The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) Read Online Free PDF

pervaded the pace and atmosphere of their
training. For the most part, Danner and his friends remained silent when
trainees questioned them or offered half-thought-out theories and rumors.
    It didn’t help Danner knowing the reason for their breakneck
pace of training. With the departure of roughly half the paladins in the Prism
into Hell, their instructors were eager to fill the ranks against the war that
was sure to come. Few non-paladins had realized the ominous importance of the
now-gone holy warriors or had any inkling of the imminent danger that was no
doubt building on the far side of the Merging.
    Danner glanced at the wall as though he could pierce miles
of stone walls and see the Barrier itself, and beyond it the Merging. Just
knowing that such a place existed, a place where the mortal realm overlapped
with the immortal plane of Hell, made Danner’s spine tingle with suppressed
anxiety.
    “de’Valderat, are you listening?”
    Danner jerked his gaze back to the Blue paladin hovering
over his table.
    “Yes, sir,” he replied a little too quickly.
    “Well then, if you would, please summarize the arguments we
just heard.”
    Danner paled slightly, then resisted the urge to glare
across the room at Ashfen Diermark . Ashfen was the de facto leader of his own group,
simply because Ashfen was always the leader of
any group he deigned to join. He was naturally charismatic, and people followed
him whatever the decision he made, right or wrong. He was also quite jealous of
the success of Danner and his friends, and he took few pains to hide his envy.
    Danner struggled to remember the thread of Ashfen’s arguments, and to piece together the last few
things he’d said while Danner was distracted.
    The situation they were discussing was not hypothetical this
time; instead, it was a real issue that had arisen centuries ago during
hostilities between humans and a group of renegade dwarves. Men in one country
had detained all the dwarves in the land, regardless of whether or not they
owed allegiance to the hostile demi-humans. The dwarves were placed in small
prison camps to isolate them and prevent any spies from reporting on human
activities.
    “Well, sir, the group had come to the conclusion that
rounding up the dwarves was justified because they posed a threat to the
nation,” Danner said. “Basically, because there was a potential threat – of
which there was no evidence – it justified the nation’s army in rounding up all
dwarves until the end of the war.”
    The Blue paladin looked at him speculatively.
    “You sound as if you don’t agree.”
    “I don’t, sir.”
    Ashfen glowered at Danner from
across the room, but remained silent.
    “Well then, would you care to offer your own arguments to
refute those you so aptly summarized,” the paladin looked amused, but strangely
intent.
    Danner nodded.
    “Well, sir, to begin with, I think it’s unjust to simply
round up an entire people based solely on who their parents are, or for any
reason they can’t control, for that matter,” Danner said. He shrugged. “So they
were dwarves. From what we’ve read, most of them had lived in the country for
generations, and they had no real ties to any of the rebel dwarves. There was
no just cause for alarm on the part of the government to warrant such an
action.”
    “But a rebel dwarf looks much the same as a loyal dwarf,
de’Valderat,” the Blue said. “How were they to know the difference?”
    “A human sympathizer to the rebels looks much the same as a
loyal human soldier, sir, but I didn’t remember the government locking
themselves or their entire nation in those encampments.”
    “Point taken,” the Blue said, smiling slightly. “But dwarves
posed a more immediate and suspect threat. What about the safety of the entire
nation to consider? If I read you correctly, you also object to the
infringement of the dwarves’ basic rights, correct? Do the rights of the
individuals then outweigh the overall rights