The Arcanist Read Free

the streets, thinking no doubt about food. It was a sight he would never have expected to see in his lifetime.
     
    The beasts were as quick to calm as they were to panic so the stories went. But in the distance he could still hear the sound of thunder in the ground and the screams of people as some of the beasts still ran. Even these calmer ones still looked dangerously skittish. One wrong move, one loud noise, and they would start stampeding again. And when they did chaos would return.
     
    “Sire!”
     
    Someone was addressing him and he dimly realised that the man had been doing so for some time. He even had his hand on his shoulder and was shaking him as he tried to get his attention. And despite it being improper it was the right thing to do. This was a disaster and the people needed their king. Now more than ever they needed him. He could see that so very clearly in the faces of the guards surrounding him. They didn't know what to do. They needed orders. They needed something to make sense in the light of what had happened.
     
    “Right, get everyone you can out of the broken buildings and away from the mammoths.” He started belting out orders to anyone who would listen, heedless of the chain of command. Normally he would instruct his right and left hands and they would do what needed to be done. But his left hand was away on a trade mission and he had no idea where his right hand was. Lord Julius could be dead.
     
    “And no one approaches the mammoths. No shooting, no loud noises. Let the beasts calm down and pray they leave peaceably.”
     
    The last thing they could afford he knew, was another stampede. The mammoths would have to be encouraged to leave by themselves. But at the same time he had no idea at all how to coax a mammoth to leave their city. Still, that was a matter for later. For the moment while things were calming down, they had to concentrate on getting the people to safety and not making things worse.
     
    “Organise a triage area on the far side of the city, maybe even outside the walls, and get all the physicians and apothecaries you can find out to it. The wounded will need to be carried to it.”
     
    “Get some fires lit and some cauldrons bubbling. I want everybody who can be found and needs food to be fed. Hot food. I want the stables cleared as best they can be, so that those who no longer have homes can at least have a roof over their heads for the night.”
     
    “We need an inventory of what supplies we have; food, bandages, clothing, blankets, water. And we need to make sure that no one is left starving or cold. Not tonight.”
     
    “And find me any of my advisers you can. We need to find some answers.”
     
    And while those weren’t critical just yet, they would be. He could feel the anger deep down starting to bubble up. This was no accident. These beasts had not simply been grazing nearby when they'd started to run. Someone had done this. Someone had brought these beasts to Therion and then unleashed them outside his city. Someone had started them stampeding. And that someone had to be found.
     
    He had to pay.
     
    Looking back once more at the remains of his castle and the people that he knew lay dead within, he knew that whoever had done this had to pay dearly.
     
     
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    It was late and Edouard was sleeping soundly when the thumping began. The impact of steel striking against the solid oak of his front door.
     
    At first he tried to ignore it. He was comfortable and warm, and it was late. It was all surely some sort of bad dream. Besides, no one ever came to visit him. Or not many. A few adventurers and the like with relics they wanted to identify. The odd person wanting to sell him something. A few terrified escapees from the nearby Temple of Tyrel. And they didn't show up in the middle of the night. But if it was a dream it was a persistent one and the thumping continued, eventually forcing him to awaken fully. Even to open his eyes. Not that