Read Online BlackMoon Reaper by Charlotte Boyett-Compo - Free Book Online

in
    the stirrup and swung atop his mount, allowing the animal to prance as he waited for
    his fellow Reaper to join him. When Fontabeau came out, he arched an eyebrow at the
    thunderous look on the other man’s face.
    “What happened?”
    Fontabeau’s upper lip arched. “Nothing. It was just the look he gave me that pissed
    me off, that’s all.”
    “What kind of look?”
    “Like he knows something I don’t.”
    “Well, he most likely does, although I probed his mind and there wasn’t a gods-be-
    damned thing in it.”
    “That you or I could detect,” Fontabeau reminded him.
    “Aye,” Phelan said, frowning. “That we could detect.”
    37
    Charlotte Boyett-Compo
    Putting knees to the steeds, the two men struck out down the dusty street, missing
    running over a couple of miners who walked right in front of them as though the
    Reapers weren’t even there.
    About a mile up the narrow, winding road that led to the mines, Phelan reined in,
    holding his hand up for Fontabeau to do the same.
    “Lord Kheelan?”
    “I am here.”
    “There’s something going on in Haxton Cove. People are behaving as though
    they’ve been possessed and I’m beginning to think it has to do with those sleeper cells
    you told us about.”
    Fontabeau shot Phelan a puzzled look. He had heard the Shadowlord’s words—
    that wasn’t the cause of his bewildered glance. It was the term sleeper cells that baffled
    him.
    “You may indeed have stumbled upon a portion of them,” Lord Naois said from the
    Citadel. “We have been monitoring you so we know of the strange behavior of the inhabitants of
    the Cove. It concerns us.”
    “Do you need help or will the hell hound suffice as backup?” the High Lord snapped.
    Fontabeau stiffened. “I don’t like being called a hell hound.”
    “Get over it,” Lord Kheelan told him.
    “ You get over it,” Fontabeau threw back at him. “I don’t work for you, Ben-
    Alkazar!”
    Phelan’s eyes widened. No one dared speak to the High Lord in that manner. Well,
    almost no one. He knew of a female who did, but it was best not to think on that.
    There was a long silence from the Citadel and when the Shadowlord spoke again,
    his voice was hard as nails and twice as sharp.
    “You had best hope She takes you back to that vulgar pleasure world from whence She
    dredged you, Sorn, for if I ever get my hands on you, I can promise you I will make you wish
    you’d never spoken to me in that fashion!”
    Fontabeau started to respond but Phelan hissed at him.
    “For the love of Alel, don’t!” Phelan warned. “You don’t know him like I do. Let it
    go.”
    “I’m not going to sit here and let him…”
    “Aye, you are!” Phelan cut him off. “We’ve got a job to do and we’re going to need
    his help to do it.”
    Fontabeau changed the subject. “What the fuck is a sleeper cell anyway?”
    “A nest of cybots left here by the Ceannus, programmed by them to awake at their command
    to wreak all manner of evil on the inhabitants of Terra,” Lord Naois explained. “We’ve been
    searching for them.”
    38
    BlackMoon Reaper
    “If they are down in those mines, the drones would not have detected them on the fly-overs,”
    a third voice spoke.
    “That’s Lord Dunham,” Phelan told Fontabeau.
    “Underground in a shallow burrow is one thing, but a mine with serpentine tunnels is
    another. It will be hard to take them out from the air,” Lord Dunham continued. “It will have
    to be done where they can be physically reached.”
    “I’m not going down into any gods-be-damned mine!” Fontabeau declared. “If you
    think Kiel needs help with taking out the ’bots, you’d better send another Reaper or
    two.”
    “We’ll send Lord Cynyr,” Lord Naois replied. “He’s closer than any of the others.”
    “Hold off until I see what’s going on,” Phelan said. “If it’s a matter of setting a
    charge or two and blowing the bastards to Diabolusia and back, I can do that without
    having to pull