Chaos Unleashed Read Online Free

trouble,” Vaaler noted.
    “Not everyone will be pleased with what you have to say.”
    “It needs to be said,” Shalana insisted, and Roggen nodded his agreement.
    This was not the first meeting of the clan chiefs since the final battle against the Danaan, though Vaaler knew this one would not be like the others. In the week since the enemy had been routed, the leaders of all the clans had met every evening to share news and make plans for what should be done next. The newly formed alliances between former rivals were still strong, and so far they had been able to act with consensus in the aftermath of their costly victory.
    There’s still a common enemy that wants to wipe them out. Like the Danaan, the brutal winter has united the chiefs.
    The massive casualties suffered during the campaign against Vaaler’s former people had taken a harsh toll on every clan. Supplies were low, as was the number of able-bodied men and women capable of scouring the surrounding plains and nearby peaks for game. Even Terramon had agreed they should all work together and try to ride out the winter as a group here in the Giant’s Maw.
    It shows how desperate our situation is,
Vaaler realized,
when even Shalana’s father thinks cooperation is the only option.
    One by one the other clan chiefs and their advisers began to arrive, slowly filling the makeshift tent, the heat of their bodies in the enclosed space gradually bringing the temperature up. Vaaler studied them carefully, trying to gauge their respective moods as they entered.
    Most still looked to Shalana as their unofficial leader, a role she had seized—with Vaaler’s help—during the war against the Danaan. But as the focus of the chiefs switched from battle strategies and tactics to more mundane concerns, he’d begun to sense a subtle shift in their allegiance toward Roggen.
    Shalana hadn’t tried to fight it; in fact, she was more than happy to concede the role to him. For the past decade, Roggen had effectively been in charge of the Sun Blades, the largest and most powerful clan in the Frozen East. While he had deferred to the venerable Hadawas on larger decisions, he had been the one overseeing the day-to-day lives of his people.
    At her core, Shalana was a warrior. She knew how to fight and how to rally her thanes to her cause. But Roggen was far better equipped than she was to handle the logistics of finding food, treating the sick and wounded, and making more permanent shelters that could withstand the inevitable blizzards that would threaten to bury them in ice and snow. And if any disputes did arise among the chiefs, he was far more experienced in the subtle politics of leadership than she was.
    The clans will be in good hands when we leave,
Vaaler assured himself. Knowing that helped calm him somewhat though he still felt anxious about what was to come.
    Beside him, Shalana gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
    Is my nervousness so obvious?
he wondered.
Or does she just know me that well already?
    “It’s time,” she whispered, releasing her grasp on his hand and stepping forward into the small circle that had naturally formed at the center of the crowd. Vaaler took a deep breath and silently wished his love luck in what was about to come.
    —
    Shalana let her eyes drift around the room before she spoke, taking in the twenty-odd faces. The assembled chiefs and a handful of their most trusted advisers—the recently united leaders of the Frozen East—waited patiently for her to begin. To her relief, she didn’t see her father among the crowd. Before she could begin, however, one more figure slipped in through the meeting hall’s entrance at the last second.
    Terramon didn’t offer her any apology for being late. Without a word or a glance at any of the others, he bumped and shuffled his way toward the front of the assemblage. Shalana noted Vaaler shooting him a sour glance, and she sighed inwardly.
    Despite no longer having any official title, her father was