Demontech: Rally Point: 2 (Demontech Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

Bostia.”
    “I did not expect to encounter someone who speaks my tongue so far to the east,” the woman said. She placed her hands together and bowed to Doli as Alyline had to her. “I am Nightbird,” she said.
    Doli introduced her companions and told them what Nightbird had just said. Spinner spoke enough Bostian that he had been able to follow the exchange but Alyline had no Bostian. Soon the conversation got more complex and they both needed Doli’s translation.
    Nightbird was a robust woman with lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth and a streak of white in her otherwise black hair. Most village women of her age were well on their way to becoming crones, but she retained the firmness and litheness of a younger woman. She was a healing witch from a village in southeastern Bostia, which had fled ahead of the Jokapcul invasion. She, the women and children, and three of the armed men, were all that were left from her village. Two of the other men were Zobran farmers who joined with them after their farms had been burnt and their families killed. Fortunately both were veterans, one from the Skragland army, the other Zobran, and knew how to fight.
    Spinner looked at the two farmers when Doli translated that. They wore farmer’s homespun, but had the attitude of soldiers who didn’t want to be where they were. He wondered whether “deserters” would more accurately describe them. He decided it didn’t matter as long as they were willing to defend these refugees.
    Doli briefly related to Nightbird that Spinner and Haft had escaped from New Bally when it was taken and they were looking for an open port from where they could find a ship back to Frangeria. She was even briefer in telling about how the two Marines had freed her and the other slaves at The Burnt Man. Her description of their travels across Skragland into Zobra and back in Skragland was sketchy.
    While they talked, Nightbird invited the three to join her and the other adults sitting at the cook fire. She continued her narration of the journey of the villagers.
    The villagers had made it halfway across Skragland and dipped south into Zobra before they had major trouble. A farmer had given them permission to camp on his land for a few days but a badly disciplined troop of Jokapcul arrived the day before they were going to leave. Enough of them were distracted by raping several women and torturing men and boys they’d caught that half of the villagers were able to escape, though they had to leave their wagons and belongings behind. Back in Skragland they were set upon by bandits who killed several more people before being driven off. Since they’d heard all of coastal Zobra was in Jokapcul hands but the Princedons were still free, the survivors then joined a caravan headed for the Princedons. Then the caravan was set on by another Jokapcul troop. She didn’t know if any of her villagers other than the few still with her managed to escape. The day after that attack they were joined by the two veterans, Kozlegeny and Winnan. A week ago they came across another caravan that had been attacked by the Jokapcul. They didn’t find any live people, only corpses. Most of the horses hadn’t wandered too far and they were able to round up ten. Three wagons were whole or repairable, and there were salvageable goods they consolidated in the three wagons.
    And that was how they came to be in the clearing. They hadn’t heard of any Jokapcul activity in the Princedons so they were headed there.
    Shouts of children in the trees interrupted them. Spinner leaped to his feet and spun in the direction of the shouts, his quarterstaff held ready. Behind him, the men also jumped up and drew their swords, crouched, ready for fight or flight. Then children burst into the clearing, running about, tagging each other, squealing in delight. Wolf romped with the children like a household dog.
    The children of the caravan had watched and listened for a time as Nightbird and the