Dragonback 01 Dragon and Thief (14 page)

Preenoffneoff took a long step out onto the balcony. "Who are
you?" he demanded, his voice sounding like sticks clattering together.

Did that mean he was getting angry? Jack wished he knew. "Who am
I?" he echoed, stalling for time as he tried desperately to remember
something—anything—about bonding ceremonies. Uncle Virgil had had him
read up on Wistawki culture in general for that scam, but this
particular subject hadn't really come up.

They were sort of like human weddings, he vaguely remembered, but
a lot more rowdy. One of the articles he'd read had compared them to a
combination of wedding, pie-eating contest, and carnival. They also
usually covered a two- or three-block area, with all of the happy
couple's neighbors involved in the ceremonies in some way.

No wonder the Brummga had scoffed at the idea of Jack being able
to disappear into this neighborhood. If they got mad at him crashing
their party, there would be an awful lot of Wistawki he would have to
run through before he reached someplace safe.

But even as that depressing thought occurred to him, the key word
clicked.

Carnival
!

"Who am I?" Jack repeated, drawing himself up to his full height.
"Why, I'm one of the entertainers, of course. The Great Jack O'Lantern,
here to amaze and enchant and astound the young ones. I trust I'm not
late?"

Preenoffneoff had been starting to take another step toward them.
Now, though, he paused. "I didn't hire any humans," he said.

"Not specifically," Jack said. "The agency sent me over."

He reached down and patted Draycos's head. "Jack O'Lantern and his
amazing electromechanical assistant Draycos." He frowned. "Surely
you've heard of us. The Skyway Pavilion on Scintrell? I was one of the
star performers there only three years ago."

"There are so many," Preenoffneoff said, waving a hand in a vague
gesture as he stepped to one side. "Very well. Come inside."

"Thank you," Jack said, bowing from the waist. "A moment while I
get Draycos reset."

He leaned over and reached under Draycos's neck. "I hope you know
what you are doing," Draycos murmured.

"Me, too," Jack whispered. "Just play off my cues, and remember
you're supposed to be a mechanical robot. Can you sing or dance or
anything?"

Draycos turned his head slightly to gaze directly into Jack's
eyes. Jack swallowed; those green eyes did not look very friendly at
the moment. "Dance?" he repeated ominously.

"No, no, of course not," Jack said hastily. "That's okay, we'll
skip the dance."

"Are you ready?" Preenoffneoff asked.

"Ready, willing, and able," Jack said, straightening up. "Lead the
way."

The Wistawk turned and walked back into the room. Putting on his
most confident smile, Jack followed.

"The whelps are there," Preenoffneoff said, pointing to the outer
circle, a ring of short Wistawki Jack hadn't been able to see from the
balcony. "We will see your performance now."

"Certainly," Jack said, forcing his smile to stay in place as he
felt sweat gathering on his forehead. He had assumed the youngsters
would be off in another room somewhere, away from the main festivities.
Clearly, the carnival atmosphere was for the adults, too.

Which meant a bigger audience. A more discerning audience. An
audience that might decide to tear him into pieces if they didn't like
the show.

Terrific.

"Good evening, all," he said cheerfully, bowing to the room in
general. "My name is Jack O'Lantern, and this is my amazing
electromechanical assistant Draycos. Say hello to the folks, Draycos."

Draycos drew himself up, as if he was going to refuse to play
along with this charade. Jack held his breath . . ..

The dragon dropped his head and neck nearly to the floor in a
stylized bow of his own, his tail arching up over his head. "Good
evening, all," he said.

Holding the pose, he fluttered the tip of his tail as if waving.
"And a special good evening to the whelps," he added.

There was an almost human giggle from the outer circle, and Jack
started to breathe again. "That's Draycos," he said as Draycos
straightened up. "Did I mention he's my amazing electromechanical
assistant?"

"Yes," one of the whelps obligingly called.

"He looks real," one of the others added.

"Of course he's real," Jack said. "A real robot. Maybe later, if
you're good, I'll let one of you push some of his buttons."

"Me!" the first whelp yipped.

