"I have it."
Jack hunched his shoulders to stretch them. Only now, as he waited, did it suddenly occur to him that all their work and cleverness might be for nothing.
The key he'd stolen had been to the slave hotboxes; but there was no guarantee that the frying pan didn't have a different lock entirely.
And then there came a click, and the door swung open, letting in a rush of fresh air.
Jack let out a breath. "Okay," he said, trying to sound casual. "Well. Let's get to work."
CHAPTER 24
The first job was to see if they could fix the door so that Draycos could get in and out the usual way. Or at least, the usual way for poet-warriors of the K'da.
Fortunately, it turned out to be easier than Jack had feared. The extra slab of wood that had kept him from sliding his hand outside turned out to be a simple add-on, attached to the bottom of the door frame with three nails.
With the door closed above it, the nails were impossible to reach. With the door open, though, it was simple. At Jack's direction, Draycos used his claws to pry up the slab. The three nails came up with it, and Jack had him slice them off so that they were even with the wood.
Now, when the slab was back in position, it looked as solidly in place as if it were still nailed there. It even fit tightly enough against the frame on both sides that a slight bump wouldn't knock it loose. But with a little pressure, Jack could push it out to drop onto the ground outside.
"Or I can take it in with me and slide it back into position from inside," he explained to Draycos as he tested the fit. "Either way, the Brummgas will never have a clue."
"Unless they try pushing on the slab themselves," Draycos pointed out thoughtfully. "Tell me, where are the ends of the nails I cut off?"
"Uh..." Jack glanced around. "Here they are," he said, picking the three pointy ends off the ground. "I was going to toss them into the bushes."
"Give them to me," Draycos said. "Then lift the slab out of the way."
Jack did so. Draycos delicately shoved the nail points back into the holes where they'd originally been, pressing them into place with his claws. "There," he said. "Now if anyone examines them, they will conclude the nails simply rusted through and broke."
"Maybe," Jack said doubtfully. "They don't look all that rusted to me."
"It will take a close examination to show the truth," Draycos said. "They are not likely to have the time—"
He broke off, his ears twitching around toward the house. "Someone is coming," he said quietly. "Not a Brummga."
Carefully, Jack peeked around the side of the frying pan. There was a figure coming toward them, all right, silhouetted against a crack of light from the open kitchen door. Definitely too small for a full-sized Brummga.
Her Thumbleness?
"Inside," Jack hissed, ducking back around the front. Draycos was holding the door open; scooping up the wooden slab, Jack scrambled inside. The dragon eased the door closed, and as Jack poked his hand through the opening he heard a soft click as Draycos locked the door. A second later the key came sliding through the gap, followed by a brief weight on Jack's outstretched hand as the dragon came aboard.
There wasn't enough time to hide the key in his shoe. Instead, he shoved it out of sight beneath the copper mesh behind him. Even if Her Thumbleness had come to drag him back to one of her games, Gazen would probably toss him back in here as soon as she got tired of him again. He could hear the footsteps approaching.
"Jack?" a familiar voice called. "Are you in there?"
He felt Draycos twitch. So the dragon was surprised, too. "Yes, I'm here, Lisssa," Jack called back. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Lisssa countered disgustedly. "I'm Her Thumbleness's newest art project."
Jack winced. "I'm sorry," he said, and meant it. Bad enough to be dressed up in a clown suit and made to perform magic tricks. Having to stand there while Her Thumbleness gleefully ran a paintbrush over your body would be ten times worse.
"When did you get here?"
"They came and got me this morning," Lisssa said. "That Wistawk—Heetoorieef—told me they'd put you in here."
"They did it twice, actually," Jack said, rubbing at the bruises on his ribs.
"You'd better get back before she misses you."
"Not a problem," Lisssa said. "Her Thumbleness is having a long bath in that swamp off her room. Are you hungry or anything?"
Actually, he was starving, now that she mentioned it. "I'm okay," he said.
"Yeah, right," she said. "Here, I brought you this."
There was the sound of something scraping against the wood beneath the door.
Jack tensed; but before he could move, Draycos's rear legs bulged out from his ankle to press against the wooden slab and hold it firmly in place. "I swiped a
few of these from the kitchen," Lisssa added as something round and thin slid faintly into sight. "They're cold, and they didn't taste all that good hot.
But they're probably better than what you've got."
"Grilled sand would be better than what I've got," Jack grunted, prying up the copper mesh and pulling the round thing all the way in. It was some kind of pancake, he decided as he lifted it to his nose. It smelled odd, but no worse than some of the things he'd eaten in his travels around the Orion Arm.
"Thanks."
"Hang on, I've got three more," Lisssa said. "Catch."
She passed the rest of the pancakes through the narrow gap. "Hope that'll tide you over," she said as Jack pulled the last one in. "It's getting chilly out here. You going to need a blanket or anything?"
"I'm fine," Jack said. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but you'd better get out of here before one of the patrols sees you. I don't want your beating on my conscience."
"Oh, that's right," she said with an audible sniff. "You still have a conscience. I forgot."
"So humor it already," Jack said. "Thanks for the food. Now get lost."
"What about that blanket?" she persisted. "I've been in hotboxes before.
They're pretty miserable at night. And you don't even have scales to keep you warm."
"I'll be okay," Jack insisted. "Besides, you'll never get a blanket in through that gap."
"I suppose," she agreed reluctantly. "Look, I'll see what I can do. Don't go anywhere, okay?"
Jack grunted. "Funny."
"I try. See you later."
The footsteps moved off. "To the wall," Draycos whispered.
Jack pressed his back against the wall behind him. Draycos shifted, paused for a
minute, then shifted again. "She has returned inside," he reported. "I saw no patrols that might have noticed her."
"Good," Jack said. The last thing he wanted right now was to draw curious Brummgan eyes in this direction. "Well, that was different."
"What do you mean?"
"Lisssa sticking her neck out for me," Jack said. "Or for anyone, for that matter."
"Yes," Draycos said thoughtfully. "Perhaps the experience of being one of Her Thumbleness's playthings has given her a new view of life."
"I think that only works with K'da," Jack said dryly. "But we can ask her about it later. Right now, we need to get moving."
"That may not be easy," Draycos warned. "She implied she would return with a blanket."
Jack hissed between his teeth. He was right, blast it. "And if she strolls by when we're not here...?"
"Then we shall be burned cinnamon bagels," Draycos said solemnly.
Jack grimaced. "Toast, Draycos," he corrected. "We'll be burned cinnamon toast."