Dreams of Fire and Gods 2: Fire Read Online Free Page B

at all?”
    Meik shook his head. “You asked us to send volunteers, but there were none. Nobody wants to venture out into that forest. I was able to persuade two of my scouts. That was it.”
    Geilin smiled behind his glass, apparently amused, but Sael found this news infuriating. He hadn’t wanted to come across as heavy-handed, especially with things so… uncertain… at the moment. But he couldn’t allow his own military to cower behind the walls of the keep! “Hang it, then! If they won’t volunteer, order them to go. We can’t depend on this magic to keep the emperor’s army out until the Taaweh have given us a better idea of what they’re planning.”
    He gathered from the general’s broad grin that this was exactly what Meik had wanted to hear. “Yes, Your Lordship! I’ll see to it.”
    “A messenger arrived from my father this afternoon,” Sael added. “His troops will be arriving in four days.”
    “Good. Those men won’t be afraid to sleep in the woods. And you can bet our men won’t stand for the vek ’s men showing them up!”
    Sael was surprised at the general’s enthusiasm for cracking down on his troops again. Clearly he’d had been too lenient in his handling of the military, afraid of appearing… well, too much like his father. He suspected Meik had allowed it without interference until something like this happened, and Sael was forced to realize coddling his soldiers wouldn’t work.
    More embarrassing still, Sael sensed the hand of his father in this. Even ten leagues away, in his capital of Worlen, the vek was making certain his son was educated in the ways of administering a city. It rankled Sael, but he had to admit he needed the guidance. His training as a mage had never prepared him for this.
    But that thought brought him around to Master Geilin. The old wizard was looking extremely haggard and frailer than Sael had ever seen, apart from when the mage had been severely injured on their journey to Harleh.
    “Perhaps we should call it a night,” Sael suggested, setting his half-full glass on the table.
    But Geilin shook his head. “Your Lordship, I believe we may soon have a serious matter on our hands concerning the magic users in Harleh.”
“I didn’t think anybody could use magic anymore,” Meik said.
    “That’s true,” Geilin replied, “and therein lies our problem. We have twenty-seven vönan and nine ömem who are all feeling the physical effects of being cut off from their power—the ömem have lost the sense they depend upon most—and they’re all demanding that they be allowed to leave Harleh.”
    “Let them go!” Meik snorted. “They’re useless without their powers.” Then he hastened to add, as Geilin quirked an eyebrow at him, “Present company excepted, of course. Everyone knows how valuable you are to His Lordship as an advisor.”
    Fortunately, Master Geilin was a bit more diplomatic than the general. “But not as a mage,” he said calmly, “and my health is suffering as much as any of the others. More than most, in fact, since it appears the more accustomed one is to using Stronni magic, the more acutely one feels its loss. I confess that it’s quite painful. Some of the elder vönan and ömem have taken to their beds.”
“What do you advise I do?” Sael asked, distressed. “Let them all go?”
    “No. At this point, I think it would be unwise to allow too much information to get out of the valley. If we allow the vönan to leave, then the ömem and caedan will demand they be allowed to leave as well, and that will immediately provide the Stronni with information that could prove very dangerous. I’m far more concerned about the gods learning of our treaty with the Taaweh than I am about the emperor learning of it.”
    Sael suspected, as Geilin no doubt did, that the Stronni would immediately attack the valley if they discovered their ancient adversaries had returned. Would the Taaweh be able to repel an attack from the gods themselves?