The Paladin Caper by Patrick Weekes Read Free Book Online

auburn to black. “It works. I can sense it now.”
    “Good. Now, running,” Kail said. “Trackers, professionals, an ogre and two things I couldn’t place. I think they were going by scent, but it could be by aura, or it could be both. I don’t know what two of them are, so until we learn how to lose them, we’re going to want some distance. Arikayurichi and Ghylspwr were both there too. Bertram was carrying them. They’ve got him enslaved.”
    “You’re certain?” Hessler asked. “If Bertram believed that—”
    “He’s certain,” Desidora cut in, giving Hessler a look, and Hessler blinked and nodded.
    “Nice work.” Loch took one more sip of her kahva, then sighed and tossed it into a garbage bin near the back of the alley. “Waste of damn good kahva.”
    “And ethically traded,” Hessler added.
    Then they were running for the sad little field where they’d left the airship, ready to flee yet another town just ahead of whomever was after them.
    But this time, Loch thought with a tiny little grin, they had a target.
    Fangs into the hamstring, Little One, Ululenia said in her mind, and Loch laughed.
    Things were actually looking up for once.

    A year ago, Dairy had been working on the farm, cared for—if not precisely loved—by good, honest people, with no further thought than next year’s harvest and a little annoyance at the silly birthmark on his arm that the farm’s old woman said was special and he should never show anyone. Ever since the night blood-gargoyles had come stalking around the farm, life had been one educational experience after another.
    Now, with a prophecy, some morally ambiguous military service, and several major robberies behind him, Dairy was finally happy, living with a man who loved him for who he was.
    But of course, the Champion of Dawn wouldn’t get a normal life. The Champion of Dawn had to do heroic things.
    At the moment, those things involved leaving the man he loved and running off to the Empire.
    Dairy knew that Mister Dragon wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t important. Mister Dragon hadn’t seemed any happier than Dairy himself. Princess Veiled Lightning could keep him safe, Mister Dragon insisted, and far enough away that nobody with any ideas could hurt Dairy.
    Dairy had asked whether that meant Mister Dragon’s own estate in the middle of the Elflands wasn’t safe enough, and had then felt sorry for doing so, because Mister Dragon had sighed and hung his head, which he knew from when Mister Kail and Mister Hessler did it meant that the answer was that Mister Dragon wanted it to be safe enough, but it wasn’t , and Mister Dragon was feeling sad about how life had turned out to make that the answer.
    Now, under the moonlight, Dairy looked down from the great treeship he had just boarded and waved down at Mister Dragon, who watched from the ground below. Mister Dragon waved back. He was smiling, but his face was still sad.
    The elven captain was named Thelenea. She had been the captain on the massive treeship Loch and Dairy had boarded back when Loch had been trying to steal the elven book from Mister Dragon. She clapped Dairy on the shoulder. “This is the fastest ship in the Elflands. You will be safe in the Empire in less than a day, Lord Rybindaris.”
    Dairy almost said, “Please, just call me Dairy,” but then remembered that elves hated it when you told them to do anything, so instead, he just said, “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
    Captain Thelenea looked a little like Captain Loch, especially when she smiled, even though her skin was green instead of brown. Dairy wondered if it was something about being a captain. “He is trying to keep you safe.”
    “I would rather be with him,” Dairy said, and then looked away, because the words had come out bitter.
    “I believe he knows that as well,” Captain Thelenea said, and stepped back. “This ship only has one floor and a few cabins, unlike the last treeship you traveled upon. Whenever you