Clash of Empires Read Online Free Page B

and they all died.”
    Jack loses one foot from the ladder rungs and frantically scrabbles to find it. He cries out in fear and indignation. “That ain’t what happened, sir!”
    â€œOh, I’m wrong, am I?” McConnell asks.
    Somewhere nearby a horse squeals and a man shouts. The sounds echo coldly off the stone walls of the courtyard. McConnell glances around, then back up to Jack, raising an eyebrow.
    â€œYes, sir, I didn’t run, sir,” Jack says.
    â€œAre you arguing with an officer, Sullivan?” McConnell asks. “That is insubordination.”
    â€œNo, sir, I was agreeing with the officer, sir,” Jack says. “About you being wrong, sir.”
    Jack is getting terribly confused now, and sweating despite the cold. He is aware that he is on dangerous ground. Insubordination can be punishable by death.
    â€œYou’re a liar and a coward, Private Sullivan,” McConnell says.
    Jack is silent. There is nothing he can think of to say that won’t make matters worse.
    â€œI’d be leaving the boy alone, if I was you.” It is the gravelly voice of Big Joe, the Irishman.
    â€œYou stay out of this,” McConnell says, “or I’ll have you up for insubordination as well.”
    â€œNow you can’t do that, an’ all,” Big Joe says with a broad grin. “I’m a lieutenant, just as you.”
    McConnell sniffs in disdain. “For how many weeks, is it? Three or four?”
    â€œEight. And I earned my commission,” Big Joe says. The grin is gone. “And it were hard earned. It were not bought for me by my da.”
    McConnell clenches his fists and starts to step forward, then stops himself and turns to the other lieutenants. “This is what happens when they allow commoners to become officers.”
    The others maintain stony faces. Big Joe may be a commoner, but there is clearly more respect in the group for him than for McConnell.
    â€œIf you want to insult me, you’ll have to be doing better than that now,” Big Joe says.
    â€œOh, I can do much better,” McConnell says. “But I wouldn’t waste my breath on muck like you, or this sniveling, lying coward up the ladder here.”
    A dangerous silence settles into the mist of the courtyard.
    â€œYou can take that back,” Big Joe says with a sigh. “I don’t care what you say of me, but you’ll treat the boy with respect. He was there. He saw the beasts.”
    â€œAnd he ran,” McConnell sneers.
    â€œOf course he ran,” Big Joe says. “And you’d a done the same.”
    â€œI would not. I am no coward,” McConnell says.
    â€œYou’ve no idea what you would have done, because you weren’t there,” Big Joe says.
    â€œI know what Jack did,” McConnell says. “He ran.”
    â€œDid he now?” Big Joe steps forward. Even the mist seems to draw back from him. He closes in, face-to-face with McConnell.
    â€œHe saw the battlesaurs and he ran,” McConnell says, not backing down. “He’s a coward.”
    â€œI ran!” Big Joe roars, the scar across his face suddenly red. “I was there and I ran. Everybody ran. If you’d been there, you mewling kitten, you’d have run too.”
    From his perch at the top of the ladder, Jack sees that McConnell’s hand has dropped to the hilt of his sword.
    â€œJack did not run.” A soft voice filters through the silky mist.
    Jack knows this voice. Lieutenant Frost is standing with Willem at the entrance to the courtyard. “Lieutenant Frost, sir!” he cries out.
    â€œJack remained at his cannon when all others ran,” Frost says. He speaks calmly. “He helped me fire the shot that brought down one of the great saurs. He fended off another with nothing more than a ramrod. And then he saved my life. Jack, you are no coward.”
    â€œNo, sir. I didn’t think I was a coward, sir,” Jack says