Errand of Mercy by Roger Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

nothing worse in their fight than a few cracked ribs and many extremely painful bruises. Miltiades and Kern, being paladins, were able to heal the more serious wounds by laying on hands and praying. Their prayers were heard and answered, and within a half hour of the fight’s start, they were on their feet and feeling very stiff. Everyone but Noph, who felt fine. Kern looked around and spotted Trandon. “What are you reading now?”
    “An interesting book,” said Trandon. He flipped a page, then closed the volume and dropped it gently on the floor among the ruins of the bookcase. “It is a history of these lands. It says what our host said earlier, but adds a few things. There were five separate temples that joined the fleet that colonized this region. One temple turned rogue and was cast out; the other temples went on to become established here.”
    “Which temple was that, the rogue one?” asked Kern.
    “I don’t know. It appears to be the one now called the Fallen Temple. The other temples were to the Earthmother”—he grimaced—”Waukeen, Tempus, and… Umberlee.”
    “Umberlee.” Kern shook his head again. “That’s wonderful. The Sea Bitch, down here with Waukeen’s gold grubbers and Tempus’s war crazies. Things are getting better all the time.”
    “Hey!” shouted Jacob. “Get back!”
    Everyone turned, startled. There was a fog in the air over the giant’s body. Jacob, who had been examining the giant, now quickly waved everyone away from it.
    “The sword wound wasn’t bleeding,” he explained hastily, staring down at the body. “I was trying to find out if this thing was a golem, when it began to smoke. Look!”
    Before their eyes, the giant’s body slowly sagged. The muscles seemed to deflate, and the bones bent and curved as if they were rubber. The men armed themselves swiftly, but there was nothing to fight. Within minutes, the giant’s body had decayed into a flat translucent mass of brown matter that reminded Noph of apple butter. This material gave off an odorless smoke as it shrank in size, until it had completely vanished.
    Speechless, Kern toed the area of carpet where the giant’s body had been just ten minutes ago. Not even a stain was left.
    “What was it that Lord Garkim said?” asked Jacob. “We’re as safe here as in our own homes?”
    “I’d like to hear what he has to say about this,” muttered Kern. “They had maids in here right up to the moment we came in. I saw one come out of this very room. This creature couldn’t have been here, unless he was invisible.”
    “Or unless a bloodforge created him,” said Trandon. Everyone looked at him. He raised an eyebrow in response. “They can create soldiers out of thin air, remember?”
    “We will say nothing at all about this,” said Miltiades abruptly and firmly. “We will say nothing at all. Anyone who mentions it to us will thus reveal his guilt. We are going to clean this mess up and move the debris into one of the side rooms. We will tell them we moved the furniture a bit; if they press us, we will apologize for the damage and offer payment, but say nothing about the giant. Trandon, take the books into your room if you wish to study them further. Let us act quickly.” He glanced at Noph, who was still staring at the carpet where the golem had dissolved. “Come, lad, stop mooning about. There’s work to be done.” He pulled a gauntlet and vambrace from his arm and tossed them on the floor in front of the youth. “Polish the armor. We will need to appear at our best when next we meet Lord Garkim.”
    The men fell to their work. “I suppose in a way we should all be flattered,” said Jacob wryly, carting off the remains of a chair. “Whoever is after us certainly thinks enough of us to send their very best.”

Chapter Five
Questions and Answers
    The smell of the ocean was in the afternoon air when the five bruised and battered visitors heard a knock on their door. They arose, weapons readied, but it