McClellan, Brian - Gods Of Blood And Powder 01 - Sins of Empire by McClellan Brian

Author:McClellan, Brian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Fantasy / Epic, Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / War & Military, Fiction / Historical
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2017-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 34

Michel was left alone in the tiny office above the Palo Herald printshop. His hands and feet were tied, his knife and knuckledusters taken by the big Palo woman, and the door to the office locked from the outside for good measure. His jaw ached and head pounded from the two blows to his head, and his ribs and chest hurt from a handful of kicks and punches they’d thrown in when he tried to talk his way out of … whatever it was they had planned for him. His bribery attempt had gone little better, earning him a cut over his ear.

He’d expected the beatings to begin immediately and continue until he broke down and told them who he was and what he worked for, but the moment they found his Silver Rose they trussed him up like a hog and carried him up to the office. He could see one of the Palo, a middle-aged man with a fierce scar beneath one eye, standing guard just outside.

He could probably pick through his ropes. He might even be able to jimmy the lock with something he found in the office. But he didn’t think his chances of taking on a Palo guard—maybe even more than one—were very good with his head swimming.

If he lived through this, he was going to be very sore in the morning.

The hours crawled along as midday came and went, the tiny room heating up to an unbearable degree. Sweat poured from every pore, leaving him completely soaked through. He considered plan after plan, discarding each for the high probability of failure. He’d always been better at talking than running or fighting, and even though they’d discovered his Silver Rose he was still willing to do just that. If he couldn’t bribe them or convince them to let him go, maybe he could get them to ransom him back to the Millinery.

Having to be ransomed back to the Millinery would send his career into a tailspin. Of course, a destroyed career was better than winding up in several pieces on Fidelis Jes’s desk …

He considered every possible story he could tell his captors, and none of them seemed promising. His head continued to pound, his tongue dry. He was beginning to think he would faint when there was a brief commotion from downstairs and then slow, even steps on the stairs outside the office. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he’d been captured, but he hoped they were going to move him. Another minute in this heat would kill him sure as torture.

The door opened, and Michel looked up to see a man in a fine black suit, top hat in one hand and cane in the other. He was tall, thin, with black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. Michel felt his heart drop into his stomach.

Tampo. Gregious Tampo. Michel noted the irony that after all this time and effort spent in hunting the bastard he had wound up on the wrong end of what would surely be a long and painful torture session.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.