Teleporter (a Hyllis family story #2) Read Online Free

imagined himself displaying his humility as the townspeople thanked him for allowing Hyllis to fire from the room in his house. They would ask him how he had the courage, knowing the low likelihood that Hyllis would be successful, to let the man put Tornesson, and his home and family at risk.
    He snorted a small laugh at himself. That was hubris, not humility. Imagining that his own role in allowing someone to shoot arrows from his home could even compare to the risks undertaken by the man who actually fired the shot. Best not to brag on it then. Better to wait for people to hear about it on their own. Surely, the story would spread far and wide without his help; then he could acknowledge his own small role in saving their town with a mere nod of his head.
     
    ***
     
    John Blacksmith narrowed his eyes as he watched Asher Farley make his way around the room. Farley had sent his boys around to call a meeting of the town’s prosperous merchants. Then just as John had suspected, the arrogant SOB had shown up late to the meeting himself.
    Farley reached John, clapped him on the shoulder, shook his hand, murmured thanks for his attendance, and moved on. John worked his massive shoulders in an attempt to relax a little as he wondered just what it was about Farley that set him on edge.
    Soon Farley had made his way to the front of the room and raised his hand to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for coming down here. I know that every one of you has a business that could use your attention. However, we have a serious problem facing us. A problem that could not only destroy our businesses, but our entire town.” Farley had braced his hands on the table in front of him, and now took a moment to sweep the room with his eyes. “We, my friends, are ripe for the plucking. I’m sure that some of you have given this some thought, but perhaps not all. Our civil and military leaders, Sheriff Walter and Captain Pike are both dead. All of Walter’s deputies have been killed. Only Sergeant Garcia remains of Captain Pike’s training cadre. We’ve just beaten off a determined attempt to take over our town and for a short period any bandits or raiders out there will fear us. That is, until they figure out that we can’t protect ourselves again .”
    Murmurs swept the room. Some men turned to speak to their neighbors, some protested that the town still had its militia.
    Farley raised his voice, “Sure, every man in this town is trained in the defense of our walls, but we don’t have a leader for those men. We also ,” he spoke louder to ride over some of the continued murmuring, “don’t have a police force. Garcia has been drafting militia members to guard the gate and stand the watch, but you’re not gonna like that when your turn comes!”
    In the back of the room someone said, “Can’t Garcia take over as sheriff?”
    Farley rolled his eyes, “Garcia is a follower . He was only a sergeant you know. He’s a fine man and we should all express our appreciation for his role in organizing the defense of our town at present. But he is not sheriff material.”
    John had always thought of Sheriff Walter as a kind of tyrant. A relatively benign tyrant perhaps, but his taxes had been arbitrary and there was no doubt that he had lived “high on the hog.” John had been hoping that they might get to some kind of democratically elected government with Walter gone. He put up a hand to propose it. However, no one else had raised a hand, they were merely shouting suggestions. After a moment, he shouted his own suggestion, “We should elect someone.”
    Someone else said, “Hire the bastard who put that arrow in Krait’s eye!”
    The man next to John nudged him and whispered, “Did you hear that some son of a bitch put arrows or knives or something in the eyes of a whole lot of Krait’s men?”
    Farley grimaced; then bellowed for quiet. He was a big man, though not in John’s league. However, he was widely thought of as being