Free Blood Ties by Peter David Page A

other soldiers, and shouts of, “Not that again!” and “Don’t start!”
    I felt like I had wandered into the middle of a conversation that had been going on for some time. “Black-holm? I’m not sure I . . .”
    Baron was clearly about to answer, but Trevor cut him off. “It’s a nothing town, situated about midway between Millfields and Silverpines. They’re having problems with some land grabber . . .”
    â€œHe’s not just a land grabber,” Baron said. “Droogan is anything but a land grabber. He’s a warlord—”
    â€œA self-styled warlord,” Trevor shot back. “Just because you’ve got some men following you and you go around conquering towns that are too pitiful to stand up to you, that doesn’t make you a warlord. Droogan is a spoiled nobleman who is busy burning through his inheritance while playing at soldiering. He’s nothing. He’s no one. He’s not worth our time. It would be slumming for soldiers like us to bother with someone like him.”
    I was able to read between the lines fairly easily. “Let me guess: The people of Blackholm don’t have much in the way of money. Specifically, money to pay for defenders.”
    â€œThat’s pretty much it,” said Baron, making no attempt to hide his annoyance with his fellow soldiers. “The fine gentlemen here don’t seem to feel that the residents of Blackholm are worth our time.”
    â€œThis isn’t a matter of opinion,” said Trevor. “They aren’t worth our time because our time costs money, and it’s money they don’t have.” He turned to me as if it was pointless to address Baron, and continued, “They’ve sent runners in all directions, asking for mercenaries to come and aid them in their fight against this Droogan idiot who wants to take over their town, take their land, take their animals and women and whatever else they might have. Mostly he’s been threatening to do it unless they give it over voluntarily. You know what that says to me?”
    â€œThat he’s weak?”
    â€œThat he’s weak!” Trevor said readily, and he thumped me on the shoulder in what he doubtless imagined was camaraderie. Me, I could practically feel the bruise forming already. “Yes, exactly. If he had the resources to take what he wanted, then he would just do it. So basically you’ve got a town with extremely limited financial resources in a battle against an arrogant poseur whose blood isn’t even worth spilling.” He turned toward Baron and addressed the comment to him since Baron had clearly been advocating that they take up the challenge. “You see why we’re not bothering with them?”
    â€œOf course I do. You’re cowards. The lot of you!”
    My mouth had been open, ready to reply, but those had not been my words. It was, however, an uncanny imitation of my voice.
    Trevor’s head snapped around, and his eyes narrowed. All the anger that he had been displaying earlier but had managed to shut down was roaring back to life. “ What did you say?”
    I started to answer, but before I could: “Couldn’t understand a two-syllable word like ‘coward’?”
    Instantly, I clapped my hands over my mouth. That turned out to be a mistake, because then they couldn’t see that my lips weren’t moving. So they had to depend on what they heard, and what they heard was, “You sure are a big strong hero . . . for a lady! Is this your sewing circle?”
    I tried to salvage the situation, tried to say, “It’s not me! I’m not saying this!” But it was too late. Trevor roared in fury, and none of the others sounded much happier. Most of them had been fairly indifferent to me; only one had genuinely been glad to see me. Furthermore, the lot of them had been drinking, and nothing makes one quick to react to insult like