Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) Read Free Page A

you
were nervous about what’s going to happen when Caeesha has the twins, so I
thought you could use some parenting practice.”
    “There’s a
world of difference between babysitting two kids and babysitting a dozen
full-grown human men, much less paladins,” Brican kythed sourly in reply. “Half
of them don’t really like me all that much, either because I’m denarae or
because you put me nominally in charge of them, take your pick.”
    “Deal with
it,” Garnet said without much sympathy. Brican had actually just hit on the
real reason Garnet had sent him with the group of paladins. He knew some of
them were prejudiced against denarae, and he was trying to break Brican of some
of his own antagonism toward humans by making him face their racism head-on.
Putting him amidst a group of humans who harbored xenophobic tendencies might
not be the best way to do so, but Garnet believed the extra exposure to humans
could only benefit the denarae officer.
    The animosity
against denarae, particularly by humans, had largely stopped in the area around
the city of Nocka, [4] due almost solely to the role of Shadow Company in the recent war against the
demonic forces of Hell. The soldiers of Nocka – human, elven, gnomish, and
dwarven – had all witnessed the tremendous bravery and fortitude of the denarae
company, and by the end of the war, the gray-skinned humanoids were actually
accepted by the majority of the city. Even those who hadn’t witnessed Shadow
Company’s performance first-hand heard about it from those who had, and the
reputation of the elite unit grew to nearly legendary proportions almost
overnight.
    Not for the
first time, Garnet was thankful for the denarae ability to read the thoughts of
humans and other denarae. This ability – “kything” as they called it – was the
secret to Shadow Company’s success, that and the brilliant training and
leadership of Gerard Morningham, the Red paladin originally placed in charge of
the denarae company. Gerard had taken in the group of three hundred denarae and
trained them as no other unit, combining combat, stealth, subterfuge, and the
denarae mind-reading ability to create one of the most lethally efficient
fighting forces the world had ever seen.
    Their ranks had
been thinned considerably by the war; fully half of the denarae in Shadow
Company had given their lives in defense of Nocka, including Garnet’s close
friend, Trebor Dok. Gerard himself had died outside the walls of the Barrier,
and command of the unit had passed on to Garnet.
    For a split
second, when he’s heard the wild, male dakkan’s cries, Garnet had wondered if
Sabor had returned. The vicious-looking red dakkan hadn’t been seen since the
death of his rider, and Garnet feared the dakkan had gone feral since Gerard’s
demise. Garnet had briefly fantasized about Sabor coming to him, inheriting the
dakkan as he had Shadow Company, like a sign of approval or sign of leadership
he sometimes questioned whether or not he possessed.
    Since the war’s
end nearly two months past, Shadow Company had focused on rebuilding its
numbers from fresh recruits of denarae, and now they were back to their
original, full strength of three hundred fighting men. In addition, Garnet had
acquired a full supply and support team, whether he wanted it or not; many of
the denarae had brought their families with them. Now a whole platoon of wives,
sisters, and daughters prepared meals for the men of Shadow Company, while
another group of younger men and women kept the cooks supplied with fresh meat
and other foodstuffs. The younger denarae honed their hunting skills to provide
meat for Shadow Company and trained as warriors in the hope that they, too,
might be called on to join the elite unit.
    Garnet had done
his best to train and craft his unit in the same spirit of lethal excellence
Gerard Morningham had originally instilled in them all, and he hoped he was
doing a passing job of living up to his mentor’s example.