Warlock

Warlock Read Online Free PDF Page B

Book: Warlock Read Online Free PDF
Author: Dean Koontz
Tags: #genre
must be so, or I then become the commanding officer. And I do not want nor could I bear such responsibility.”
        
        The room was quiet a long while before Richter said, “We will leave tomorrow at dawn, as planned. If we went back to the Darklands, to the capital, days would be lost that we cannot afford. And the chances of more spies entering our ranks the next time would be no better for us.”
        
        “Then perhaps we should get some sleep,” Sandow said. This night has given us very little rest with which to meet the mountain tomorrow.”
        
        Slipping into their oiled leather coats, the two officers left the house, hurrying through the driving sheets of rain and the occasional stinging pellets of hail which still fell. The Shaker stood by the front door, watching them until they were out of sight down the cobbled slope.
        
        “It will not be easy,” Gregor said. “Not many will cross the Cloud Range.”
        
        “Perhaps,” the master said. “But the commander is more of a man than he even appears. He has that strength which negates the acceptance of defeat. There is a better chance with him than there would be with another officer.”
        
        “Such as Belmondo,” Gregor said.
        
        “I wonder at Richter's tolerance of that frightened youth,” the Shaker said. “They are not like men.”
        
        “Good gods!” Mace roared behind them. “Must we stand here all night gossiping of soldiers. We've but two hours on the springs, if that!”
        
        Gregor chuckled. “Better make that an hour and a half Mace. If I know you, the activities of this night will drive you to devour twice your normal horse's breakfast.”
        
        “I may just eat yours as well,” Mace said. “And then without a morning's vittels in that skinny stomach of yours, you'll be blown right off your mount!”
        
        “Enough, enough!” the Shaker said. “Let's get our sleep while we can. The days to come might not provide much time for rest.”
        

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    6
        
        
        
        It was some seven miles across the small valley, even by the shortest route, to the foothills of the Cloud Range. Since horses could also be employed for the first three thousand feet of the ascent, where the land was rather gentle and worn through with many paths, Commander Richter had rented enough of the beasts for the party, along with several tenders to feed and water them and bring them back to Perdune when the Banibaleers should find the way too rugged to proceed in any manner but by foot.
        
        With the village streets shrouded in drifting masses of white mist, the expedition set out that autumn morning: seventy-six enlisted men, Sergeant Crowler, the commander and the captain, and Shaker Sandow and his two young assistants: eighty-two in all, if one did not count the four Perdune horse tenders accompanying them on the first leg of their long journey. The horses' hooves clacked hollowly on dewy street stones, and the sounds of men shifting in their saddles to find comfortable positions complemented this to break the otherwise grave-like silence of the town.
        
        Within twenty minutes, they gained the banks of the icy Shatoga River and forded it without incident-though their mounts made great whinnying protests at the near-freezing temperature of those waters. On the other side, they struck south as well as inland, breaking from the thick stands of pines into the rock-strewn foothills, where the going became more difficult.
        
        Some four hours after dawn, Commander Richter called a halt while the horses were watered and given a meal of grain and bruised apples. The Shaker dispatched Mace to speak with the commander and compare notes of observation on the morning's ride. Sandow had seen nothing suspicious, and he rather doubted the commander would have noticed anything that he did not. Even
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