Read The Education of Brother Thaddius and other tales of DemonWars (The DemonWars Saga) for Free Online Page B

into a cadence, and was barely aware that her cadence was being strengthened by the percussion of hoofbeats.
    It took Sadye a long while, and even took the pressure of Orrin’s hand clenching her arm, before she stopped her playing and opened her eyes to the world around her.
    “Riders?” she asked.
    Orrin nodded and motioned with his chin behind, and when Sadye turned, she noted the approach of a trio of riders, charging hard to catch up to the wagon.
    “Kingsmen,” Orrin explained. “Fear not, for they’ll believe me to be an honest merchant.” He tossed Sadye a wink. “Especially since I’m traveling with my beautiful and talented daughter.”
    Sadye grinned; she understood that this was one of the reasons Orrin had bade her to stay on, after all. “Your beautiful and talented daughter who is not possessed of an adult’s fears of humiliating herself.”
    “Yes, there is always that,” Orrin quipped without the slightest hesitation, and Sadye’s grin widened.
    She began to play again, but couldn’t help but glance back as the trio came thundering by the wagon, two going left, past Orrin, and the third galloping his mount right beside Sadye. She watched the soldier with sincere interest, even awe. He wore a full helm and a metal breastplate, with sleeves and a skirt of interlocking chain links, and shiny black boots that sported large spurs. A broadsword was strapped on one hip, bouncing as his horse galloped past. That horse, a chestnut whose coat glistened with sweat, was tall and strong, an impressive creature, though not as much so as the magnificent To-gai ponies used by the more elite of Ursal’s soldiers, the Allheart Brigade.
    To young Sadye, this soldier, this dashing warrior, elicited the dreams of wide horizons, the thoughts of adventure and freedom. She watched him ride up alongside the wagon’s trotting horse and grab it by the bridle, then bring it and the wagon to a fast stop as his two companions rode up beside him.
    “Whoa! Good soldiers of King Danube!” Orrin said, and he pulled back his reins, halting the progress of the wagon completely. “All you needed to do was ask, of course! I am an honest merchant, bound for Maer’kin Duvval with my beautiful and talented daughter.
    The soldier centering the trio lifted the faceplate on his great helmet. “Your name, good sir merchant.”
    “Orrin Davii, of the Ursal Daviis.”
    “I know not your family.”
    Orrin shrugged. “We are not of noble blood. Merchants, one and all, serving in loyalty to the line of Ursal.” He stood up and bowed as he finished.
    “Then serve him now, Merchant Davii,” said the soldier. “Come down from your seat and show us your wares.”
    “But they are all packed!”
    “Then unpack them.”
    The seriousness of the soldier’s response set off an alarm within Sadye, a sudden feeling that not everything here was as it seemed. She glanced at Orrin for consolation, but found that, despite his smile, his movements betrayed a similar uneasiness.
    Apparently feeling her stare, Orrin subtly motioned her to stay calm, then stiffly descended from the wagon, his old joints creaking after hours on the bouncy road. He moved back, followed closely by two of the soldiers, while the third, the one who had passed by Sadye’s side, continued to hold the bridle of the draft horse.
    Again Sadye felt her heart flutter at the sight of him, so tall and strong in the saddle on so fine a mount.
    Sadye finally managed to tear her gaze away and look back, to see Orrin leaning over the back of the wagon, trying to pull one of the crates back. The two soldiers had dismounted, but made no move to help, standing to either side of the old man.
    Something about their posture, about the way one’s hand kept moving near to the pommel of his sword, had the hairs on the back of Sadye’s neck standing up. She widened her scan instinctively, looking past the pair, and noted a fourth rider back down the road, milling about in the shadows