Free Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave by Timothy Zahn Page A

Jack
didn't recognize at all.
    He glanced around. The only other slave nearby was Lisssa, leaning
half into her bush as she strained to reach some berry deep inside the
tangle of branches. "Hey, Lisssa," Jack said, stepping over to her.
"What's with the musician?"
    She made a sound like a horse snorting. "It's the Klezmer."
    "What's a Klezmer?"
    "I look like an encyclopedia to you?" she retorted. "That's just
what he calls himself."
    "Okay, okay," Jack said soothingly. "I was just asking."
    "And I'm just telling," Lisssa said sourly. "Probably means
'leach' in some human language."
    Jack frowned. "Leach?"
    Lisssa snorted again. "Take another look."
    Jack turned back. The Klezmer was walking slowly along the line of
berry pickers now. Each of the working slaves turned toward him as he
passed.
    And to Jack's surprise, each dropped some berries into the
container looped around the Klezmer's neck.
    "Okay, I give up," Jack said. "What are they doing?"
    "Like I said, he's a leach," Lisssa growled. "Story goes his eyes
have gone too bad for him to pick berries. My eyes so cry over him."
    "But don't the Brummgas have some kind of . . .?" Jack floundered.
    "What, retirement plan?" Lisssa asked scornfully. "Don't be
ridiculous. We don't work, we don't eat. Period."
    She shrugged in the Klezmer's direction, the thick scales of her
shoulder scratching against the branches with the movement. "So he's
got this scam going. He plays music and pretends he's not begging. And
everyone else gives him berries and pretends it's not charity."
    Jack studied her right ear, about all of her face he could see
through the branches and leaves. There had been an odd emphasis on the
last word. "You don't believe in charity?"
    Reluctantly, he thought, she pulled back from the bush and turned
those dark eyes on him. "Are you that naïve?" she asked bitterly. "Or
are you just stupid? We're slaves. Slaves . The bottom of the
bottom of the stack. Charity is for people who have something extra to
give. Not us. Here, no one looks out for you but yourself."
    "What about Maerlynn?" Jack asked. "Seems to me she's trying to
look out for us."
    "Oh, right," Lisssa countered. "Maerlynn. She helped Noy's
parents, too. They both ended up dead. She helped Greb and Grib's
uncle. He wound up dead, too."
    Her eyes flicked over Jack's shoulder. "And let's see what good
all her good intentions do for anyone now."
    Jack turned around. Coming up behind the Klezmer was another of
the open-topped cars like the one they'd used to bring him to the slave
colony. Inside, he could see two Brummgas: one an adult male, the other
much smaller and younger. The car coasted to a stop and both of them
got out.
    "Quick—look busy," Lisssa warned, sticking her face back into the
bushes.
    Jack took a long step to the next bush over and got back to work,
watching the two Brummgas out of the corner of his eye. They began
walking slowly along the line of working slaves, the younger one
jabbering to the older.
    And suddenly the air seemed full of tension.
    "What is it?" Jack murmured toward Lisssa. The Klezmer, he noted,
had stopped playing and was standing off to the side, stiff and silent.
"An inspection?"
    "Worse," Lisssa hissed from inside her bush. "Crampatch's spoiled
brat of a daughter is back for a new toy."
    Jack frowned. A toy ?
    The two Brummgas kept walking, the younger one pointing here and
there and making questioning noises, the older one answering her back.
Lisssa was right, Jack realized: it was exactly like she was a kid in a
toy shop. A kid trying to talk her father into buying her one of
everything.
    And then, the daughter stopped suddenly, her jabbing finger
becoming insistent. Her father answered; she pointed all the more
violently. He shrugged and said something.
    And from the line of bushes stepped one of Lisssa's fellow Doloms.
The older Brummga gestured, and taking his daughter's arm he turned
back toward the car. Setting his collection bowl carefully onto the
ground, the