Dragon Ultimate (4 page)

"I won."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I had an eleven and seven, and then seven again. Every time I threw the dice they seemed to come up with a score. I had twenty pieces."

"So why are you in debt to Bunyard?"

"I kept gambling. I couldn't leave. I thought I could win even more."

"Ah," said Jak softly.

"I lost everything, and I then I lost gold pieces I didn't even have."

"And whose dice were you using?"

"Felp Bunyard's. We tested them out. They weren't weighted or anything crooked."

"And who else was in the game?"

"Well, when we started there were about five of us. But three of them had left, so there was Felp, me, and these other two men who joined in."

"Who work for Felp Bunyard I'd wager…"

Curf looked stricken.

"Plucked chicken?"

"Oh yes. They switched dice on you whenever they wanted to. Easy to do among three of them. They knew you weren't thinking too straight either, having just won all that gold."

"Well, if I don't get them fifteen pieces in three days, they're going to break my legs."

"Listen Curf, no one's gonna break your legs. Not while the 109th can do anything about it."

"I'll have to hide in the dragonhouse the rest of my days. Bunyard has a bad reputation. I didn't know that when I borrowed from him."

Jak, however, was thinking hard.

"Come on, Curf. We got work to do. Got to put a stop to all this."

The next day Bazil's joboquin disintegrated during sword exercise. His breastplate fell to the ground with a clang. Dragon Leader Cuzo was forced to whistle the exercise to a halt while the Broketail dragon withdrew from the square. Vlok took his place.

Curf received a reprimand, and the two of them trudged back early to the dragonhouse. Bazil was just a little peeved. Knowing about Curf's problems, however, kept him from complaining.

"I hear boy gambled and lost gold pieces."

"You heard right. I did."

"Gold pieces boy doesn't even have."

Curf was silent for a few seconds.

"Well, yes. I'm afraid so."

"This dragon has gold. We can use some of that."

Curf looked up for a moment in sudden hope. Then he folded back in on himself.

"Thanks, Bazil, but I can't take your gold. I really appreciate your offer, but I've got to find it for myself."

"Not possible in three days. Maybe not possible ever."

"You don't know that."

Bazil cast a sardonic eye upon young Curf.

"One thing this dragon does know. Curf, you not suited to be dragonboy."

There was a long silence. Curf was still favoring his right leg from being thrown out the door the night before.

"I won't be a dragonboy much longer, I know that."

There, Curf thought, he'd said it. His dream was coming to an end and he was ready to admit it to himself.

"I also hear that you were cheated."

"Maybe."

"Then this isn't over. We need to plan. No one gets away with cheating this dragon's dragonboy."

Curf looked up in surprise. This was more than he'd expected. He knew he had let Bazil down. He hadn't done the job he'd wanted to. He'd meant to. He felt he owed Relkin so much that he had to take good care of Bazil. But there were always songs to be written, and tunes to try and pick out on the guitar, and he always took too much time trying to get it right, and that always made him late. Curf wasn't good at keeping to time, and he hated the hours of needlework that you had to put in to keep the joboquin healthy. Since he hadn't done his job, he had naturally thought that the dragon wouldn't care to help him. Of late Bazil had been scarcely polite about his longing for Relkin to come back.

"Plan what? I have to get that money."

"Oh, we have the money. This dragon have all the gold we need. But by the fiery breath of ancestors, we going to do something about cheating." The big head shook angrily.

That afternoon there was a meeting in Alsebra's stall. Jak, Swane, Manuel, and Endi were already there when Curf joined them.

"So we're all in, right?" said an impatient Swane.

"Right."

"Endi's going to do the gambling. The Broketail will bring some gold."

"How will he get gold? Gold is in a bank," said Manuel.

"I asked him that," said Swane. "He sent a message to Captain Hollein Kesepton, right, Curf?"

"Yes. I took it to the tower myself. The Tarcho apartments, no less."

"Right then," said Manuel. "That takes care of that."

The next evening, after the boil, they slipped out of the dragonhouse and went down Tower Street to Fish Hill. Bazil went with them, a huge presence in the street beside them.

There were folk out in numbers, and they stopped to wish him well. They knew perfectly well who he was, for with that kinked tail of his he was unmistakable. Bazil Broketail was a popular person in the city of Marneri. And though it was unusual for a dragon to be out in the city, except on a festival day, no one considered reporting his presence to the watch.

Bazil acknowledged the greetings with nods of his big head and stayed on the right side of the street. Horse traffic backed up, of course, since horses became very uneasy around dragons. He kept moving along, and apart from a fuss from some coachmen there was no trouble.

At Fish Hill they turned and went up past warehouses to a building that looked somewhat the worse for wear. The windows were boarded up. An alley at the side led to an inner courtyard. A low gate that Bazil could easily step over was the only bar to the alley.

Curf knocked at the door with Endi at his shoulder. The others were in the alleyway with two tons and more wyvern battledragon.

The door opened and a tall man looked out.

"What you want?"

"I want to see Felp."

"Squire Bunyard ain't seeing you."

"I have some gold for him."

The tall man drew back.

"Then circumstances are different. Come in. Felp will be notified."

"And tell him we want to throw dice again."

"Both of you?"

"I want to try again," said Curf. "No rule against it, is there?"

"By the Hand, but you are an optimist, ain't you?"

"My friend here wants to throw too, all right?"

The tall man gave Endi a careful scrutiny. He saw only another pigeon waiting to be plucked. Why not? Another twenty gold pieces might be in the offing here.

"Show me the gold."

Endi pulled back his coat to reveal two small pouches.

"All right, come in."

"We want to throw in the same place. Out in the courtyard, right?"

"Fine. Let me get old Felp. He loves it when we throw the dice with fine young gentlemen like yourselves."

