Etheric Knight by P.J. Cherubino & Michael Anderle

Author:P.J. Cherubino & Michael Anderle [Cherubino, P.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2018-08-01T05:00:00+00:00

A Fine Mess

“No, no.” Gormer had managed to turn his head to Mortsen despite the leather strap holding his head against the wooden table. “This is good. We’re doing fine.”

It took twice as much leather and rope to hold Mortsen to his table. They were attached to what Gormer assumed could only be bar tables. By the bloodstains and knife marks on the wood, he figured they were not the first.

“If we get out of this—”

“When we get out of this…”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Won’t that kind of defeat the purpose?”

Mortsen growled and roared as he strained against his bonds.

“Hey, calm down,” Gormer advised. “I need to concentrate.”

Mortsen let loose with a stream of curses Gormer had never heard before. He described goat anatomy about Gormer’s various traits in ways the reforming con man had never considered.

“Thanks though,” Gormer replied. “I’m going to remember some of those insults for later.”

“I hate you so very much,” Mortsen groused. “I can’t stand being restrained like this. I’m losing my mind.”

“Shhh,” Gormer answered as he let out a breath and let the mental magic take him away. His eyes glowed bright white behind his relaxed eyelids.

He reached out with his consciousness to seek other minds. Those he found first were far more guarded than he had hoped. He sensed four mercs outside the room keeping watch. They were no help. All he picked up from them was a constant drone of a single thought: be watchful.

Damn, Gormer thought. Disciplined minds. They yielded no secrets.

He bounced from those hard barriers and out into the drinking crowd. He was displeased to find himself in the mind of a man relieving himself in the filthy privy that emptied directly into the lake below the pier. The man wondered if he had enough coin to pay for a night of pleasure.

The next mind that caught his attention was considering cheating at cards. Gormer latched on to those thoughts and hitched a ride as the man stepped into the open barroom. From there, his world opened. The contents of more than a hundred minds spilled their random thoughts out into the dim, ale-soaked air.

The dizziness Gormer felt made his host stumble.

“What the…” the man wondered.

Gormer hopped from him to a woman who leaned against a high-top table. She was also a mercenary, and her thoughts were more revealing. Nearly everyone in the bar was contracted to the mysterious man she knew as Boone.

This woman didn’t know the plan, but she had time and location. Whatever was planned, it would happen tomorrow night at the base of the cliffs below the Fortress.

Every bar patron was there looking for work or wanted to get paid for work they’d already done for Boone. The strange part was all the jobs appeared unrelated and trivial. This character had compartmentalized the tasks, and no one had any idea they were part of a much bigger plan.

As he hopped from mind to mind, that picture became clearer. Boone was building an invasion force from the inside out, starting with disruption.

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