The Zygan Emprise: Renegade Paladins and Abyssal Redemption by YS Pascal Read Free Book Online

“Two
stars?”
    “Sure, you and me,” I returned, grinning.
    “Bollocks.”
    The last drops of water he poured from my
canteen were most refreshing. On my sizzling scalp.
    Several Ergaled shekels got us a small room
with two other travelers on the first floor of the inn in the city
center. We claimed a shaded corner away from the window and, after
brushing a column of ants out of our spot, unrolled our blankets on
the relatively cool, packed-dirt floor. Midday was fully upon us,
and searching for our target would be futile with most workers
hiding indoors for shade and siesta.
    Spud sat cross-legged on the floor, chewing
on bay leaves, and leaned against the brick wall, lost in thought.
I lay on my blanket, one hand behind my head and the other brushing
an annoyingly persistent fly off my face, and gazed up at the
ragged wood ceiling beams that supported the cottage’s upper floor,
hoping that the insect life of this city didn’t include termites. I
hadn’t intended to fall asleep, and wasn’t sure that I really had,
when I heard our two fellow guests in the far corner speaking
softly in Aramaic.
    Through the miracles of CANDI, my Ergal
translated their language even when I was semi-conscious, and I
recall being able to make out a few words.
    “Three cubits … sunrise … bricks … masonry …
Jupiter … Yeshua … death …”
    Yeshua? Death? I struggled to wake up,
and finally opened my eyes, only to find that our two roommates
were gone. And so was Spud! His blanket rested untouched next to
mine. Where did he go? Or, worse, where might he have been
taken?
    The sun was now lower in the sky, and I could
hear a growing hustle and bustle from the street outside. I debated
whether I should wait here in case Spud was simply playing the
bloodhound, or whether I should start planning a rescue. I finally
decided that it wouldn’t hurt to go and scope out the local
territory a bit for a start.
    Then the words I’d heard resonated once again
in my memory. Yeshua. Could the men who’d been sitting a few feet
from our blankets actually be the Andarts we were trying to catch?
Nah. That would be too easy. But…
    Cubits … bricks … masonry … Certainly sounded
like it had something to do with construction. Gary had told us
that Yeshua was likely to be working on a building site. Maybe the
Andarts were canvassing those sites to finid their target. And
Jupiter, well Jupiter was King of the Roman gods—the Roman
Zeus—but Jupiter could also be the planet. If these men were the Andarts we were after, they would know that Zygan Intelligence
has an outpost on one of Jupiter’s moons, Io, and they might have
been discussing how to avoid Io patrols when they made their
escape. After killing Yeshua. Death —
    I spun around and grabbed his muscular
forearm, twisting it and sending its owner flat on his back on his
blanket. With an angry “Ow!” Spud pulled his arm away and rubbed
the tender tendons that I’d strained.
    “Dammit, Spud. You shouldn’t have snuck up on
me like that! I have razor-sharp reflexes, remember?” I countered.
“And where the heck were you, anyway?”
    “False alarm,” Spud admitted ruefully. “I
overheard our friends over there conversing and thought we had a
lead.”
    “No?”
    Spud shook his head. “Wrong Yeshua.”
    “Oh.” I frowned. “Did you hear something
about death, too?”
    He nodded. “Apparently, one of the men has
inherited some property on the outskirts of town on which he wants
to build. The Yeshua they were talking about is an old squatter,
living on the land, so they have to encourage him to move on, one
way or another.”
    I winced. “I don’t think I want to hear about
their plans. I know it’s not our mission, but shouldn’t we, uh,
help this other Yeshua?”
    “We can’t,” Spud reminded me. “You know the
rules when we’re on a mission. Observe and Preserve. No
interference in local environments unless it’s an official
assignment. And you know the