The Phoenix Endangered by James Mallory

Author:James Mallory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy - Epic, Fantasy - General, Epic, Magic, Fantasy fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Fiction, Fantasy, Magicians, General, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Elves
ISBN: 9780765355072
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Published: 2009-08-04T05:00:00+00:00

Twelve

The Gathering Storm

FOR THE NEXT several sennights, things almost seemed to return to normal in Tarnatha’Iteru. When no army showed up immediately, those who had not fled in the first day or two divided themselves into two factions: those who believed there was no threat at all—or if there was, it was something that could be easily defeated by the city’s own resources—and the other group, who believed that the threat was something that certainly must be run from the moment it appeared, but who also believed that they would receive plenty of advance warning of its arrival.

“They’re all idiots,” Harrier groaned, throwing himself down on one of the cushions in the Telchi’s living room.

“Ugh. You stink,” Tiercel told him helpfully.

“I’ve been drilling the new City Militia all morning,” Harrier said, pulling himself into a sitting position and reaching for the carafe of cold mint tea that was set out on the table. “You’d stink too. What have you been doing?”

“Inventories. Since the Consul took possession of all the food supplies, he’s ordered a complete inventory of the warehouses so that—he says—he can properly recompense the merchants for their losses. Really it’s so none of it goes, urn, missing from the warehouses because of the rationing.” Tiercel sighed. “Rumor has it that he’s going to start searching houses and confiscating stockpiles next.”

“Except if you have two or more household members in the City Militia,” Harrier said, grinning. “And we have four, just to begin with. Ophare and Latar aren’t that good, but at least they’re there.”

Consul Aldarnas was a wise man. Whether or not he actually believed that an enemy army was coming to attack his city, or that it would be possible to defend against them, he knew that believing there was something they could do to defend themselves against the danger would keep panic from spreading. Before sunset on the day that the news of Laganda’Iteru’s destruction had reached him, he’d ordered a City Militia to be formed, to be trained by those who already had some experience with weapons: the City Watch and the Caravan Guards. As one of the Telchi’s students, Harrier found himself in the odd position of becoming a teacher when he had barely begun being a student.

“But how’d you get stuck doing that, anyway? Inventory is clerk’s work,” Harrier added, frowning thoughtfully.

“The Telchi told Consul Aldarnas’s Court Chamberlain I could read and write. And I’m not from here, so I’m harder to bribe.”

“He didn’t tell him about the whole, um…?”

“Me being a High Mage? No. Better off not. And probably just as well that you didn’t let him tell anybody you were a Wildmage when we came into the city, you know, because everybody’d be expecting you to do something now.”

Harrier sighed. “It would be nice to know what. Considering that apparently there are dozens of them down here for every square foot of sand and they didn’t do a Light-blessed thing.”

“Except disappear,” Tiercel said.

“I hope that worries you,” Harrier said.

“A lot,” Tiercel assured him.

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