"No, me!" someone else insisted.

"Later," Jack reminded them. "Don't worry, there's enough of him
to go around."

There was just the hint of a growl from Draycos, but the dragon
didn't say anything. "Now, I need someone to go find me a few things,"
Jack continued, stepping over to the refreshment table set out along
the wall beside the door to the balcony. One of the serving plates was
loaded with raw fruits and vegetables. "I'll need a deck of ordinary
playing cards, three opaque cups—those are cups you can't see
through—and some string or thin rope. And three coins, any size."

"I'll get the cards!" one of the whelps said, scrambling to his
feet. Two others were right behind him, scattering to different parts
of the house.

"You do not have your own equipment?" Preenoffneoff asked.

"I have my amazing electromechanical assistant Draycos," Jack
reminded him. He reached to the fruit plate and selected an apple, a
pear-shaped white fruit, and a polka-dotted thing the size and shape of
a small zucchini. "For everything else, I prefer to borrow from my
audience."

He smiled out at the crowd. "After all, anyone can do tricks with
special cards, can't they?"

"Show us some tricks!" one of the whelps called impatiently.

"Gee, I don't know if I can," Jack said with mock uncertainly. He
stepped away from the table and tossed the apple up into the air. The
zucchini followed, and then the pear, then the apple again. It had been
a long time since he'd juggled, but apparently the skill hadn't gone
rusty. "Maybe you can help me think of some," he added.

Someone giggled. Jack tried varying the pattern a little; someone
giggled again. He stole a glance away from the flying fruit, wondering
what he was doing that was so funny.

The audience wasn't looking at him. They were looking
behind
him.

And all the children were giggling now.

Carefully, keeping his eyes mostly on his juggling, Jack threw a
quick glance to each side. Preenoffneoff was nowhere to be seen. Could
he be coming up behind Jack? With a serving knife from the table, maybe?

A drop of sweat trickled down his back. He hadn't been invited
here, after all. He'd crashed this ceremony, and there were plenty of
species in the Orion Arm who would consider that a good enough reason
to cut such an intruder into fish food. Some of those species might
even laugh and applaud and giggle while it was being done.

Did the Wistawki think that way? He didn't have the foggiest idea.
More to the point, did Preenoffneoff think that way? He didn't know
that, either.

All he knew was that the giggling was getting louder, and that the
adults were smiling, too. Keeping the fruit in the air, wondering how
fast he could go for his tangler if he had to, he turned his head
quickly to the right.

It wasn't far enough to see what was behind him. But it
was
far enough to spot Preenoffneoff standing by the balcony door. He
wasn't moving toward Jack, and there was certainly no knife or other
weapon in his hand. And like the other adults, he was smiling.

Jack focused back on his juggling, thoroughly confused now. Could
there be another Wistawk back there? The drunk from the balcony, maybe?
Probably not.

Then how about a Wistawk sneaking up on him from the left?

That was possible. Again, Jack twisted his head quickly to the
side, this time to his left.

Again, it wasn't far enough to see directly behind him. But again,
there was no threat anywhere that direction that he could see.

So what
were
they all giggling at?

He'd tried to play it subtle; but there was nothing for it now but
to go obvious. Slowly, still keeping the fruit circling through the air
in front of him, he turned around.

Draycos was lying on his back on the floor between Jack and the
table, his neck and tail curled upward like a mismatched set of
parentheses, busily juggling five of the apples back and forth between
his four paws.

Jack let out a quiet huff of relief. So no one was trying to
murder him, after all.

A second later, the relief vanished, rolled over by a flood of
annoyance. What did Draycos think he was doing, upstaging him that way?
How
dare
he?

He let his hands come to a halt, catching the pieces of fruit as
they fell, and stood there glaring at the dragon. What was he going to
do, he wondered desperately, now that Draycos had ruined his act?

Draycos kept juggling another couple of seconds, then suddenly
seemed to realize that Jack was watching him. Letting out a guilty
squeak, he quickly stopped, catching one of the apples in each paw.

