Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) (10 page)

“No, I wouldn’t
guess he would at that,” Birch said heavily. “You were right to have him check,
though. Danner’s lack of a reaction would tend to rule out a demon having
caused these wounds, and when you combine it with my own…
negative
reaction,
I think it indicates rather clearly the nature of these injuries.”

Perklet’s eyes
widened. “You can’t be suggesting an
angel
caused these wounds. That’s
unthinkable.”

Birch noted the
troubled expression on Michael’s face. Selti finally calmed down enough to
resume his perch on one of Birch’s shoulders, but he refused to let the Gray
paladin scratch his eye ridge.

“Unfortunately,
that’s the only conclusion we can reach,” Birch said. “What’s more, it was
apparently an extremely powerful angel for me to have such an intense reaction.
We know that the stronger the demon, the more powerful the taint left behind in
a wound it causes, so we can assume the same would be true of their angelic
counterparts. I would hazard a guess it has to be someone with at least the
strength of a Dominion,
[12]
possibly even a Seraph.”

Perklet stared
at Birch in shock.

Michael looked
as though he were fighting against a difficult decision. Birch was on the verge
of telling him to just speak his piece when Michael squared his shoulders and
looked Birch right in the eyes. He flinched after a moment, unable to look into
the flaming depths of Birch’s eyes for more than a few seconds. When he looked
at Birch again, he was obviously focusing on some other part of his face.

“Birch,” he
said, then cleared his throat and tried again. Birch wasn’t sure if he’d ever
heard such a somber and potentially dire tone from this young man.

“Birch, I think
you should know about some things that have happened to Danner recently.”

When you enter a game of stones, you have agreed to a
certain reality the game represents, which is defined by the rules. Look
closely, and you will see that cheaters simply can’t deal with reality.

- Orange Paladin Jason
Anterix,

“Defining Reality” (856 AM)

- 1 -

Marc watched
calmly as Garnet walked wearily into the common room of the Iron Axe and all
but collapsed into a chair. The thick wooden legs groaned alarmingly, but the
chair held.

“One of these
days you’re going to end up with your ass on the floor,” Flasch said without
looking up, “and I just want to warn you now that we will, in fact, all laugh
at you.”

“Duly noted,”
Garnet said, then he casually reached a hand out and gave Flasch a light rap
upside the head.

Without so much
as breaking his concentration, Flasch looked up at Marc and winked before
calmly moving a stone on the board situated between them, destroying Marc’s
carefully planned strategy. A quick glance at the game board showed that Flasch
would win yet again, though the final tally would not be as embarrassing as the
last two games they had played. Marc threw up his hands in defeat and pushed
himself back from the table. He
had
been having a fairly successful day,
at least until he came back and agreed to play against Flasch while they waited
for the others to return.

Marc glanced
back over at Garnet’s limp body.

“Hard day at
work?” he asked facetiously.

“I hate dealing
with the Council,” Garnet groaned. “They left me a message before I even woke
up this morning. I left right after breakfast and arrived before they’d even
gone into session for the day. Then I sat for over three hours waiting for them
to let me into the damn room,” Garnet said in frustration. “Of course, even
then I just sat to the side and listened to various reports, not knowing
whether any of it was supposed to be relevant to why I was even there.

“Finally, after
I’d been there for another hour and a half, Geris addressed me and told me why
I’d been summoned.”

Marc and Flasch
glanced at each other in a moment of silence. Finally, Flasch said, “Which
was?”

“What? Oh, wait
for the others to show up first,” Garnet said, and Marc could hear Flasch
grinding his teeth in annoyance. “Brican’s calling in Guilian from the camp,
and Danner and Michael should be along any second.”

Flasch shook his
head and turned back to Marc.

“Another game
while we wait?”

“Not a chance,”
Marc replied flatly.

“Oh, come on.
I’ll play with one hand tied behind my back.”

Marc stared at him.

