Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

Company were all pledged
to help protect that secret. Thanks to Shadow Company, the first steps had been
taken to reverse the discrimination against denarae, but the sudden revelation
of their mental abilities could have catastrophic effects, even against this
celebrated unit.
    “What’s the
word, son?”
    Garnet turned
and grinned at his father. Garnet was the spitting image of his father, Garet
jo’Meerkit, and when the two embraced, most people swore they heard mountains
shift and trees topple. The two sandy-haired Red paladins were easily the
largest men in the group, towering head and shoulders above most of the others
and outweighing them by at least fifty pounds of pure muscle.
    “Everything’s in
position, dad,” he replied. “Standard ‘Y-formation’ of attack, and we’re the
base. As soon I get the signal the arms have engaged, we’ll move in and crush
them.”
    “Good,” Garet
said with a grin that mirrored his son’s. “I’ve been itching for another fight
after that Scraton River fiasco two weeks ago.”
    Garnet winced.
“Yeah, I heard about that. Two men dead, and a whole group of demons got away.”
    “Fled in terror
is more like it,” Garet snorted. “One minute they’re fighting like cornered
curs, the next they’ve turned tail and disappeared like rats. We only had the
standard six in the jintaal , so we didn’t have the strength left to track
them down. I hear the Council is sending a double up there next week to try and
track them down to finish the job.”
    “Hence the extra
strength here,” Garnet said, nodding his head. “I wondered why we were being
bolstered for a standard track and exterminate.”
    Father and son
regarded each other in silence for a moment. Garnet could see the beginning
signs of age in his father’s body, but the older paladin was still strong and
counted as one of the best warriors in the Prism. Garnet had a hard time
imagining his father as old and infirmed. Growing up in the household of a
paladin warrior, Garnet had lived with the constant threat that his father
might not come home. By the time Garnet began to mature, it was all but
accepted as fact that his father would die one day on the field of battle
faithfully serving the Prismatic Order.
    Equally accepted
by that time was that Garnet himself would follow in his father’s footsteps and
join the Prism. Garet began to train his eldest son at an early age, teaching
him swordsmanship and various other forms of combat during the intermittent
months of respite he had between missions for the Prism. By the time Garnet had
entered his training, he was already a better swordsman than most Red paladins,
and only Gerard Morningham had proved consistently better. Gerard had then
taken Garnet under his wing for more advanced training, and eventually Garnet
had outstripped even his now-departed mentor.
    “Why are we
being forced to wait back here?” a voice grumbled somewhere nearby. “Taking
orders from a pup and his gray-skinned lackeys.”
    Garnet laid a
calming hand on his father’s shoulder as Garet started to turn angrily toward
the paladin who’d spoken.
    “I’ve got it,
dad,” he murmured. Quickly, but with a casual quietness, Garnet positioned
himself an arm’s-reach behind the Orange paladin in question. Garnet didn’t
know his name, but he vaguely recognized him as one of the paladins who’d
remained in the chapterhouse during most of the fighting on the Barrier.
    “I assume,
brother,” Garnet said with deceptive politeness, “that you are referring to my
command.”
    The Orange
turned and regarded Garnet with a barely concealed sneer. The depreciating
expression was marred somewhat by the paladin’s having to crane his neck up to
look Garnet in the eyes.
    “As a matter of
fact, I was,” the Orange replied. “Youth cannot take the place of experience,
and I can name any number of paladins of higher caliber who are doubtlessly
more qualified to lead an expedition of this size, your