Free The Trials Of Ashbarn ( Book 5) by Jeff Gunzel

as he was told.
    The soldier bent down and shook the bag over his open mouth. Out fell a tiny blue scorpion, no bigger than a man’s fingertip. Its two front claws were bright orange and the tip of its coiled stinger was dark red, almost black. It spun in circles around the man’s tongue, confused and disorientated. “Now close your mouth,” barked the soldier. The man gently retracted his tongue and sealed his lips. He could feel the pointed, crab-like legs jabbing his tongue as it walked around the warm, moist cave. Its rigid claws probed up and down the sides of his mouth, searching for a way out.
    “Do you recognize that breed of scorpion?” Amoshi said softl y to the other man, who was looking on helplessly. “Yes, of course you do. The rang-tail scorpion is very aggressive, possessing a rather unique brand of poison. Then I suppose you also know your friend here had better keep perfectly still. If it stings him, and eventually it will, there won’t be anything anyone can do to save him.”
    Amoshi began to graphically detail the different stages involved, all the while making sure the man with the scorpion in his mouth could hear every word. He described how all of the body’s functions shut down immediately—well, nearly all. Awareness and pain were unaffected by the poison. Even as his heart slowed and vital organs began to shut down, he would remain conscious through it all.
    The soldier continuously flicked the man in the back of the head, the little jolts attempting to irritate the scorpion. The buried man tensed with each thump, not knowing which one would spell his doom.
    Ke lus and Eric watched in silence. Much of the crowd taunted the two men, some throwing handfuls of dirt. Still others turned away, unable to watch the spectacle any longer. “How many of your men did they kill?” Eric asked.
    Surprised by the question, Kelus tore his eyes away from the spectacle and looked up at him. “Well...none, Eric. My men were not the target. You were.”
    “I thought you s aid they poisoned the guard last night?”
    “They did. It knocked them o ut for several hours. We eventually found them unconscious, tied, and hidden in some nearby bushes.”
    Eric’s icy stared could have frozen a river. “It would have been easier and more efficient to just kill the guard, but they went out of their way to spare them.”
    “Eric, they were paid to kill you! We need to find out who sent them. There really is no other way to—”
    “There is always another way,” he interrupted. “They were paid to do a task. One in which they’ve failed, and that alone has already sealed their fate. Any honorable soldier will blindly follow his orders—die if necessary. I see no greed or selfishness in their actions, only blind soldiers who weren’t given a choice. But in the end, all men must make their own choices.” Eric brushed past the little man.
    “What are you doing ?” said Kelus.
    Soldiers and village folk alike moved out of his way. They need to know who their target really was. Then I’m giving them a choice . Eric knelt down between the two heads. “Spit it out,” he said to the first man. “Do it as quickly as you can or it will sting you.” Amoshi began to protest, but Eric cut him off with a raised hand. A heartbeat later, the angry scorpion bounced across the loose dirt. The two captives stared up at him, faces solemn and stony. Not the look of men who believed they might be spared, but that of soldiers ready to die for someone else’s cause.
    Eric’s voice boomed out li ke thunder. “So you were sent here to assassinate this so-called ‘false god.’ ‘Deceitful is this coward, to pretend the gods smile favor upon him,’ you say. ‘Deceptive and greedy are his motives, or so I’m told,’ you claim. So tell me, shadow warriors, are you two the bringers of justice? Do you represent the light? Are you ready to die because someone told you to?” He lowered his voice for an instant. “Do you