“What difference
would that make?”

Flasch shrugged,
then grinned. Marc and Garnet both groaned.

A few seconds
later, Danner and Michael entered the inn, threw the three paladins a quick
wave, then headed toward the door to the basement. Garnet slowly got to his
feet and followed them.

“Come on, you
two,” he called over his shoulder. “We’re meeting them all in the war room.”

“It’s good that
he tells us these things ahead of time,” Flasch said, rolling his eyes.

“He leads, we
follow,” Marc said with a shrug of his shoulders.

The two paladins
followed their friend and commander down into the basement and a small room
accessible only through a secret passageway. Here, the commanding officers of
Shadow Company kept all their maps, plans, and training manuals they didn’t
want others to see, including documented rosters of various training regimens
applicable only to denarae because they dealt specifically with their kything
abilities. Very few non-denarae knew of the room’s existence, even amongst
those who regularly associated with Shadow Company.

Garnet had
specifically requested the secret construction of the war room, as he called
it, because they needed a place close-at-hand where they could meet in seclusion
to discuss important issues, both about the world at large and those dealing
specifically with their company. Since it was impossible to keep anything
hidden for long around several hundred mind-readers, the secret of the room was
primarily kept against non-denarae. Shadow Company personnel and all those
associated with the company were warned away from approaching the room under
any circumstances, and anyone who had to communicate with the officers while
they were enclosed within had to first pass the message through the denarae on
duty at the inn, who would then pass it on if he deemed it sufficiently
important.

Marc and Flasch
were the last two to enter the war room, so Marc turned and threw the bolt on
the door. Somewhere within the wall, a sophisticated locking mechanism could
just barely be heard sliding into place, but the whole thing operated on a
simple sliding bolt accessible only from the inside. Opening the door from the
outside was considerably more involved, especially if fully locked from within.

“So
now
will you tell us what the Council had to say?” Michael asked, and Marc was
surprised to hear frustration in his friend’s tone. Michael was usually the
most level-headed in their group, a trait that suited him well as a member of
the Yellow Facet. Marc realized Michael had obviously been kept in suspense far
longer than he had, which made him feel slightly better about being put off by
Garnet a few minutes ago. Or perhaps something else was bothering him.

“Now that we’re
all here, yes,” Garnet said. “Sorry, but I really didn’t feel like going
through this twice.”

Garnet unrolled
a rough map of the city of Nocka that was large enough to include everything
from the Barrier to the eastern gates. He slid a heavy sheet of clear glass
over the map to hold it flat, then used two marking sticks to draw a thirteen
red Xs and seven black ones on the glass.

“The red marks
indicate the approximate places where a paladin has died in the city sometime
in the last day or so. Murdered,” Garnet announced in a grim tone. “The black
marks indicate where another citizen of the city has died under apparently
similar circumstances. All of these men have been identified as soldiers of
some sort, most of them members of the city guard. No one’s quite sure exactly
when any of them died, but the outside range is estimated at a little over a
day ago.”

Michael whistled
in amazement.

Marc quickly
analyzed the layout of the marks, looking for any recognizable pattern. He drew
invisible lines in his mind, arranging various connections that might indicate
a symbol. He also looked at street layouts, in case there was a pattern there.

“Nothing,” he
muttered.

“What’s that?”
Garnet asked.

“I don’t see any
sort of pattern in the locations,” Marc said. “I know the city pretty well, and
there’s nothing obviously similar in the locations themselves, no patterns in
the streets, nothing even vaguely familiar in the overall layout. And while I
could show you a dozen or so
possible
symbols being made, none of them
would really mean anything apart from sheer coincidence and imagination.”

Garnet shook his
head ruefully.

“I really wish
you’d been in with me today,” he said. “I spent over an hour listening to
scholars and Orange paladins arguing over this same basic layout, and
eventually they came to the same conclusion.”

“What sort of
details do we have about the deaths?” Danner asked.

