Changing Of The Guard (Book 6) Read Online Free Page A

rangers?”
    “Superior?”
    “The scouts and rangers, Halsten.” Zutrian’s temper rose despite himself. His stomach knotted as he left the cereal to cool on a low table. “I didn’t choose this place as our stronghold by accident, you know? I know this land. I know its people. I know how it smells and how it tastes. If we wipe an entire village from the face of the plane, the land will attack back. Rangers will note its disappearance, and they will talk. Stories will pass through towns and seep throughout the plane as sure as vines grow in the forest.”
    “If that’s true, why
did
you choose this place?”
    “Because the order needs its space, Halsten. We are still strong, but the loss at God’s Tower has shaken our confidence. We need to regroup and build the right skills to finish the job before us. Vapor Peaks is secluded enough that we don’t need to overrun anyone to do that.”
    There were other reasons, too, of course—reasons Halsten had no need to know of. Zutrian had made a mistake by trusting the Koradictines, and it had cost a resounding defeat at God’s Tower. So now he brought the order together in the Vapor Peaks, the land where he had grown up, a land he had spent years exploring, and a land he had once known so well he could determine his location by the mere slope of a hill or the gurgle of a creek full of clear springtime water.
    The Vapor Peaks were central to the plane, a prime place to control the actions he would take in the first wave of his
new
plan. It was a place where he could oversee the destruction of the Koradictine order, and a place from where he could then spread in any direction that made sense.
    And it would all happen in the springtime.
    But he held these plans close to his vest now because he knew that shared secrets always found ways to slip out of even the tightest of lock boxes. He had no interest in having them discovered.
    “But the village is in the way of my plan,” Halsten said.
    “Then create another plan.”
    “The northern face is perfect for our exercise. It’s open and easily observed from even the lower peaks. I can post my camp there, and watch each of our mages as they work together.”
    “There is land to the south.”
    “It won’t be as useful.”
    Zutrian’s voice grew brittle and his gaze became a single pinpoint. “But it will serve. And, it supports our overall mission better.”
    Halsten dropped his gaze to the floor, nodding. “I’ll get you a new plan, Superior.”
    “Good.”
    The mage turned, his shoulders rounded in defeat.
    “Halsten?”
    “Yes, Lord Superior?”
    “You were right to bring this to my attention.”
    “Thank you.”
    Halsten stepped out. The door swung closed behind him.
    Zutrian rubbed his eyes. The lack of sleep affected him more now than it had just a few years prior. The green elixir sat on the table across the room. He needed to spend more time casting, he knew, if only so he could feel comfortable calling himself a wizard.
    He collected his bowl of oatmeal. It was cold and pasty now, but it still filled his stomach.
    Another knock came to his door.
    “Come,” he said.
    It was Batar, responsible for all the supplies the camp required, be they foodstuff, or mage tools, or anything else.
    “I need you downstairs, Superior.”
    “Can it wait?”
    “No, Lord. It’s important.”
    Zutrian glanced at his breakfast. His stomach grumbled. Standing, he spooned a last mouthful and left the bowl for Arasia to handle.

    Two days later, Zutrian sat on his open porch wearing only a pair of linen trousers and a woolen poncho draped over his shoulders. The morning sun was brilliant against the cold bite of the mountain air. The stone was warm against his tailbone and the back of his crossed legs, though, a remnant of his recent spell work.
    “Superior,” a voice came from behind him.
    It was Halsten, of course.
    The mage shifted uncomfortably.
    “What is it,” he said, not turning from his meditation.
    “I wanted