Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9) by Mark Wandrey (best ereader under 100 .txt) 📕

going to send a message? You can’t get a ship to the stargate, and even if you could, it’s locked out. The Vergola control it.”

Ifka snorted and waved a dismissive hand. “Then your downfall just comes later. Nothing has changed.”

Shadow caught another movement from the door and wondered if more Lumar were arriving. Instead he saw an Aku shuffling in. Shadow smiled. The Aku fixed Shadow with its big black eyes and held up its old battered slate so Shadow could see; it was displaying a clear Mercenary Guild logo.

Shadow moved away from the confrontation. Ifka was yelling into a communicator, calling for Lumar troopers without realizing two were already in the room by the door. Anger could so blind the unready. When Shadow reached the Aku, he knelt, keeping his voice low in case Ifka suddenly became aware of her surroundings. “Niss?” he asked.

“Yes, I am Niss. You cannot tell?”

“No, sorry,” Shadow said. “You all smell…remarkably similar. In time, I should be able to tell you apart.”

“This is fair,” Niss replied.

“What did you find out about our contract?” Shadow wasn’t sure, but he would swear the big turtle-like being was smiling. He held out the slate, which Shadow took and skimmed while the Aku spoke.

“The details of my analysis of the contract are based on what you told me,” Niss explained.

Shadow scanned and found page after page of notations, all in English. The writing was a little hard to read. Niss didn’t have a perfect grasp of the use of English nouns and verbs. It took him several minutes of rapid reading to get the gist of Niss’ conclusion.

“You’re sure about this?”

“Positive,” Niss replied.

Meanwhile Ifka had finally noticed the Lumar. She bounded across the room and stood in front of Ulan, pointing at Shadow’s father.

“I want him arrested, immediately.”

“Why arrest Human?”

“They have violated their contract with us; they refuse to fight.”

Ulan looked from Ifka to Alan and back to Ifka. “Not want to fight?”

“We refuse,” Alan said. “We would fight to protect ourselves or even to protect you. But we’re not fighting for this bloody weasel anymore.”

Ulan listened to his translator grunt and huff the English into Lumar, his head cocking as he tried to make sense of it.

“You no fight because Zuparti bad?”

“We won’t fight because they’re sneaking scumbags,” he said.

“Dad?” Shadow said.

“Not right now, Shadow. In fact, you five better take Veska and go to the barracks.”

Shadow knew his father was worried about them. His brothers and sisters were growling low in their chests, hackles rising as they prepared to fight.

“Dad, you need to see this,” he said, keeping his attention firmly pointed at Alan and away from Ifka as he held up the battered slate.

“What is it?” Alan asked and took the slate. Being much more familiar with the language of contracts, his expression changed as he instantly recognized a detailed analysis of a merc contract. He read for a bit, then twisted the slate in his hand to examine it. “This isn’t your slate?” he asked, tone too flat to really be a question. Shadow shook his head. “Who did this?” Shadow turned and pointed to Niss.

Alan walked over to the Aku and pointed at the slate he was holding. “You did this?”

“Yes.”

“How did you learn about mercenary law?”

“I read it.”

“Read what, mercenary law?”

“All mercenary laws, regulations, and governing messages stored on the GalNet.”

“That’s gotta be petabytes,” Alan said.

“He’s actually read a big chunk of the GalNet,” Shadow told his father. “Read it and understood it.”

“What is this about?” Ifka demanded. “Why is this slave in here instead of the mines? Lumar, return this creature to where it belongs.”

Alan ignored the question and waved off the command, glancing at the slate. “Hold on, Ulan. This concerns you, too. Ifka, Engineering Guildmaster, I hold our contract as invalid. This erases all commitment between us, and ends any power you think your threats hold.”

“Ridiculous,” Ifka said.

Alan cleared his throat and read, “Mercenary Guild law on contracts, Section 11, Parts 3 and 4, state a unit may not be compelled into a contract.”

“Section 5 makes an exception if the mercs enter an area of active conflict,” Ifka replied, almost before he’d finished talking.

“Section 8, extenuating circumstances, lays out what is considered a valid conflict. Mercenaries being trapped by an interdicted stargate are excluded.” He turned to look at Shadow and Niss. “I must have read this bloody contract a dozen times, and didn’t know about the Section 8 exclusions.”

“The interdiction wasn’t intentional.”

“Yes it was,” Niss replied.

“Shut up!” Ifka barked at the Aku.

“You had me write the code to trigger the interdiction.”

“Oh, ho,” Captain Anderle said, a grin spreading across her face. “The game is afoot!”

Alan continued, “Under Section 3, remuneration of false employment of mercenaries from cancelled contracts, we demand payment in full for an invalid contract, and under Section 6, in regards to safe passage and billeting of non-combatant mercenaries, we demand to retain our living spaces, defensive capabilities, and starship until such time as we can leave, when under the same section you will guarantee our departure from the E’cop’k system.” Alan lifted his own slate and showed Ifka he’d been recording the entire exchange.

Ifka quivered with rage, her tail and facial fur bristling with it. She spun and spoke to her assistants, too low for the translators to pick up, all three of them furiously paging around on their slates.

“Bravo, Dad,” Shadow said.

“All I did was read,” Alan replied. “You realized the Aku could help.”

“Bloody good job,” Rex said and slapped Shadow on the back.

“Ripper,” Ripley said.

“Hell, yes,” Sonya said.

“Good job,” Drake said.

“Fine,” Ifka said, turning around finally. “I’m certain you are wrong, but this is hardly my most pressing concern.” She