The New Magic (The Outworlders Book 2) by Joseph Malik

Author:Joseph Malik [Malik, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxblood Books
Published: 2018-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Jarrod lay awake late into the night, listening to the storm.

This would be his first winter here, and while he’d been through a few squalls at The Reach—living on the ocean, after all—he’d never experienced anything quite like this. The winds screamed off the water, battering the castle and even powering through the chimneys, pushing the coals from cherry to orange. It was going to be a dreadful season.

They’d bought hundreds of carts full of wood over the summer and fall, tradesmen coming down from the mountains with firewood by the ton, and the larders were full. The tide brought grouperlike granitefish and man-sized sharks into nets thrown down from the town walls, and there were livestock—hogs, mostly—that fed off the remains of the fish. They had cisterns and rain catchments, and most of all, they had the geothermal energy below them that warmed the rocks of the keep and the floors of the town.

The heat radiating from the walls pecked at him whenever he found his mind wandering. Right now, though, he didn’t want to consider that his castle was built on top of an active volcano. He had bigger problems.

He couldn’t get the pegasi out of his head. The idea of air superiority staggered him, and he had to wonder why Gateskeep didn’t throw all their resources into the breeding and training operation. The pegasi could provide overwatch, mapping, insertion of elite troops, and the obvious advantage of flying soldiers through those fucking mountains. It was a three-day ride from here to Regoth Ur—longer, in the wrong weather—and if your horse took a bad step you could find yourself in a three-hundred-foot freefall off a moss-slicked fjord. And yet, Carter could make it in a couple of hours on a pegasus if he really hauled ass.

There were a lot of ideas that they were missing. The concept of using their wizards only as long-distance operators and travel agents, for starters. I mean, sure, he thought, communication sucks, here. Got it. But why not offense?

Because they’re trained not to.

Except, he thought, they used the pegasi for offense, and the pegasi were as magical as it gets.

And then, he thought, there was Ulo. He could clearly kill people with magic; he’d killed Javal, and Albar Hillwhite, and a bunch of other people who’d been in a room with them. Which was probably why Gavria hadn’t gone to kick his ass, yet. The idea of someone shooting fireballs from atop the Silver Palace was probably a game-changer. As was whatever Renaldo’s buddy had pulled off at High River Keep.

Which made him wonder about Renaldo’s wizard. The Hillwhite wizard.

If there was a spy, or a traitor, within the cadre of wizards, then Gateskeep had serious, world-wrecking problems.

The Order of the Stallion was an intelligence-gathering network; their job was to keep an ear to the ground and report possible transgressions against the crown. But a wizard as an enemy spy? He didn’t even know where to begin.

He didn’t know anything about wizards, he realized.

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