Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill (best color ebook reader txt) 📗

I can do, sir?” Harson said, stumbling over his words. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Amusement was painted on the face of the soldier with the broken nose. “And I’m just to believe you, old man? You ain’t done nothing wrong, and I should just let you go without being sure?”

The old merchant looked like he was about to answer, but then he thought better of it.

“Don’t put yourself in an early grave, old man,” the soldier said. He laughed and looked over towards his men, who all laughed in kind. It was the kind of laugh that you did when you didn’t think a joke was funny, but you knew what was expected of you. “We are looking for someone. All we need are some names, and then you can be on your way. Easy enough?”

The old man nodded.

“Easy enough?” the soldier repeated.

“Yes, sir.”

Another soldier stepped forward. He was young, definitely not more than twenty summers. He carried himself with the walk of a man who was trying to make a name for himself. Though, his armour looked as if it had been made for a taller man – passed down through family, maybe – which did not help him in that regard. The soldier moved up through the group, asking each their name in turn. He started with the other young couple. He stared at the man as if he were not nearly a foot taller than the boy. “Name?”

“John Tarnell.”

The soldier lingered for a minute, looking John up and down, as if a few more moments of nervous waiting might change his answer. When he was satisfied that John’s name wasn’t going to change, the soldier moved on to his partner. The father and his young son received a similar treatment, even the boy, which seemed unnecessary to Ella.

Everything seemed fine until Ella gave them her name.

“Ella Bryer.”

It was as if the wind changed. Ella might not have caught it, were it not for the surprise in the soldier’s eyes. He had been trying so hard to seem intimidating that he couldn’t hide the way his eyes turned. It was a mix of surprise and nerves. He looked over to his captain, the man whose face looked like the wrong side of a horse’s ass. His stony expression offered nothing but the slight twist of a smile at the corner of his mouth. He nodded.

The young soldier’s stance shifted slightly wider as he turned back towards Ella. “Ella Bryer, we’re going to need you to come with us, by order of the emperor.” The other soldiers moved, surrounding the group of weary travellers, who had all expected to be wheeling through the gates of Gisa before sunset.

“Excuse me?” she blurted out. She attempted to catch the words with her hands before they left her mouth, but it was an exercise in futility.

“There must be some mistake here. Please, we are on our way to catch a vessel to Antiquar.” Rhett was as surprised as she, as well he should be. The idea that anyone outside the villages would know her name at all was surprising, let alone a group of imperial soldiers on the merchant’s road to Gisa. It had to be a mistake.

“We don’t need any trouble. Just come with us, and the others can be on their way,” the soldier repeated firmly. He reached out to grab Ella’s shoulder. Instinctively, she tugged her shoulder away, out of reach of the man’s hand. His hand immediately fell to the pommel of his sword.

“Whoa!” said Rhett. Ella heard the nervousness in his voice, which only served to make her nervous as well.

What is happening?

Rhett stepped forward with his arms open. “Can we please just talk?”

Two of the soldiers immediately dropped their spears to hip height, their tips aimed at Rhett’s stomach.

“Do not step closer,” one of them called. Again, he had to be less than twenty summers.

Rhett raised his hands in the air, backing away slowly. Ella felt the situation slipping out of control. The soldiers were jumpy. Something was very wrong.

“Okay, we’ll go with you, but can you please just tell us what this is about? And just let these other people go. We don’t even know them.” Ella did her best to keep her voice calm and level. Her father had always told her that she could change the tone in a room with the tone in her voice. He was not often wrong. She stepped closer to the soldiers and raised her hands in the air, just up to her shoulders, to show them she wasn’t carrying anything.

“Just you,” the soldier barked. Keeping his hand over the pommel of his sword, he grasped Ella by her shoulder with his free hand, pulling her in closer to him. Ella batted at him with her hands, but it was no use. Even if they were the same size, her palms did nothing against his armour.

“You let her go, right now!” roared Rhett. He whipped his sword from its scabbard in a blur. There was not so much as a tremble in Rhett’s blade as he held it out in front of him, but his eyes were on fire.

“Rhett, no!” Ella might as well have been screaming at a stone wall, for all the good it did.

“If you harm a hair on her head, I will take your head from your shoulders.” Rhett’s voice was flat and measured. He meant every word.

The cocky young soldier pulled Ella in tighter. He wrapped the inside of his arm around her neck and held out his sword. “I dare you to try, Southern scum!” The soldier spat on the ground.

The other soldiers pulled inward, tightening the circle around the group of travellers. The boy whimpered as he hid behind his father’s legs. A worried look was on the man’s face. The other couple had barely moved an inch, the woman’s head buried in her partner’s chest.

“Just let her go.”

“You are in no position to be—”

The man’s words were cut short as