Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave by Timothy Zahn

overheard.
    But during the meal he'd found his muscles tightening up from the
strain of the day's work. Some of them were muscles he hadn't even
known he had. By the time he hobbled out of the meal hall on stiff
legs, the thought of doing anything but going straight to bed was long
gone.
    He changed into his sackshirt, laying out his other clothing
neatly over the end of his cot. Maerlynn came by once to see how he was
doing, and left again after he assured her he was fine.
    She didn't offer to wash his clothes this time. That was probably
something he would have to do on his own from now on. Tomorrow, when he
wasn't so tired, he would ask someone how he went about doing that.
    He forced himself to stay awake for a few minutes after the lights
went out, hoping that everyone else in the hut would get to sleep
quickly. "Draycos?" he whispered when he judged he'd waited long enough.
    "They are all asleep," the dragon confirmed softly. "Are you all
right?"
    "I'm pretty tired," Jack admitted, sliding the meat out from under
his pillow where he'd hidden it. "Otherwise, I'm okay. Got some food
for you here. Sorry it's not more."
    "It is quite adequate," Draycos assured him. His head rose up from
Jack's chest, his crest pushing up the thin blanket. "I am not very
hungry."
    "Yeah," Jack said, watching as the dragon wolfed down the meat in
a single bite. "Right."
    "Truly," Draycos insisted. "You should sleep now."
    "No argument there," Jack agreed. "You going back to the thorn
hedge?"
    "Yes," Draycos said. His head flattened again onto Jack's chest,
and Jack felt him slithering along onto his right arm. He picked up the
cue and turned onto his left side, draping the arm over the cot toward
the floor.
    The dragon slid off his wrist, landing on the wooden floor without
a sound. "See you later," Jack whispered. "Don't get caught."
    "I will be careful," Draycos said.
    "Good." Jack snorted gently. "I was just thinking. Remember back
at the Whinyard's Edge recruiting center, when Jommy Randolph made that
snide comment about the training being like summer camp?"
    "I remember," Draycos said. "And?"
    Jack made a face in the dark. "Compared to this," he said, "it
was."
    Draycos brushed Jack's arm with his forepaw. "Good night, Jack,"
he said. "I will return soon."

CHAPTER 10

    The next few days settled into a simple if unpleasant routine.
Jack got up at daybreak with the other slaves and trudged out to the
rainbow berry bushes. He worked, drank his noonday soup, worked some
more, turned in his bowl, ate dinner, and trudged back to his bed.
    At first his muscles ached all the time. After a couple of days,
as he got used to the work, they mostly ached at bedtime. A few days
after that, they almost stopped aching at all. Almost.
    Every other day the Klezmer came by. Each time he did so, Jack
made sure to give him a good handful of his berries.
    At first he tried to tell himself that he was just trying to blend
in. Almost all the other slaves except Lisssa, he'd noted, seemed to
give the old man something from their own bowls. Even Fleck, who didn't
have to do any picking at all, usually had a handful ready to slip into
the Klezmer's bowl.
    Jack also tried to convince himself he was just doing it to show
up Lisssa's defiant selfishness, or that he just liked the music. But
after the third time he finally had to admit the truth. Very simply, he
enjoyed helping out the old man.
    It was a new experience for him, and it gave him a lot to think
about in his long hours under the hot sun. Uncle Virgil had
occasionally made back-scratching deals with other criminals or corrupt
police, deals where he'd done a job in exchange for something else. But
he would have fallen on the floor laughing if anyone had ever suggested
he give away anything for free.
    His computerized alter ego, Uncle Virge, was of course incapable
of falling on the floor. But Jack knew that if he ever heard about this
he would certainly deliver a stern lecture on why Jack should be
looking