“Why is this
coming to the attention of Shadow Company?” Guilian asked quietly on the heels
of Danner’s query.

Garnet pointed
to Danner.

“First, we
really don’t know anything yet, other than that a large number of our brothers
have mysteriously been cut down in the heart of our own city,” Garnet said.
“That’s alarming enough by itself, but look at the larger scheme and see that
we’ve also been suffering an unusually high number of casualties out in the
field, and it raises the possibility of something more sinister.

“Several Orange
and Green paladins are looking into examining the bodies even as we speak,
including our good friend Perky,” Garnet said with a significant glance at
Michael. “They’re looking for any… unusual similarities in the causes of death,
shall we say. There’s a couple theories in the works, but I’m not at liberty to
discuss them right now, I’m sorry.”

This took them
all aback. In all the time they had known each other, none of them had ever
knowingly held back anything of importance, not since the days when they had
first found out Trebor was a denarae and could read minds. Even when Garnet had
been forcibly promoted as their commanding officer, still the group of friends
had always shared everything. This was something new, then, and the platoon
leaders glanced at each other in uncertainty.

Only Michael had
any inkling of what Garnet was talking about, and he shrank slightly in on
himself as he considered the possibilities to which Garnet could be referring.

“Now, to your
question, Guilian,” Garnet continued brusquely. “Shadow Company has been
specifically requested to investigate these deaths. Ostensibly, it’s because
we’re still so well-respected in the community and people might feel reassured
by our presence.”

“Which is a load
of crap,” Brican muttered.

“I more or less
agree with you, but you might be pleasantly surprised at how many people will
smile at the sight of Shadow Company in the streets,” Garnet said firmly. He
held Brican’s gaze a moment until the denarae officer nodded reluctantly.

Garnet went on.
“Realistically, we were recommended by certain people who are in a position to
know just how good Shadow Company can be at interviewing people and getting the
most from them. I trust it’s obvious why.”

They all nodded.

“Now, we’ve got
twenty different scenes to explore,” Garnet pushed on, “so I want five platoons
split into two squads each, and each squad will investigate two locations. I want
approximate times of death, character profiles of the dead men, and any details
you can get from people who were nearby. Have everyone stay in touch with each
other, for every conceivable reason. Guilian, I want your platoon to stay here
and start in on the ranged-weapon rotation you worked up. Red is still the
heavy hitter, and I need your men to have their part down solid before the
other platoons come up to speed.”

The denarae
platoon leader nodded crisply.

Garnet frowned.

“Are you all
right, Guilian?” he asked seriously. “I know you’ve been getting a lot of the
Home duty, which isn’t as much fun. Say the word, and I’ll reconsider.”

 “It’s
nothing, sir,” he replied respectfully, but obviously he didn’t want to say
anything else.

“Hey,
Brican,”
Marc thought, knowing the denarae would pick it up,
“what’s
eating Guilian?”

“I don’t
know,”
Brican kythed back.
“He’s spent an awful lot of time blocking
everyone from his thoughts lately, which I’ll admit is a little strange. Now
shut up before he hears you thinking too loud.”

Marc glowered at
Brican covertly, but didn’t press the issue.

“Alright then,”
Garnet was saying, “I want you to cover these two, Danner, and Flasch, you take
these,” he said, pointing at locations on the map. “Michael, here. Marc, and
Brican. I’ll probably wander from place to place and see what’s going on, so
keep me apprised as the opportunity arises.”

“When are we
doing this?” Marc asked.

“Right now,
gentlemen,” Garnet said grimly. “We need answers as soon as possible.”

- 2 -

Alister slammed
the book closed and shoved it halfway across the desk. The heavy tome slid into
a pile of neatly stacked papers and knocked them askew. A few of the sheets on
top even flew off and fell to the floor. The Orange paladin scowled at the
offending book as if it alone was responsible for disrupting the order of his
desk.