Free Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments by Tom Lloyd

was expected to salute, but the woman just started talking as soon as he was close enough to hear.
    ‘We got a commission this morning. A Mistress Simbly who wants her husband’s murder avenged.’
    Lynx blinked and dredged up the widow’s image from when he’d met her the previous day. ‘Guess that doesn’t surprise me,’ he said, ‘but don’t we have a job?’
    ‘The money’s good and the wagons are slow.’
    He nodded. ‘So you’re sending them on ahead. Guess that makes sense, it’s not a long diversion if we’re on horses. Maybe just a night.’
    ‘There’s a horse for you,’ she said, pointing towards the stable. ‘The one with the white forelock. You have battle experience?’
    Lynx nodded.
    ‘There’ll be seven of us. Better you guide us and hold back than get in the way. I’m told we outgun them, but I don’t want to get in any sort of fight.’
    ‘I led a strike company, once upon a time.’
    Payl regarded him in silence for a few moments. ‘Commando, eh? You willing to take orders, then? From a woman too? There aren’t any in your armies, are there?’
    ‘Doubt it. Not been back in a while, though. But I’ll take orders unless they’re stupid or cruel, doesn’t matter who gives them.’
    She gave a half-smile. ‘About as good as I’ll get from anyone round here. Some of this lot struggle if I just use long words. Mount up.’
    Payl turned away to find five other figures with horses, all in the process of tying their belongings to the saddles. ‘You all ready?’
    Lynx looked them over. They were an elite group, if their cards were anything to go by. Teshen stood at their fore, a grizzled veteran beside him wearing the Stranger of Sun. Behind them were Kas, a thin disease-scarred man who wore the Diviner of Tempest, and a broad woman with permanent crooked smile thanks to the flame-scar down one cheek. She wore the Jester of Snow.
    None of them spoke, they just finished with their packs and mounted, waiting for orders. Lynx was the last to do so but he wasted no time in pulling himself up into the saddle and adjusting his weapons so they sat comfortably for riding.
    ‘Right, let’s be quick about this and back to the company,’ Payl announced. ‘Lynx, the lake-road towards Tambal, right?’
    He nodded. ‘Maybe less than a day’s ride to where we were ambushed, if we push the horses hard. Road was bloody slow going by wagon.’
    ‘If we get close enough by mid-afternoon we’ll take the last part on foot, then. Kas and Teshen will sniff them out. We get it done by nightfall and start back in the morning. Get moving.’

Chapter 5
    The seven mercenaries made good time under the warm morning sunshine as they retraced Lynx’s route back towards Tambal. As much as he distrusted the Militant Orders, even Lynx was happy to admit he was among the many who benefited from some of their efforts. The largest Orders all maintained dozens of highways across the continent, on top of the network of vast, ancient canals humanity had inherited, and trade flourished as a result. It meant the Orders felt they had the right to stick their noses into the business of anyone using either, but outside the cities the rule of law was generally the simple maths of guns anyway.
    The road itself was straight and wide until it reached the tip of a long lake, branching left and right around the calm clear waters. Lynx could see white-faced ducks out on the water and swifts darting through the air high above, but dominating it all was a slender tower of mottled grey stone. Payl called a halt there to let the horses drink and Lynx allowed himself a moment to stand at the lakeside and enjoy the view.
    The tower rose directly out of the centre of the lake, perhaps half a mile offshore and huge by mortal standards – a relic of the Duegar civilisation that had doubtlessly been scaled and picked clean of artefacts centuries ago. There were strange protrusions and platforms jutting at random from its sides and