Blood of the Redd Guard - Part Two Read Online Free

have his wife followed. But as his hopes for reconciliation had all but disappeared, he had to be more practical, especially considering her increasing unexplained absences.
    A knock on the door broke him from his thoughts and he gave the instruction to come in. When it opened, a Paroke soldier was shown in by his servant Kiral, who gave a slight bow before she left. Helam didn’t know the man by name, but recognized that he was one of the Inner Wall guards. The man was sweaty and breathing a little hard. His uniform didn’t look worn and his face still had a boyish cast to it.
    “General Rahid sent you a message that he is here visiting the archives.” The guard scratched under his lip.
    Helam felt his pulse quicken and stifled a frown. “Did he say what he is looking for?” As far as Helam knew, there wasn’t anything damaging in the Paroke archives, but his wife had made it clear to him that the archives had to be protected. He didn’t know more than that because she wouldn’t say. He’d been tempted more than once to have his scribes start poking around, but so far hadn’t been willing to take the risk.
    A startled look crossed the guard’s face. “Semal and several of his scribes were attacked earlier, several people are dead. I guess Adar was coming to help out.”
    Helam put his hands behind his back, clenched his fists, and bit off a curse. If he had known that Semal was on base, he would have done something about it. Letting that man into the archives was as good as putting a candle next to a haystack. He’d given his wife too much free rein if she thought she could get away with something like murder on his base. He thanked the guard and called for Kiral to show the man out.
    Helam remained standing behind his desk once the man was gone, breathing until his lungs were full, trying to get control of his anger. He’d long ago given up the habit of throwing things or punching whatever was closest but that didn’t make dealing with his rage any easier.
    Helam had given to his guards a list of people that had to be watched, but it was beyond his power to forbid them entry to his base without cause. Several of those on the list had a notation by their name requiring that Helam be notified when they entered. Semal and Adar both had such a notation.
    The fact that Semal had gotten through without Helam knowing about it was bothersome but would have been recoverable if Semal hadn’t gone to the archives and gotten himself in trouble. The last thing that Helam needed right now was for the Kopal to feel that they had been forced into action. He couldn't afford for the tension to escalate between him and his wife.
    Helam was walking towards the door of his office when Elaire entered and pulled the dark mahogany door shut behind her. His wife was a beautiful woman and while that had been what attracted him to her, it wasn’t what had kept him courting her. It was her snappy wit, uncanny ability to remember trivial facts, and the way she could understand complicated things easier than most. She’d never enlisted, but she had a grasp for the way the Radim armies worked that most generals didn’t have.
    He looked across the room at her and tried to force a smile, it wouldn’t come. There had been a time when he didn’t do anything except he consulted her first. He had sometimes changed his plans based on her recommendations but it hadn’t been that way for half a decade. It had also been that long since he’d last held her in his arms or kissed her.
    “Semal and his scribes cannot be allowed to leave the base.” Elaire folded her arms and stared him in the eye. It wasn’t the first such occasion she’d approached him with a request, but this was the first one that crossed the line.
    “Coming to me to clean up your mess? What are you hiding?”
    “That doesn’t concern you,” she snapped.
    Helam made a fist and brought it down on the table, hard. “Our agreement is noninterference. Explain to me how