Victim of Fate by Jason Halstead Read Free Book Online

asked.
    "Yeah, my arm feels funny, though." Namitus
stood slowly and waited until a bout of nausea passed. He brushed
Karthor's supporting hand off and then picked up his sword.
    "Your arm will be weak for some time, I
expect," Karthor said.
    Namitus grunted.
    "Should he wait here?" Alto asked, turning to
Tristam.
    "I'll be fine," Namitus insisted.
    "Let's hurry up and finish this," Tristam
said after nodding to Namitus. "And keep your wits about you. They
can fly and that's probably where they'll come from when they
do."
    "A hundred of them," Alto whispered,
remembering what Evan had said.
    "A hundred seems like a lot," Kar reasoned.
"Considering the size of these bugs, even that one seemed fearsome.
Filling the sky would only take a dozen or two if they were close
enough to you."
    Alto nodded, but still the man had claimed
there were more.
    "Exaggeration is the tool man uses to justify
their fears," Kar went on. "It's easier to accept a decision when
we know it's inevitable. A hundred of those bugs would be
unstoppable. Ten or twenty? Daunting and fearsome, but we've shown
they can be killed. I expect we'll do better each time now that we
know what to look for."
    "I just hope we don't have to do it a hundred
more times," Tristam growled. "Now stop gabbing and let's search
the next house."
    Kar thumbed his nose at Tristam when the man
turned his back. Alto shook his head, trying not to smile, and
hurried ahead to catch up with Tristam so they could enter the
house first. They both wore chain mail and stood the best chance of
surviving an attack, let alone fighting back against it.
    "Hey, what did one wasp say when another wasp
asked him what he was doing?" Namitus asked.
    "What?" Karthor asked him, not understanding
the question.
    "Buzz off!" Namitus said with a one-handed
flourish.
    "I hope you get stung again," Kar
muttered.
    Tristam silenced them all with a glare as
they reached the house. He motioned to Alto. Alto nodded and threw
the door open so Tristam could rush in to the building. Alto was
hot on his heels, sword drawn in case another insect lay in wait
for them. Instead, they found the house deserted.
    "A few more and then we'll set off for this
forest," Tristam said when they'd finished searching.
    "We should probably leave it alone," Namitus
suggested. "After all, it's really none of our beeswax."
    "I see the poison has damaged your sense of
humor," Karthor said.
    Namitus grinned and followed them as they
made their way to the general store. Bad jokes and poor timing were
nothing new for his friend, but he worried that the rogue might be
hurt worse than he let on. These jokes were even worse than
usual!
     
    * * * *
     
    "What hope do they have?" Therion asked his
captive. "One has been stung already and they've only faced two
wasps. Hundreds remain! The season is nearly over but the new queen
larva are beginning to hatch. The drones will be anxious to bring
in fresh meat to feed the larvae."
    Rosalyn said nothing. She watched the mirror,
hoping that the man with the bejeweled sword would find her and
shut Therion up. If he couldn't do it, then she'd be forced to do
whatever she had to in order to survive. Her town was all but
destroyed. She hoped her family was all right still, but their farm
was near the forest. The wasps would have found them first. They
had a cellar; maybe they'd taken refuge there?
    "A pity the wasps will die off soon. The
queen will die and they'll run out of food. Then the new queens
being hatched now won't find other wasps to mate with. That's the
problem of trying to improve nature; it's a balanced system and
nothing we can create will be able to perpetuate itself." Therion
turned to stare at her, his eyes dropping to admire her body.
Rosalyn had long stopped caring about the indecency his eyes
promised. "This is why we must make the most of our time while we
are here, don't you think?"
    She knew he didn't expect Rosalyn to answer
his question. Or maybe he did and she wasn't ready to