Free Upon This World of Stone (The Paladin Trilogy Book 2) by James A. Hillebrecht Page A

loitering over their breakfasts.”
    “My Lord, the Warhaven heavy infantry still hasn’t exited from the Drift. They have the slowest rate of march and should have been on the road no later than dawn.”
    Darius almost smiled at the range of issues raining down on Boltran’s shoulders, but the young man was doing an admirable job of maintaining his composure, if not his patience.
    “The line of march will straighten itself out in due time…Maganhall has water aplenty, and we will gladly share with Norealm…We gratefully accept the Lady’s generous offer and will plan to dine at her tent some two hours after sunset…Ride to Duke Mandrik and see if the Warhaven infantry is in need of assistance.”
    Darius had been part of many other armies, and he knew well that the leader’s time was taken less with grand tactics and strategy than who would sit at his right hand at dinner and what knight would be allowed to set his tent upwind of another.
    A horse came up beside Andros, and Darius looked around to see a brown mare ridden by a man wearing a priest’s yellow cassock with the golden insignia of a Curate or Father.
    “My name is Rathman, and I am to be your guide,” the Father announced, his tone suggesting he would rather be cleaning latrines. “The Council and the Church have both agreed you need to be watched, and they have set me to be your spy.”
    The man was about medium height with a slight build and a narrow, intense face. Brown eyes burned with anger, and his mouth was tight with emotion, signs of a man embarked on a single quest. A quest whose completion he did not appear to relish.
    “I will be glad of the companionship,” Darius answered politely. “My friend Father Joshua was denied permission to ride with me, and the road can be the longer without someone to share it.”
    “I do not join you willingly, heretic,” the man snapped. “Joshua is suspected of being tainted by you, and he needs a sharp reminder about dogma. Mirna willing, he will see the error of his judgment.”
    Darius took a small breath, let it out slowly. “I suppose you were selected for this task because you are less vulnerable to being tainted?”
    “My training is with the Office of Inquest,” the man answered, speaking of the feared arm of the Church that delved into heresy. “But I believe I was assigned to divert me from other work. My task is to fry bigger fish than you.”
    “Bigger fish?” repeated Darius. “Who might that be?”
    “The Duke of Corland himself,” Rathman replied. “I have spent the last year and more trying to find evidence against Argus and bring him to an ecclesiastical trial where he will be made to answer for his evil.”
    “Then we have some common ground,” Darius observed quietly.
    The Priest’s eyes flickered slightly, but the hard frown remained on his face.
    “What crimes do you suspect Argus has committed?” Darius asked.
    “He is protecting the Red Priests of Bal,” Rathman answered shortly.
    Darius’ eyes widened. Bal at one time had been one of Mirna’s most powerful servants, a great sorcerer who had ascended to the ranks of the divine for his many services, but his lust for power had not been sated by his elevation to demi-god. He had broken with Mirna, and there were some humans who continued to worship him, glorying in his open displays of power. The Red Priests were powerful spell-casters who acted as the god’s minions on earth,
    “You believe he himself is in the service of Bal?” Darius asked, and there was a catch in his voice as he said it. It was horrifying to even think that a sanctified duke, the protector of hundreds of thousands of his people, would be in league with a devil.
    “Argus is mad for power,” Rathman answered. “He will use the Red Priests to gain his own ends. If he has not yet crossed over into full worship, it is only a matter of time.”
    “A duke of the Southlands in the grip of the Red Priests,” Darius muttered softly, as if