Tinker's Justice Read Free Page B

be led from the dragon’s lair and up into the passages to the surface.
    The journey to the goblin healer was not a long one. Perhaps two blocks filled with gawking eyes were all it took to bring her to a tidy, whitewashed building that smelled of antiseptics. At least they seem to have some concept of medicine . She had not run into any goblin medical personnel in the valley during her stay, so she could only guess that they were more primitive than Tellurak’s physicians. Once her handlers ushered her inside, she was only mildly relieved.
    The hospital room was centered on a knee-high table with a polished shine that told her that the wood was well-sealed. Shelves along one wall were filled with glass jars bearing illegible labels. Cabinets dominated another wall, and a third bore hooks holding tools of every description. Many of them had familiar appearances, similar in form to ones that Jamile had described from her medical training. Others, Madlin’s imagination could only make macabre guesses as to their function. She could only hope that a simple broken nose wouldn’t require any of them.
    One of the goblins spoke up and conversed with the flummoxed physician, who was clearly unprepared to receive a human patient. Madlin was guided to a seat on the floor while the physician climbed onto the table to examine her. She allowed her hands to be pried free of her face, restarting the flow of blood. The physician chittered orders to an assistant, and in moments Madlin’s face had been daubed clean with alcohol. Rolled bits of liniment-soaked cloth were stuffed up her nostrils, stemming the flow of blood. A pair of thin, metal bars flared to life with aether in the physician’s hands. Madlin flinched away, but the handlers forced her forward and still once more. The physician pinched the bars to the sides of Madlin’s nose, forcing it straight with a stabbing twinge; then they felt cold, far colder than bare metal should have. In seconds her nose began to numb, the sensation spreading across her cheekbones and up to her brow. A slathering of paste was then applied, holding the bars in place. The assistant packed cloth at both sides of her nose and wrapped a bandage around her head, packing everything tight.
    The cold numbed the pain in her face, but brought her wits back to her. Madlin began taking stock of her new situation as the goblins brought her a wash bowl and soap, and helped her cleanse herself of blood. I’m collared again. She was still too shocked and disoriented for that to have finished sinking in. For now, it was a fact, nothing more. The dragon wants me, which means he wants me alive. That’s good. He might find ways to make my life miserable, but as long as I can survive, I can figure a way out of this. Eziel’s blood, he even said he’d keep delivering coil guns. Madlin paused in her thoughts as the handlers prodded her to her feet. She followed them out of the hospital and back toward the mountain. Of course he’d promise to keep the deal. He needed to buy time, and to stop them thinking of ways to rescue me. As long as they keep getting the guns, he must assume they’ll play things safe.
    Madlin sighed. He’s probably right, too. In a strange way, it was a relief. The expected treachery had come, albeit in a form none of them had predicted. And she was still alive.

    Madlin’s new quarters were within the dragon’s complex. It was not a part of the lair itself, but rather a newly excavated chamber not far from where Fr’n’ta’gur’s priests lived and worked. Life in Korr’s deeps had taught her what new stonework looked like. It galled her to think that the goblins had been planning ahead for weeks for this betrayal. Almost as galling was the fact that by the time she had arrived back from the goblin hospital, all her belongings had already been set up within. From desk to dresser, everything from her cottage in the valley was set up just as she had left it. The sheets were even tucked,