The Witch's Eye by Steven Montano, Barry Currey Read Free Book Online Page B

But not fighters.  They won’t last long out here.  Ronan shook his head.
    “So what do we do?” Greer asked.  He was a wiry man with steely eyes and a face like a hawk.  Despite being a farmer he had a hard edge about him.  Several of the others – including Taara, a dark-skinned Southerner who possessed considerable skills as a healer – deferred to Greer’s lead when Ronan wasn’t telling everyone what to do.
    They ’ve done this before , Ronan thought.  They’re used to being led.  That’s no way to live.
    “Well,” Moone said from his vantage by the window, “the closest and safest Southern Claw city-state from here is Thornn, but even that’s got to be a week’s walk.”
    “At least,” Maur nodded in agreement.  “A ship would be best.”
    “Do you have a ship?” Moone asked with a sarcastic growl.  He was a clean-cut and brown-haired man in his early thirties, with just a trace of stubble on his face and penetrating green eyes.  His grimy fatigues were covered in pale dust and blood, and he wore a Raven Legion tattoo prominently on each forearm.  Ronan didn’t think he had much of a personality, but he thought that about most soldiers. 
    “No,” Jade said.  “We don’t have a ship, and I doubt we’re going to find one that’s in working order any time soon.  So you may want to come up with another suggestion, Maur.”             
    “Maur made no suggestion,” the Gol said, looking put out.  “He was just thinking wishfully.”
    “Out loud?” Moone asked.
    “Maur does everything out loud,” Ronan said. 
    “What about food?” Taara interrupted.  “Thank you for sharing your rations, Ronan, but this won’t carry us far.”
    “No, it won ’t,” he nodded.  “And there isn’t much to be had here in Voth Ra’morg.  I’ll guarantee you that.”
    “Can we hunt?” Kyleara asked. 
    “There isn’t much out here aside from carrion birds and Firehorns,” Ronan said.  “We can try and scavenge remains from that Gorgoloth camp, but I doubt there’ll be much left.”
    “Speaking of which,” Jade said, “should we be worried about those Gorgoloth?”  She sat hunched up in a wad of dirty blankets and cloth, looking small and tired.  She was anything but.  A mercenary witch in the employ of Blacksand crime boss Klos Vago, Jade had been sent as a liaison when Ronan, Kane and Maur were sent to carry out a job for Vago in return for his sending the team home.  The job was never completed. Instead, Kane would up dead, and the rest of them had found themselves in the middle of a war at Voth Ra’Morg.
    She ’d used her magic to start the fire, and occasionally Ronan felt a wave of heat from her spirit pass through his body.  He got the sense she was doing this only for him, and maybe Maur. 
    You ’re not with me , he wanted to tell her.  The only reason I saved your skinny ass is because you helped us escape.  But you’re on my Shit List, honey…you and your boss.  If not for you, we wouldn’t be out here in the first place.  Kane would still be alive, and Dani wouldn’t have been captured. 
    “No,” Ronan said out loud.  Both Greer and Moone looked at him questioningly.  “The Gorgoloth lost at least half their numbers to the Firehorns,” he said.  “They’ll retreat back into the Reach and rebuild their band before they do any more raiding.  They’re brave en masse, but not in small groups.”
    “And what if you ’re wrong?” Greer demanded. 
    “Then we’ll kill them,” he said with a shrug.  “Nothing too complicated there.”
    “Well,” Greer said, obviously a bit uneasy at Ronan ’s response, “that still doesn’t solve the issue of what we need to do next.”
    “You mean what you need to do,” Ronan said.  “Maur and I have our own problems.”
    “Wait a second,” Moone said.  “What the hell are you saying?”
    “I’m saying,” Ronan said with a forced smile, “that I’m thrilled you all