Warlords Rising Read Free Page A

Bec,
it’s not going to be an easy stop and go project. You’re talking months, here.
Maybe a full year in one place.”
    A year. In each part of this country? She could only manage
about twenty square miles at a time. It would take a lifetime to do all of
Khobunter. And what about Libendorf? It was just as bad. Possibly worse,
judging from Krys’s descriptions of it.
    “You might be jumping to things too quickly,” Nolan advised.
“For one, you don’t even have permission from any of the warlords here to
tamper with their territory.”
    Becca felt like slapping herself. Yes, of course, what was
she thinking? This place wasn’t her responsibility. Why she had thought for
even a moment that it was baffled her. Actually, why had she felt that way?
    Trev’nor gave a loud groan. “Oh man, I’m glad it’s not our
job. Can you imagine? Having to go to every warlord and getting permission to
work in his territory? There’s what, eight of them?”
    “Five,” Nolan corrected. “Five that govern specific
sections. There’s no unifying government or leader, though, like there is in
Empire of Sol. It’s just those five contending with each other.”
    “Five is not much better. Just getting permission from one person is usually a fight as they have this garbled understanding of what magic
can do. And for some reason they always have this idea in mind of what you need
to do.” Standing, he put his pack back on, adjusting the straps. “Never mind
how feasible that is. Sorry, Bec, but this class project I’ll pass on.”
    She snorted. “Don’t blame you. Well, we didn’t really come up
here to fix the desert anyway. We came to find who’s been tampering with my
weather patterns.”
    “Yes, we did,” Nolan agreed, relieved. “So? You detect
anything yet?”
    “He or she is quiet at the moment. I don’t have anything to
go off of specifically. But I think they’re further north than here.” Past
experiences said so, at least. “For now, let’s walk.”
    “Just curious,” Nolan had a funny expression on as he asked,
as if he were ready to start laughing, “but so far you haven’t mentioned a
thing about Tail. I mean, we left our meurittas behind on purpose because we
didn’t know how they’d fare on this trip. But what about Tail?”
    The question was perfectly reasonable as her Jaunten
cat/familiar was intelligent enough to get out of the way when he needed to. He
was as smart as any person, in some ways smarter. “He’s at an age where it
takes constant pain reducing potions to keep him moving,” Becca responded, all
logic. “And he gets tired quickly.”
    “Uh-huh.” Trev’nor didn’t buy this. “You know that he would
have argued with you about coming, don’t you.”
    Becca grimaced. “You two are so lucky with your familiars,
you have no idea. A Jaunten familiar knows when you’re doing things
without permission. They’re the worst tattle-tales on the planet.”
    Trev’nor laughed. “I bet. So do you have a plan on how to
soothe his ruffled fur when we get back home?”
    “No, I do not,” Becca retorted primly. “But I’m open to
suggestions.”

They walked. And walked. Distance was very hard to judge in
the desert. Things that looked close were actually quite far. The only person
not fooled by this optical illusion was Trev’nor, of course, who could feel
quite well the distance in the ground.
    Rurick was not quite what Trev’nor expected. No one really
chose to travel into Khobunter by choice, as it was well known to be chaotic
even in the best of times, so he had never heard a first person description of
the place. They just had maps and rumors to go off of. Still, for a
militaristic country he would have expected stouter walls, more fortifications,
something more fort-like. The walls were stout enough, but not very high, and
there was a light guard on the main gate they walked through. It was also very
strange being here as they were obviously the only foreigners passing