Free The Way of the Sword and Gun by Stuart Jaffe

raised his shirt, displaying the jagged scars he suffered while a slave. Owl had never seen such an abused child before. He sickened at the sight.
    Malja shook her head. "I'm not saying you don't know anything. I'm saying . . . do you remember Audrex? The sister of that Nolan woman? She was deranged. Magic had done that to her. And she only had one spell she could do. How many do you have? Do you even know? I don't even want to think about what having that bit of Barris Mont inside you can do. I'm not telling you never to do magic again. All I'm asking of you is to take it slower." Malja pointed at Owl. "He said the Order and the Library and all that might help you with your magic. Wait until then. Okay?"
    Tommy stood there and listened, but Owl could tell the boy wanted to be anywhere else. Owl was pretty sure Malja could tell, too. It only served to anger her more.
    Fawbry jumped in with a muttered joke that Owl missed but it was enough to crack the tension for a second. They all stepped apart, the joke already fading into their confrontation, but it was enough to diffuse the moment. What could Fawbry  havesaid? The fact that Owl would never know further proved to him just how removed he was from this group. Malja finally faced him. Her expectant look weighed heavy.
    "He got away," he said. She grimaced and Owl tried not to lower his head. "I had him. I did. I even shot at him. But he just vanished."
    "A scout?" Fawbry asked.
    Malja nodded. "Fast moving, shadowy, and can dodge a bullet? That's a good spy and a good scout."
    Fawbry moved to his pack. "We've got to get moving. The Queen'll know now that we're here."
    Malja shot a nasty look at Owl. "You should've had him."
    Though he was the tallest in the group, Owl felt smaller with every word. "Whatever spell he was using, he knew it well. He cast it very quickly," he said. Even his own words felt weak.
    Malja squinted into the darkness. Owl watched her calculating, and though he wanted to speak, he feared interrupting her. At length, she faced him. "How much longer until we reach what's left of the Order?"
    "A day or two."
    "Which is it? One or two?"
    "One, if we go fast. Otherwise, you'll have to camp another night and you'll arrive before midday. There won't be anything there, though."
    "It's a place to start. Load up," Malja said. Tommy went to Fawbry to help with the work. "We'll go slow through the night so the horses last. The moment we hit dawn, we'll push hard the rest of the way."
    Owl lugged his saddle over to his horse. "I'm sorry," he said to Malja. "I tried."
    Hewing her saddle onto her horse, she said, "I don't understand how somebody so skilled with a sword and a gun could fail to get one scout." She pulled the girth hard and her horse complained.
     
    * * * *
     
    Later, they rode through the forest in silence. Malja led the way. Owl and Fawbry clumped together a few feet behind. Further back, Tommy rode in a constant state of annoyance.
    The long, isolated ride left Owl with too much time to think. Just picturing Brother X and Queen Salia irritated his stomach. Trying to equate that vile monster slaying Chief Master with the idolized student who had saved him from the streets spun Owl's brain in ways that he could not fathom. He tried to focus on his meditation training, but the calming emptiness would not come. He had never been good at it to begin with, and the stone of tension in his chest did not help. The constant inner-turmoil left him wanting to go off alone and never come back. Forget the world. Forget the other worlds. Just drift away.
    Fawbry pulled alongside and said, "Don't let Malja get to you."
    Owl took a moment to excise from his thoughts. When Fawbry's words sunk in, however, it served to remind him of his most recent failing. "She's right," he said. "I should've had that scout. I've endangered all of us."
    Fawbry lifted his stump so Owl could get a long look. "She's endangered all of us many times." Fawbry stared at the empty space where