Free Get Her Back (Demontech) by David Sherman Page B

“but they’re hiding something. And it’s probably closer to the left side than it is around to the right.”
          Haft looked into the camp, his eyes unfocused as though trying to see through the rings of huts that blocked his view.
          “Too bad we don’t have some Lalla Mkoumas with us,” he muttered.
          “Ah, but Lord Haft,” Tabib murmured, “we most certainly do! Do you really believe that a mage as wondrous as I am would be so careless that he would embark on a mission of such importance as this one without a demon so powerfully beneficial?” He whipped a cloth cover from a smallish chest, exposing holes drilled in its top, and opened the chest.
          A tiny voice from inside it piped, “Veed mee!”
     
     

 
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
          Haft wanted to use the Lalla Mkouma right away to turn himself invisible so he could go on a solo scouting mission to find out just what it was that the nomads were hiding somewhere counter-clockwise from the Bloody Axes’ encampment.
          But Lieutenant Balta insisted that Haft couldn’t be the one to go. “The nomads,” Balta explained, “aren’t being overly obvious about it, but if you look, you can see the warriors they have dotted around our encampment, keeping an eye on us. And surely each of the watchers knows every member of the command group by sight, and at least one of them would notice if you are suddenly missing.  Besides, at least one of them is likely watching you at all times, and would see when the Lalla Mkouma did her magic to make you  invisible.”
          “I hate it when you’re right,” Haft grumbled. “But when you’re right, I have to accept it.” He looked Balta in the eye. “They’ve probably got a close eye on you, too, so you can’t be the one, either. The same goes for Korona and Tabib.” He shook his head. “I can’t even send Jurniaks—even if I could trust him to do the scouting instead of run away.”
          Balta nodded agreement. “I suggest we send Corporal Kaplar,” he said. “Not only is he a good NCO, but he’s an experienced scout. Plus, he’s used demon spitters, which means he’s familiar with how to deal with demons—and he knows to feed them immediately when they demand food.”
          “Won’t the nomads notice if Kaplar’s missing?”
          Balta shook his head. “Only if one of them is looking at him when he disappears. When he assisted Korona in setting up the camp, he was working alongside the junior men. He wouldn’t have stood out as a leader.”
          “That’s right, Sir Haft,” Korona said, backing up Balta.
          Haft didn’t look happy about it, but he had to agree. “All right, get Kaplar.”
          Balta looked at Korona and nodded. Korona nodded back and went to fetch Kaplar.
     
          “Corporal Kaplar, I have a mission for you, if you’ll accept it,” Haft said when the platoon’s junior NCO joined them.
          “‘If’, sir?” Kaplar said, surprised at the suggestion that he would turn down an assignment.
          “It’s a dangerous mission, Corporal.”
          “I’m a corporal in the Bloody Axes of Skragland, Sir Haft. I expect my missions to be dangerous.”
          Haft looked at him for a moment then, all business, and asked, “Are you familiar with Lalla Mkoumas?”
          “The little female demons who make a man disappear? Yes, Sir, I’m aware of them.”
          “Do you know what happened when Sergeant Korona tried to take a recon patrol around the nomad camp?”
          “Yes, Sir. They were turned back before they’d gotten very far.”
          “That makes me think that the nomads have something on the other side of their camp that they don’t want us to see. I need to know what it is, but we can’t go there. However, it so happens that Mage Tabib has a Lalla Mkouma with him. If any of us,”