Dragonback 02 Dragon and Soldier Read Online Free PDF

raid
he and Draycos were probably going to have to make. But everyone else
seemed to want a bunk with a view, too, and he had to settle for a
lower bunk pressed up against the washroom wall. It wasn't exactly a
prime location, but the washroom had some windows high up in the walls
that might do.
    The recruits spent the next two hours sitting on their bunks
filling out more paperwork. After that, they were taken outside into an
open field and taught how to stand at attention, turn precise corners,
and march in unison.
    Dinner time was a real treat. Jack had heard once that the
stronger the army, the more disgusting its food. By that standard, the
Whinyard's Edge was a very good army indeed. An early round of muttered
complaints was quickly cut off by a large sergeant, who ordered one of
the complainers to stand at attention while he verbally took him apart
inch by inch. Sergeant Grisko, someone at Jack's table whispered the
man's name, rumored to be the meanest of the Edge's drill instructors.
After that, everyone ate in silence.
    After dinner it was back to the barracks, with orders to study
their training manuals. The ten-minute warning sounded at eight-fifty,
and at precisely nine o'clock the lights went out. Many of the teens
were caught unprepared, and there was a lot of stumbling around and
clunking into bunks and each other for the next half hour.
    Only then, after the barracks was quiet, did Jack finally have a
chance to talk to Draycos.
    "So," he whispered, his head half under the blankets to muffle his
voice. "This is what it's like to be a soldier, huh?"
    "Not precisely," Draycos murmured back. Even in a whisper, his
voice sounded odd. "It is similar, though."
    Jack craned his neck to try to look down at the dragon's face
lying against his shoulder. "You all right?"
    For a long moment Draycos was silent. "This is not right," he
said. "For children so young to be sold into such a life without cause
is not right."
    "You said you were younger than this when you became a soldier,"
Jack reminded him.
    "We were in a war for survival," Draycos said. "There is no such
reasoning here."
    "I suppose not," Jack conceded. "Though I know there are sometimes
big fights off on backwater worlds that the rest of us never hear
about."
    The dragon shook his head. At least that was what it felt like
against Jack's skin. "Cornelius Braxton would not approve of this
situation."
    "Braxton?" Jack echoed, frowning. "How did Braxton get into this?"
    "I believe him to be an honorable human," Draycos said. "He would
be strongly opposed to children being used for such a purpose."
    "Fine, but how did—oh, never mind," Jack said, giving up.
Sometimes Draycos's mind wandered off onto the strangest bunny trails.
"Just don't forget that he didn't build Braxton Universis into one of
the Orion Arm's biggest megacorporations by being Saint Boy Scout. The
only reason he was so nice to me was because we did him a big favor. If
he had to indenture kids to get something he wanted, I bet he'd do it.
He might not like it, but he'd do it."
    "Perhaps," Draycos said. "Still, you and I at least should have
nothing to fear from him."
    "I'm not so sure about that, either," Jack said, thinking back to
the glint in Braxton's eye at their last meeting. "I wasn't exactly
telling him the whole truth about what happened, you know. I get the
feeling people don't tell half-truths to Cornelius Braxton and get away
with it. He may not be finished with us yet." He grimaced. "I'd lay
odds that Arthur Neverlin isn't finished with us, either."
    "Perhaps," Draycos said. "But I would suspect that Neverlin has
all he can do right now trying to conceal himself from Braxton."
    "Don't you believe it," Jack warned. "Snakes like Neverlin can
always find time for a little revenge when someone's double crossed
him. Especially when they've double-crossed him as badly as we did."
    "A double cross implies there was a legitimate agreement to begin
with," Draycos pointed out. "You were