Felp soon appeared with an expectant, cheerful air about him.

"Welcome. You have the fifteen pieces?"

Endi handed over a purse. Felp counted carefully.

"This is very good, very good. And I understand you wish to throw again. Please, come in."

They went out into the courtyard. The alley mouth loomed dark at the side. Felp and three of his men gathered around their favorite spot for throwing dice and spread a leather mat to throw on.

Felp let them use plain dice at first, knowing that dragonboys had sharp eyes. The switching had to be carefully done. But his boys were experts at distraction.

Endi was a good dice player. He kept his head, keeping bets low enough never to hurt and ignoring side bets and distractions. Playing the sevens, calling the eights. Endi won steadily, lost less than he won. He took it in silver shillings—five here, twenty there. Five gold pieces' worth after a while.

Felp decided that that was enough. He signaled to Kuvsly to start the distraction.

Kuvsly was a flamboyant player. He always kissed the dice and made elaborate appeals to the Goddess to quit being a witch and a bitch and to bless this throw and reward Kuvsly with gold. This time he went up close to Endi and snarled a long curse. There was elaborate mock hostility in his movements as he stabbed a finger at the dragonboy. Then he threw the dice.

He threw seven and thus kept the dice. He called for eight and six and bet ten shillings. Then, before throwing, he cursed Endi's mother and father as whores. Endi ignored him with a sniff. The dragonboy had his knife in his belt and felt quite capable of handling Kuvsly, but he was determined not to be put off or flustered.

Six came up. Endi paid five shillings. Kuvsly bet again on six and eight. Endi took the bet. Felp signaled impatiently.

Kuvsly was forced to increase his threat posturing by moving too close to Endi to be ignored and waving his hands dangerously close to Endi's face.

Endi drew back a stride and drew his blade.

The sight of steel brought a smile to Kuvsly's face. He dropped two dice, palming the normal ones and put his hand to his own knife hilt.

"What's the matter, dragonboy? You sensitive all of a sudden? Didn't you hear what I called your mother? Oh, I forgot, you don't have mothers. You're all bastards, right?"

Felp suddenly slapped Kuvsly hard.

"Apologies to the dragonboy, but Kuvsly's a bit of an idiot, you know what I mean?" Felp slapped Kuvsly again. "Shut your filthy mouth! Just lay your bet!"

"All right, I will. Forget shillings. How about ten gold pieces on six and eight."

"Ten gold pieces?" said Curf.

"Yeah. You got balls, dragonboy? Or did they castrate you all at birth?"

Curf felt the heat rise above his collar.

"You better not talk like that anymore," he said.

"Yeah? Who's gonna smack my head?"

Curf was about to tell him when Felp slapped him again.

"I am. Now shut up! Throw!"

The dice went down and came up double three.

"Six wins!" crowed Kuvsly. "That's ten gold pieces, from each of you, right?"

"Wrong," said another voice, behind and above them.

They whirled collectively and looked up into the looming face of a certain leatherback wyvern that had slipped down the alley and was looking on from its shadow.

"What's a dragon doing down here?" said old Felp, who was that rarity, a man immune to dragon freeze. His men were less immune, though, and Felp got no answer from them.

The dragon stepped into the yard, immediately seeming to take up the whole corner.

"This dragon comes to keep an eye on dragonboys. Keep them out of mischief."

"Hey, dragons ain't allowed!" said Kuvsly, coming out of the freeze slowly.

"No one tell me this rule," said Bazil gravely.

Kuvsly was a little drunk and became belligerent. "Yeah, well I'm telling you, you overgrown lizard."

Bazil's big eyes got dangerously bright.

"Aw, come on, don't tell me you can't take a joke?" Kuvsly sneered, emboldened by the ale he'd consumed.

"You throw dice again. I want to see something."

"I'll throw. I call six and eight. Ten gold pieces."

"No. You just throw. Throw dice three times. I want to see something."

"Hey, no way, you overgrown—"

There was a slap. The strange tail tip swung back behind the dragon, and Kuvsly was stretched out on the ground. Curf bent and picked up the dice.

"Boy throw dice."

They came up double threes.

"Throw again."

The same. And thus it went, for the dice were weighted and would only come up three and three.

They fixed Felp with inquiring eyes.

"So you were cheating," said Endi. "Just like you cheated Curf."

"Who accused Felp the Bunyard? A dragonboy?"

"Then let's bet while we hold the dice." Endi held them up. "I'll throw for double threes. Five gold pieces on it."

Felp swallowed.

"I'm not betting on weighted dice you introduced to this game…"

"You brought the loaded dice. We caught you, and we'll go to the watch. There's laws against cheating."

"Who says? Who's going to take your word against that of Felp Bunyard?"

The dragon shifted in his place and leaned closer. Felp leaned back.

"I says. I watch as that one hide the other dice and drop those dice. He has the other dice in his pocket."

Felp looked uncomfortable. Kuvsly was still lying there like a log.

"I think you're all going to be in a lot of trouble. Coming down here to rob an honest man of his hard-earned gold pieces."

"You're the cheat. By the Hand I'd like to…" said Curf.

"Yeah, what? You think you've got me worried by bringing a dragon down here? There's laws against that sort of thing, let me assure you."

"Bazil hasn't threatened anyone," said Endi.

"He knocked poor ol' Kuvsley into next week."

"Man not hurt. He want to call this dragon a lizard, he better do it where this dragon can't hear him."

Endi bent down and searched Kuvsly's pockets. In a moment he stood up with the original dice.

"And look what we have here."

Felp chewed his lip. A couple of dragonboys was one thing, but his men weren't about to tangle with a dragon. Yet fifteen gold pieces was too much to let go without a fight.

"You think you can shake old Felp the Bunyard down like this, you better think again."