Satan's Gambit (The Barrier War Book 3) by Brian J Moses Page B

moment, unable to look into
the flaming depths of Birch’s eyes for more than a few seconds. When he looked
at Birch again, he was obviously focusing on some other part of his face.
    “Birch,” he
said, then cleared his throat and tried again. Birch wasn’t sure if he’d ever
heard such a somber and potentially dire tone from this young man.
    “Birch, I think
you should know about some things that have happened to Danner recently.”

Chapter 5
    When you enter a game of stones, you have agreed to a
certain reality the game represents, which is defined by the rules. Look
closely, and you will see that cheaters simply can’t deal with reality.
    - Orange Paladin Jason
Anterix,
    “Defining Reality” (856 AM)
    - 1 -
    Marc watched
calmly as Garnet walked wearily into the common room of the Iron Axe and all
but collapsed into a chair. The thick wooden legs groaned alarmingly, but the
chair held.
    “One of these
days you’re going to end up with your ass on the floor,” Flasch said without
looking up, “and I just want to warn you now that we will, in fact, all laugh
at you.”
    “Duly noted,”
Garnet said, then he casually reached a hand out and gave Flasch a light rap
upside the head.
    Without so much
as breaking his concentration, Flasch looked up at Marc and winked before
calmly moving a stone on the board situated between them, destroying Marc’s
carefully planned strategy. A quick glance at the game board showed that Flasch
would win yet again, though the final tally would not be as embarrassing as the
last two games they had played. Marc threw up his hands in defeat and pushed
himself back from the table. He had been having a fairly successful day,
at least until he came back and agreed to play against Flasch while they waited
for the others to return.
    Marc glanced
back over at Garnet’s limp body.
    “Hard day at
work?” he asked facetiously.
    “I hate dealing
with the Council,” Garnet groaned. “They left me a message before I even woke
up this morning. I left right after breakfast and arrived before they’d even
gone into session for the day. Then I sat for over three hours waiting for them
to let me into the damn room,” Garnet said in frustration. “Of course, even
then I just sat to the side and listened to various reports, not knowing
whether any of it was supposed to be relevant to why I was even there.
    “Finally, after
I’d been there for another hour and a half, Geris addressed me and told me why
I’d been summoned.”
    Marc and Flasch
glanced at each other in a moment of silence. Finally, Flasch said, “Which
was?”
    “What? Oh, wait
for the others to show up first,” Garnet said, and Marc could hear Flasch
grinding his teeth in annoyance. “Brican’s calling in Guilian from the camp,
and Danner and Michael should be along any second.”
    Flasch shook his
head and turned back to Marc.
    “Another game
while we wait?”
    “Not a chance,”
Marc replied flatly.
    “Oh, come on.
I’ll play with one hand tied behind my back.”
    Marc stared at him.
    “What difference
would that make?”
    Flasch shrugged,
then grinned. Marc and Garnet both groaned.
    A few seconds
later, Danner and Michael entered the inn, threw the three paladins a quick
wave, then headed toward the door to the basement. Garnet slowly got to his
feet and followed them.
    “Come on, you
two,” he called over his shoulder. “We’re meeting them all in the war room.”
    “It’s good that
he tells us these things ahead of time,” Flasch said, rolling his eyes.
    “He leads, we
follow,” Marc said with a shrug of his shoulders.
    The two paladins
followed their friend and commander down into the basement and a small room
accessible only through a secret passageway. Here, the commanding officers of
Shadow Company kept all their maps, plans, and training manuals they didn’t
want others to see, including documented rosters of various training regimens
applicable only to denarae because they dealt specifically with