Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate by Toby Bennett

Book: Heaven's Gate by Toby Bennett Read Free Book Online
Authors: Toby Bennett
Tags: Romance, Fantasy
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continues firmly. “We emphasize that she had to have been abducted and dismiss any suggestion that it might have been due to any kind of souring between the two of you. Even if we discover that that is the case, it is what people will assume unless we give them information to the contrary, besides she will hardly be allowed to announce that publicly, once we have her back! We have everything to gain by asserting abduction and little to lose.”
      “True enough and saying that the help came from the desert rather than one of the barons will unify those who are still loyal and give us an excuse for recruiting new troops, along with allowing a full search without embarrassment.”
    Sharp indeed! Rugan thinks, I must tread carefully.
     
    “Though when we do require the girl I think you should carefully reevaluate your position. Another bride might still be more suitable. ” Rugan cautions.
    “Let us concentrate on regaining the girl. I must be seen to be doing all that I can to save her from this terrible fate. Besides, despite your objections, I still wish this alliance to succeed, the Carter barony is worth a little discomfort and bother.”
    “Indeed, but if we handle it properly we could ride the wave of public outcry and suspicion against the Carters and then arrange an alliance with the Whistler clan after all.” Rugan says, without much real hope of diverting the General’s intent.
    “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Rugan. I’m more than likely to get her back at the moment so I still see no reason to upset our arrangements with Baron Carter.”
    “As you say, Angus,” Rugan concedes quickly, while privately hoping that Jesop Carter is fool enough to harbour his daughter, thus implicating himself and forcing the General’s hand.

Chapter 3:
     
    “Limit”
     
    Sand hisses around his horse’s hooves, piling up against its shanks. The wind is faster than it was an hour ago, its growing strength promises a storm but the rider hunches in the saddle, unmoving, staring down at the fastness of the line stop below him, watching the lights wink on in the growing dark. Limit, a town once thought to be as far as civilization could reach on the line, a truth that had held until Simon Richard’s great boreholes struck water at Triumph. The settlement was fat with trade now, untold amounts of silver and steel, the basis of the Rucroft barony’s wealth flowed through the town every day. That wealth had funded the high stone walls guarding the heart of the town; had built the cathedral towers that rise above them and the sumptuous buildings with their gardens that seemed to defy the lifeless dunes and hills that surrounded the town with their verdant beauty.
     
    Very little of this wealth reaches what is by far the larger part of Limit, the huge sprawl of shanties and shacks that huddle against its thick walls, like moths drawn to murderous flame. It is hope which was killed in Limit, a hope embodied by the wealth behind those grey walls. At night the slums are at their most dangerous, with the light and music from their overlords seeping over that high barrier, the dispossessed citizens of Limit were at their most bitter and desperate. A few still have it in them to dare the haunted desert and bring back what they can from the forbidding hills to the north or the abandoned wastes to the south but most of the slum’s inhabitants have learned to wait. Wait, feeding off other, more successful, adventurers and in times of extremity, each other. Necessity has made them what they are - thin cannibals, tight packed, with the smell of another man’s meal rich in their nostrils.
     
    The rider does not hesitate out of fear, though the thought of falling to some random bullet or a few thugs, lucky enough to catch him unawares, feeds into his all-consuming fear of final death and damnation, he is used to risk and accepts it with a terrible fatalism. The rider waits because dusk always stirs the dark voices in his soul,

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