The fifth apple was still soaring high overhead. Arching his neck,
he caught it neatly in his teeth.

Behind Jack came a clatter of the finger-snapping that was the
Wistawki version of applause. Draycos held his pose, blinking at Jack
like a kid caught raiding the cookie jar.

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Jack realized the dragon hadn't ruined
the act at all. In fact, he'd made it far better than anything Jack
could ever have come up with on his own.

With a flourish, he turned back to face the Wistawki. "My amazing
electromechanical assistant Draycos," he announced, waving a hand back
at Draycos. He stepped back to the table and returned his borrowed
fruit to the plate, then turned to Draycos and gave a slight nod.

Draycos understood. One at a time, in rapid succession, he tossed
Jack the apples he was holding in his paws. Jack caught each in his
left hand, tossed it in turn to his right hand and set it back on the
plate.

Last, Draycos spat him the fifth apple. Jack caught it and
stopped, reacting as if it was wet with saliva. He looked closely at
it, made an exaggerated yucky face that got him more giggles from the
whelps, and tossed it back to Draycos. The dragon caught it in his
mouth, bounced it around to each of his paws, then tossed it back to
his mouth. A flash of sharp teeth, and the apple was gone.

"My amazing electromechanical assistant Draycos must have skipped
lunch," Jack said dryly over the finger-snapping applause. "Now, who's
got that deck of cards?"

The show, in Jack's humble opinion, was a smashing success.

He'd never done a real magic show before, but it was almost as if
his whole life had been spent training for one. Most of the tricks he
performed were ones Uncle Virgil had taught him, either for scamming
money on the streets when he was a little kid, or more recently as
distractions for cons the two of them had worked together. Uncle Virgil
had taught him sleight of hand, too, both for use in scams and also as
dexterity exercises for his safecracking and pickpocket training.

And of course, the glib patter nearly every magician used to talk
up the audience was pure con artist. It was like he was back to his old
life again. Almost as if he'd never left it.

The only difference was that this time the audience would be
giving him money voluntarily instead of him stealing it from them. When
Uncle Virge had urged him to remember his training, this probably
wasn't what he'd had in mind.

Still, the biggest surprise of the evening, at least to him, was
Draycos. From that first bit of scene-stealing juggling, the dragon
slid naturally into the role of the magician's smart-alecky assistant.

He played the role beautifully, too. Even when Jack's tricks
weren't all that impressive, Draycos's inspired clowning in the
background more than made up for it.

It was the last thing he would have expected from a dignified,
noble warrior of the K'da. Uncle Virge would never believe it.

They ran the show for nearly an hour before Jack decided it was
time for the grand finale. By this time, hopefully, Raven would have
moved the search for him to some other part of the city. Depending on
what the Wistawki paid for the show, he and Draycos ought to be able to
hire a transport to get them to the backwater spaceport on Aldershot
where the
Essenay
would hopefully be waiting for them.

"And now, my friends, one final bit of magic for your amusement,"
Jack told them, slipping off his jacket and holding it out in front of
him. "An ordinary coat, as you can see."

He flipped it around, letting them see both the inside and the
outside. "I will now ask my amazing electromechanical assistant Draycos
to come stand in front of me," he went on, hanging the jacket spread
out in front of him in a two-handed grip—

Obediently, Draycos stepped in front of him, staying behind the
jacket. Hopping up on his hind legs, he stretched his body up between
Jack's outstretched arms, resting his front paws on the top of the
jacket. Jack couldn't see what he was doing with his face as he peered
over the jacket, but the whelps were giggling again.

"I thank you for your time and your attention and your courtesy,"
he said, bowing to the room. The movement made the jacket bob up and
down; Draycos bobbed right along with it. "Unfortunately," he continued
in a sterner voice, "I can't say as much for my amazing
electromechanical assistant Draycos. Draycos, you have been decidedly
disrespectful to me tonight."

Draycos leaned his head straight back so that his face was upside
down to Jack's. "I?" he asked.

"Yes, you," Jack said firmly. "And that last trick was the final
straw. I'm afraid I'm going to have to fire you."