Robert Asprin's Dragons Run Read Online Free PDF

or at least set us going in the right direction.”
    Malcolm raised his eyebrows.
    “Excellent! Did she witness Valerie’s departure?”
    Griffen hesitated.
    “Not exactly.”
    “Then what is the nature of her information?”
    “Well . . . it’s hard to explain. I don’t know exactly how she does what she does.” That explanation was not going down well with Malcolm. Griffen did a mental shrug. “She’s a witch.”
    “Griffen!”
    “I have a lot of faith in her, Uncle Malcolm. She has been a good ally lately.”
    “An
ally
? In what way?”
    Griffen glanced at the people streaming in and out of the hospital entrance.
    “That’s a long story. I don’t think I should go into it here.”
    “Griffen, it’s unwise to associate with others. They are . . . beneath us, you know.”
    “No, they aren’t! They just have different talents!”
    “Not as powerful as ours. That can engender jealousy and put you in danger. You can’t trust them.”
    Griffen kept his face as blank as if he held four aces. “I do trust her. She knows about me, Uncle Malcolm. There’s nothing to hide and no reason for her to be jealous.”
    “So the damage is already done,” Malcolm said. His face set into a stone mask. “I might have to do something about that.”
    Griffen felt a chill race down his spine.
    “No!”
    Malcolm turned and headed toward their parking place. “Come on, then. I don’t see how much good it will do, though.”

Five
    Griffen held his temper as he drove, but inwardly, he was fuming. His uncle sat beside him, surveying the city with a haughty air.
    “I cannot believe that you revealed our heritage to outsiders,” Malcolm said, for approximately the tenth time. “You endanger us all! Do you know how many humans I have told that we are dragons?”
    “None,” Griffen said. “And minus-two dragons, Val and me. Holly would have figured it out anyhow. She already knew when we met the first time. I ran a convention for, uh, alternative life-forms. Lycanthropes, fairies, vampires, ghosts, all kinds of people. And witches. I was the only dragon. Well, except for Val, but she wasn’t really a participant. I was master of ceremonies. The, er, person who asked me to run things said that only a dragon would have the credibility and power to make the event go smoothly.” He hoped Malcolm wouldn’t ask if it had. “Then Holly and I were both parade royalty during Mardi Gras. Her title wasn’t king, but it meant the same thing.” Griffen realized he was babbling. He shook his head. It seemed an eon ago that he had ridden on the Fafnir float, throwing doubloons and beads to the screaming crowds. The last forty-eight hours felt like forty-eight years. He wondered if Val was all right. He glanced at his uncle.
    Malcolm hadn’t heard a word. His lips were pressed together as he stared out the windshield.
    “You may have caused a total breach, Griffen. This is serious. I refuse to compound your error.”
    “Then don’t come with me,” Griffen said. He wrenched the wheel, and Brenda’s car veered right off Rampart Street onto Canal toward his uncle’s hotel. A man in a T-shirt hopped backward out of his way. “I’ve already put my life in her hands more than once. I trust her. You don’t have to. I’ll meet you back at your hotel and tell you what she says.”
    Malcolm grumbled. He hung on to the Jesus strap with both hands. “It isn’t that I don’t trust you to give me a full briefing,” he said.
    “But you
don’t
trust me.”
    “No. I think you don’t know what questions to ask. Besides, she may be a charlatan.”
    “No,” Griffen said positively. “She’s not a charlatan. You may not be able to trust the people you work with, but I can.”
    “Only because no one else has met their price yet, Griffen. Always remember that.”
    Bah,
Griffen thought. But he steered the car back toward the French Quarter.
    •   •   •
    For a city as laid-back as New Orleans seemed to be, Griffen