The Infernal Lands (The Aionach Saga Book 1) (65 page)

Lokes smirked at her, that smart-ass look that always made
her want to slap him.

“I just hope I can keep him alive long enough to find out
where this Toler dway is. Nomads get to him before we do and we can kiss the
other half of that hardware goodbye.”

“If the southerner don’t pay us the other half, I might just
take it from him. How ‘bout that?” Lokes said.

“You got a nose for trouble,” Weaver said. “Gets you into it
a lot better than it gets you out. I’ll make an honorable man of you yet,
Willis Lokes.”

Lokes spat. “Ain’t no honest folk left in the East. ‘Cept the
dead ones.”

“Honesty got nothing to do with it. It’s about proving you’re
a person of your word. You get a reputation for making good every time you
shake a dway’s hand, keeping him liable for holding up his end when he don’t,
you’ll have half the Aionach jingling their hardware in your face, asking for a
handshake.”

“Got by just fine when my reputation was for bein’ good at
shootin’ dways.”

“Bullshit. ‘Member where you were when I found you? Well, think
about that next time you figure on double-crossin’ somebody. Help me get this
shepherd out of his clothes so I can patch up the holes you put in him.”

Together they removed the shepherd’s gear, his leather coat,
and his tunic. He was tall and thin, and his back was bent like a bow with too
much curve in it. There was an iron symbol hanging on a leather thong around
his neck. There were four small holes through it; a square hole on each point
of the three-pointed star, and a round hole with the light-star’s rays shining
out near the center. The man was murmuring to himself, lost in a fever dream, his
face covered in a sheen of sweat.

Lokes yanked the cord off his neck and held up the symbol.
“Now, what do you reckon this is?”

Afterword

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The Infernal Lands
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