long are you in for? Do you know?"
    "He didn't say," Jack told her. "He just said I needed a lesson
about what it meant to cross the Chookoock family."
    "I see," Maerlynn said. "Do you need anything else right now?
Food? Water?"
    "No, I'm all right," Jack said.
    "Get some sleep if you can," Maerlynn said. "I'll try to come talk
to you again later."
    "Okay," Jack said. "Thanks."
    "You're welcome." There was another slight pause. "By the way . . .
if any of the Brummgas ask, I'd rather you not tell them I came and
talked to you. We're not supposed to go near people in the hotboxes."
    "I won't," Jack promised. Though how she expected him to explain
the blanket he wasn't sure. "Thanks again."
    "Sure," Maerlynn said. "Good-bye."
    The shadow vanished, and there was the sound of fading footsteps.
The feel of the dragon shifted again, and his head rose from Jack's
shoulder. "Well?" Jack asked.
    "She is medium height and of a somewhat round build," Draycos
reported. "Her skin looks rough, somewhat like the outer coating of a
pineapple. Her head was covered with tendrils of a white substance.
Similar to human hair, but it did not look precisely the same."
    "They're called featherines," Jack said. "Yeah, that's an Ysanhar,
all right. What were her clothes and shoes like?"
    "Her clothing was well-worn and patched in several places,"
Draycos said. "Her shoes were in similar shape."
    "And she headed back to the slave quarters?"
    "Yes."
    "One of the slaves, all right," Jack concluded.
    "Was there doubt?"
    "There's always doubt when you deal with people like Gazen." Jack
shook his head. "She isn't going to have a very pleasant night."
    "I do not understand."
    "She's probably wondering if I'm some kind of plant," Jack
explained. "I shouldn't have mentioned that I'd