Tides of Blood and Steel Read Online Free Page A

eyes.
    The Gaimosian pointed down to the flickering torches marching up the road. “Time is almost up.”
    Bahr cursed. “Go and help Rekka. I’ll meet you back there in a few minutes.”
    Sounds started to come from the road. Angry, purposeful. Boots crunching down the gravel. Metal pauldrons capping shoulders rubbing against breastplates. Bahr guessed they had maybe ten minutes before the soldiers arrived. Out of time, he entered his house for what would be the last time and hurried through the expanse of rooms to his master bedroom. Bahr ran to his safe hidden in the floorboards under the bed and filled the bag he took from the barn with silver and copper coins. Too many large coins would attract unwarranted attention. Lastly, he took a few small pouches of gold coins and tucked them within his inner tunic. A time would come when only gold would see them through.
    “Bahr! Come out now you son of a whore!” Harnin’s voice bellowed across the front lawn. “Come out and die with some dignity or I’ll burn this house down around your worthless head.”
    Odd, Harnin actually sounded like a man . Bahr snarled. The snake had spent his life in the shadows and now found himself in a position of power. It was almost laughable. Bahr had no false ideations about his estate surviving intact. Venom dripped from Harnin’s voice. Hatred sweat from his pores. They’d never liked each other. Harnin blamed him for the loss of his eye. The battle against a band of raiders had been fierce and many men from both sides were killed. Bahr had one moment of lapse where he failed to protect Harnin’s flank. A raider managed to get within his guard and swipe a dagger across Harnin’s face, ripping out his eye. Truthfully the loss of Harnin’s eye was no one’s fault. It was an act of war as unpredictable as who lived and who died. Regardless, the One Eye maintained a simmering hatred for the king’s brother.
    “I know you are in there. You didn’t think you actually stood a chance of escaping, did you?”
    Bahr ignored him. The words were nothing but an undisguised attempt to lure him to act rashly. He chuckled. Bahr had played this game for far too long to fall for such a simple trick. He tied off the money sack and slung it over his shoulder. There was still a small window for escape he couldn’t afford to waste. Even now guards and mercenaries were moving to surround the estate. Harnin was content with taunts for now, but it would change as soon as he saw the bodies of his men. Then the fun would begin.
    Bahr snuck out the back door and dashed across the yard to the barn. “We need to go.”
    The sudden whoosh of roaring flames confirmed his worst fears. Bahr had officially lost everything. His old life was finished. The Bane was gone. His crew killed or imprisoned. Wishing them to escape did little good. They were on their own. Boen, having already abandoned his chair and returned to the barn to help Rekka, tossed the last sack of grain into the wagon bed and collected his sword.
    “Do we fight?” he asked.
    Bahr reluctantly said, “No. We wouldn’t last. They’ve already lit the house. I’ve got no reason to stay here. They’ll be heading this way next.”
    “I am sorry, Captain,” Rekka told him.
    He silently accepted her words. “Yeah, so people keep telling me.”
    He helped her climb onto the driver’s bench and then ran back to the main door. He and Boen meant to cover the wagon while she escaped back to Ionascu in the forest. The long bow in Boen’s hand surprised him. Gaimosians preferred killing close up with a sword. Arrows seemed dishonorable.
    “I didn’t know you knew how to use one of those things,” he told the bigger man.
    The Gaimosian shrugged, an act he found himself doing more of as he got older. “I like to keep people surprised. Are you sure we can’t kill a few more just for principle?”
    “You are the damnedest man I have ever met. Let’s see what Harnin has in store for us first.