Read Online Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans - Free Book Online Page A

great heap of gray ore covered the rag pile, half obscured by slowly settling black dust. Miners stood in all the tunnels, staring out into the opening, but none had ventured out. Most of the shouting was coming from above.
    And then a rope was flung down, and a man came sliding down it, hand over hand—a man wearing thick leather, with a sword on his belt. He jumped free and immediately drew his blade. The sword was shorter and broader than Arlian remembered a sword being, and he had to stop and think where he had ever seen a sword before.
    On Lord Dragon’s belt, he realized. This was only the second sword he had even glimpsed, and the first he had seen out of its sheath. It gleamed in the dim orange light, and Arlian stared at it, fascinated, studying the way the stranger held it.
    â€œAll right, stand back!” the swordsman bellowed. “Where’s the overseer?”
    Half a dozen voices answered, and several fingers pointed. The man turned and spotted Bloody Hand, lying half covered in dust and rubble.
    â€œWhat about our dinner?” someone called.
    â€œYou’ll get your food,” the swordsman snapped, as he strode over to Bloody Hand. He knelt, but kept the sword ready and didn’t look down as he felt the downed overseer’s throat, but instead kept a watchful eye on the slaves in the tunnels.
    â€œHe’s breathing,” the swordsman shouted up the shaft. “I don’t see much blood. I think he’s all right.”
    â€œCan he hold a rope?” a voice called from above.
    â€œNot a chance,” the swordsman replied. “Send someone down!”
    Arlian watched silently and saw that Bloody Hand was blinking, and trying to raise his right hand free of the rocks. By the time another man had clambered down the rope from the ledge above the swordsman was helping Bloody Hand to sit up.
    Arlian and Wark watched as the new arrival helped the overseer to the dangling rope. The swordsman stood guard as the others clung to the rope while it was hauled up; then the rope was flung down again, and the swordsman sheathed his blade and ascended.
    Then the rope was pulled up.
    For a moment nothing more happened, though Arlian could hear voices. Then the hopper, still dangling by its one corner, was lowered.
    â€œWhere’s our supper?” someone shouted, and several other voices joined in protest at seeing the hopper descend without the customary contents.
    â€œWait a moment, will you?” the swordsman’s voice called down.
    A chorus of angry voices replied incoherently, and at last the miners spilled out of the tunnels into the pitshaft. Arlian saw Swamp shaking an angry fist at the invisible figures in the upper tunnels.
    Then a heavy burlap sack came sailing down the shaft, to land with a thump atop the heap of spilled ore. Swamp and the others ran to open it.
    Arlian stepped out into the pitshaft, Wark at his heels. The two of them made their way up the mound of ore to where Swamp and Bitter were distributing the usual food from the sack—coarse bread, tasteless dried-out cheese, some dried fruit to prevent scurvy.
    Arlian held out his hand, and Swamp started to pass him a slab of bread, when Stain spoke up.
    â€œNot him! He’s the one who saved Bloody Hand’s life! You don’t want to feed him! ”
    Swamp hesitated, and looked at Rat.
    Rat, a small man known for his quick wits, looked at Arlian. “ You’re the one pulled him out from underneath, Arlian? Or was it Wark?”
    â€œIt was Arlian,” Wark said.
    â€œI did it,” Arlian admitted.
    â€œTrying to get on the bosses’ good side, are you?” Rat snarled. “Couldn’t leave well enough alone?”
    â€œYou know the rules, Rat,” Arlian said—he wasn’t exactly slow himself, and had no intention of admitting he had acted out of genuine concern for a fellow human being. “If we don’t deliver a live overseer at the end of