Read Online The Dread: The Fallen Kings Cycle: Book Two by Gail Z. Martin - Free Book Online Page B

the shouting started. I threw up a minor warding at first, just to protect the onlookers and keep anyone else from joining what I thought was a brawl. As soon as one of the onlookers told me that nothing had happened to spark a fight, I guessed what had happened and cast a stronger warding.”
    Soterius looked at her with horror. “What’s to keep whoever sent this from turning us all on each other? Orfrom casting something like this randomly, to keep the camp in chaos? Sweet Chenne, do you know what it could mean if something like this happened in the middle of a battle?”
    Fallon nodded soberly. “Yes. I can imagine, and it would be bad. That’s why while I was here containing this outbreak, the rest of the mages went to strengthen the camp wardings against this particular type of attack.”
    “Will it hold?” Senne had joined them. Apparently, he had not gone far from the tent before the brawl.
    Fallon paused. “I believe so.”
    “But you’re not certain.”
    “Unfortunately, magic isn’t always predictable,” Tris said in a dry voice. “I think what Sister Fallon is saying is that to the extent we can anticipate what kind of magic caused this, she and the mages have taken precautions to keep it from happening again. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that the sender couldn’t come up with a variation of the spell and try again.”
    “Yes and no, m’lord,” Fallon said. “Yes, it’s possible for the sender to tweak the spell and try again, but now that we’ve included this in the larger camp warding, whoever did this would have to change the power signature to get another shot. We’ve made the wardings as broad as possible, trying to anticipate just this sort of thing.” She grimaced. “Obviously our imagination wasn’t as good as we thought it was.”
    “Does your magic tell you anything about who did this?” Soterius looked from Tris to Fallon.
    “It took a powerful mage to cast a sending this far. And no, before you ask, I can’t tell where the spell originated, but I think it was quite a distance away,” Fallon said.
    “Anything else?”
    Tris paused, searching for words to convey what his magic told him. “Like the ghost ships that attacked the privateers and fishermen, I don’t think this was meant as the opening salvo of the war. Whoever is out there means to test us. They’re probing our defenses, and I’m betting they were pretty sure we could shut down something like this. The question would be: How long would it take us and how far would it spread before we could stop it?” He nodded toward Fallon. “Thanks to our mages, the damage was limited.”
    “Surely they know that Margolan has powerful mages, and a summoner for a king?” Senne’s eyes were hard, and Tris knew that the general would not forgive those who had squandered the lives of his soldiers.
    “Maybe not,” Fallon replied. “Temnotta has been isolated, by its own choice, for a hundred years. In all that time, have we ever caught a Temnottan spy?”
    Tris thought for a moment, and then shook his head. “Not that I’ve ever heard tell.”
    “If they’ve been so isolated that they haven’t even sent spies, their knowledge of anything would be badly out of date. That could mean that their information is from long before the Mage War over a generation ago. If they haven’t engaged any of the Winter Kingdoms in that time, perhaps they’re assuming their own mages are invincible.”
    “That’s a bold assumption,” Soterius murmured.
    Fallon shrugged. “Arrogance usually sows the seeds to its own fall.”
    Tris frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. If they know so little about us, why are they attacking? How did they decide to launch a war if they haven’t even been gathering intelligence?”
    Soterius stood hands on hips, eyes surveying the still-warded scene of the fight. “Just because we never caught a spy doesn’t mean spies weren’t sent. And even if they didn’t send spies for many years, they