The Southern Trail (Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

former merman asked.
    “We don’t have time to talk,” Kate snapped.  “Help him stand up and get his pants off him.  Here’s the dress; hold your hands over your head,” she commanded.
    Marco tried to fumble with his pants with one hand while holding the other over his head, as Cassius steadied him and Kate began to pull the dress down upon him.
    “I’ll bet you’ve never done this before,” she said as his other hand shimmied its way into the sleeve of the dress.
    “Oh, a time or two,” Marco answered, still in a daze from the after-effects of the battle with Iamblichus.
    “You’re making that up!” Kate laughed, as she smoothed the front of the dress quickly, then wrapped a scarf over his head.
    “They’re coming!” Pesino called as she ran back into the room.  She stopped momentarily to look at him.  “Head to the back door, I’ll meet you there in a second,” she said, then disappeared through a doorway.
    “Come on,” Cassius urged.
    Marco took a step forward, and felt his ankle bend unnaturally once again, making him wince.
    “Here, lean on me,” Asterion said, arriving to stand next to Marco.
    “My sword?  Where’s my sword?” Marco asked suddenly.
    “It’s still down where we were hiding you in the basement,” the former minotaur answered.
    “I’ll get it,” Kate volunteered, as she ran out the door.
    “Let’s keep moving,” Cassius urged.  “He’s going to be slow.”
    They left the back door and entered an alley, then turned.  Kate and Pesino caught up with them within seconds as they advanced along the narrow, filthy passage between two buildings.
    “Turn here,” Pesino urged as they reached a street.  “We don’t want to go back to the square where Marco killed the sorcerer; there are a lot of angry soldiers there.”
    They continued their slow progress, Marco remaining an impediment, and still too befuddled by the after-effects of his battle to be of much use.
    “Look up there,” Cassius spoke as he pointed at the Acropolis, visible above the houses along the street.  A line of men in purple uniforms were coming into view, as men in black were falling beneath their swords, or literally falling over the side of the Acropolis as the arrival of the Nappaneen forces pressed them back.
    “Your men are winning!” Kate squeezed Marco’s arm in excitement. 
    “Are there more of them on the west side of town?  Should we try to take shelter behind their lines?” she asked.
    Marco tried to recollect.  “There may be some men stationed at the breach in the city wall we used,” he said tentatively.  He couldn’t remember much; he knew he had fought Iamblichus in a bruising battle, but there was a foggy period of time immediately before that.
    “We’ll keep heading west then,” Cassius said, and the group immediately turned into an alley on their left.
    They walked in a zigzagging pattern of streets and alleys and one time a courtyard for several minutes, until they heard a series of shouts behind them. They turned another corner, and came within sight of a nearby checkpoint.  A half dozen black-uniformed guards were at the spot where the road was constricted, while a score of others loitered nearby, watching them.
    “Back up!” Pesino hissed.
    “You – come here!” one of the soldiers ordered as he spotted them.
    “What do we do?” Cassius asked.
    “I said, come here – now!” the soldier in black shouted emphatically, and a trio of his companions began to step towards the fleeing group.
    “Let’s try to bluff our way through this,” Kate said, as it became evident they would not be able to flee without pursuit and battle.
    The quintet started forward, and reached the checkpoint within seconds.
    “Where are you going?” asked the soldier who had spoken to them; he had a heavy accent, one that seemed more lyrical than their own pronunciation.
    “We’re just trying to get away from the battle.  We saw the sorcerers fighting at the square,”