Demontech: Gulf Run Read Online Free PDF

leaders?”
    Spinner hesitated a moment. What if this was a trick to get the bandits into the column? They could do a lot of damage, kill or injure a lot of people, before they ran off with whatever booty they could carry.
    He looked around and for the first time took in the number of men facing him. There were three he hadn’t seen before. What should he do?
When in doubt, act decisively.
    “Bring two men with you, leave the others here.” He turned in what he thought was the direction that would lead him back to the column near where he had left Postelmuz with his horse. “Follow me. What’s your name?” he asked over his shoulder.
    “Veduci. What’s yours?”
    Spinner picked up his pace and didn’t answer.
    Spinner’s blind navigation was better than he had any reason to hope. When he reached the road, he saw Postelmuz leading the gelding only forty yards ahead. Spinner called out to him.
    Postelmuz spun about. “Yes, Lord Spinner!”
    Veduci looked at him sharply, surprised by the name. “You don’t dress like any lord I’ve ever seen.”
    “I’m not a lord,” Spinner growled.
    Postelmuz trotted up, leading the gelding, and held the reins out for Spinner.
    Spinner shook him off. “Ride forward. Get Fletcher, tell him I want him.”
    Postelmuz stood erect and grinned broadly. “Yes, Lord Spinner!”
    “Stop calling me ’Lord’!”
    “As you command, Lord Spinner!” He bounded into the saddle and heeled the gelding. It took off at a gallop toward the column’s front.
    Spinner grimaced, then looked about. He saw two men he vaguely recognized from Eikby. They were both armed with short swords. “You two,” he ordered. “Go back and get Haft. Tell him I need him right now. Tell him it’s an emergency.”
    “Yes, lord.” They started back at a brisk walk.
    “Run!”
    The two men sprinted.
    He turned to Veduci. The bandit leader was eyeing him speculatively.
    “Your youth fooled me,” the bandit said. “I didn’t think you were the leader. In what army are you an officer? I can tell that’s a uniform, but I don’t recognize the emblems on your cloak.”
    “I’m not an officer in any army,” Spinner said wearily. “I’m an enlisted Frangerian Marine. So is Haft.”
    Veduci nodded as though that explained everything. “I’ve heard of you Frangerian Marines,” he said. “You’re a long way from the sea. Tell me, is it true that a war god descended from heaven and molded you in his image?”
    Spinner remembered the story of how Lord Gunny appeared from nowhere in front of the assembled priests of many religions when they were watching a demonstration of the summoning of demons. “I’ve never heard it said that way,” he said slowly as he and the bandits kept pace with the column of curious refugees, “but it was something like that, yes.”
    Fletcher arrived in just a few minutes. Alyline was with him. It took Haft a little longer. He looked very displeased to be riding a captured Jokapcul horse.
    “This better be good,” Haft snarled as he dismounted. He shoved the reins at someone and hastily stepped away from the horse. “We just ambushed a Jokapcul patrol that was trailing us. There’s probably more coming, and we have to be ready for them.”

 
     
     
    CHAPTER

THREE
     
     
     
     
     
    Haft looked at Veduci and his two companions with suspicion. Fletcher merely eyed them curiously. Alyline ignored the strangers in favor of glaring at Spinner—he hadn’t called for her, and she was angry at what she saw as his attempt to leave her out of whatever was happening. Veduci briefly gave her an appraising look, then turned his attention back to Spinner and the newly arrived men. He gave the demon spitter slung over Haft’s shoulder a curious glance. His two companions gaped more openly at the Golden Girl.
    “What do we have here?” Haft demanded, giving Veduci a hard look. “They don’t look like honest refugees to me.”
    Veduci looked at him levelly; the two bandits