He’d be a fool to stop now when he was so close to making his fortune. He would either gain enough from this gamble to live like a king or he’d not bother. But while a rich price might be enough to win their freedom, he doubted it would long keep Hest at his side. He’d nearly returned to the barge then, for he knew that even one of the scales should bring him a rich price. He’d extracted three more scales from the creature, each about the size of the palm of his hand, wrapped them carefully in a kerchief, and tucked them into the breast of his shirt. The dragon gave a twitch but slept on, apparently too feeble to care. The scale did not come out easily it was rather like pulling a plate from the bottom of a stack. By the moonlight’s feeble gleam, he had slipped the edge of his knife under a scale, pinched it hard against the blade with his thumb, and jerked. He knew that the larger scales were usually on their shoulders, hips, and the broadest parts of their tails. The shoulder was perfect he’d put his opportunity to observe the dragons while Alise attempted to talk to them to good use. His first ambition had been to claim a few scales. It made a wheezing sound but did not move. He gave it a slight push, and then a harder shove. He’d forced himself to boldness, and cautiously set a hand to the creature’s filthy shoulder. He could detect no movement and heard no sign of it breathing. At first, he’d thought it was already dead. The sickly dragon slept alone on the outskirts of the group. It had been late and both the keepers and their dragons had been sleeping soundly as he moved cautiously among and then past them. He’d taken care earlier in the evening to watch the dragons as they settled, so he knew approximately where the exhausted brown was sleeping. He’d slogged over trampled grass and through puddles as best he could, resigned that his boots and trousers would be sodden and caked with mud by the time he returned. The dying glow of the keepers’ bonfire and the nearly full moon had been enough to light his way. Alise had been his unwitting accomplice for she had distracted the captain so completely that Sedric had no problem in stealthily leaving the ship. The dragons had settled for the night on a grassy shore and their keepers had decided to collect driftwood and sleep near them. Some nights the keepers slept on board sometimes they bedded down near their dragon wards. Each evening, Leftrin nosed the Tarman onto the muddy banks of the river as close as he could get to wherever the dragons were sleeping. It had not been that hard to slip away from the ship at night. And suddenly he had known that he would never have a better chance than that night. Somehow, that thought had surfaced again in his mind as he stared down on the feeble brown dragon struggling to stay ahead of them.
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