Gathering of the Titans: The Tol Chronicles Book 2 Read Free

they’d better do the ‘getting to know you’ thing and be done with it.
    “I’ll start, I guess,” Selpla announced over the rim of her cup, “As you probably are already aware, being a detective and all, my father is a wealthy architect named Erminian. He designed a lot of the larger buildings in Goblinopolis, Cladimil, and Dresmak, not to mention Xovcastra in Asmagon, Erolossma and Woklopen in Solemadrina, Zilond in Spleroste, Yiks Island in Frespiola, Rebrugge in Hividz, and a bunch more. He even designed the newest wing of the Royal Complex for your brother.”
    “Ah yes, the ‘Aspet loves Tragacanth’ wing. It’s got dioramas of historical events, famous places, busts and paintings of famous people, and so on. It’s sort of secondary schola history class all in one shot. Or so he tells me. I haven’t actually been there.”
    “I heard there’s a diorama devoted to you shutting down Namni and Pyfox, too.”
    “Really? Who would want to see that? All I did was smash an ugly statue that deserved to die.”
    “Apparently it was heroic enough to get you knighted. Must have been pretty significant.”
    “You were there, too. How heroic did it appear to you?”
    “I couldn’t really see much over Kurg and Lom.”
    “Oh, well,” Tol shrugged, “Those are the breaks. So, how did you get from spoiled rich kid to celebrity reporter?”
    “I have three brothers, all older: Ikren, Fatuhl, and Basik. All three of them became architects—graduated from Tropsalla Technical College, up the street. They’re spread out all over the world now: Ovinis, Rublosq, and Spleroste, respectively, last I heard: all doing their thing quite successfully.”
    “You didn’t feel the urge to design buildings, eh?”
    “I tried my hand at it, believe it or not. I am just not the architect type. My buildings looked like something that might spring up out of the cesspool in The Effluent: oddly-shaped and probably impossible to build.”
    “I’d be willing to bet you’re better at that sort of thing than I am. I can’t draw a straight line with two rulers.”
    She giggled. “Straight lines played no part in my designs, I can promise you. So anyway, I was the black woolbeast of the family in several ways. I was the only female, as my mother died when I was four; I was the only non-architect; and I was not at all a good student, whereas my brothers were Dean’s List all the way. I did attend universitas on and off for years—I went through most of the majors in the catalog, in fact—but I think it broke my father’s heart when I finally decided to take my degree in journalism at Loca Arts Institute instead of mathematics or one of the sciences at Tropsalla Tech. He did pay for my college, true, but my graduation party was nothing like the ones my brothers got. There are a lot of architects in my father’s contact database; not so many journalists.”
    “Not a real happenin’ scene, eh?”
    “Mostly elderly friends of the family and relatives who didn’t think I could stick with anything long enough to finish a degree. It was over in an hour, and that includes the photo op.”
    “Bummer. I’ll bet I could have spiced things up.”
    “My father would never have invited a common edict enforcement officer. Of course, now that you’re a Knight of the Crimson and brother to the king you’re on the ‘A’ list.”
    “Funny thing, snobbery. So, what was your childhood like?”
    “We spent a lot of time after mother died in places like Aspolia and Terimpu, although Goblinopolis was always our home base, as it were. The different cities sort of blur together for me: I’ve memories of people and buildings and such, but I can’t tell you exactly what city we were in at the time they happened. I really didn’t have any close friends because we moved around so much. Father had to drag us along wherever his job took him, although we did have a live-in nanny and teacher. I got to see him a lot more that way, though, so