Storms (Sharani Series Book 2) by Kevin L. Nielsen Page A

forward, not waiting for Khari, and pushed the broken door to one side with care. Khari took a deep draught from the leathery-tasting water, feeling strength surge through her almost immediately. It was an odd feeling, like the one time she’d had a bucket of cold spring water poured over her head. Still, as the initial shock wore off, she felt an immediate return of all her faculties.
    After stoppering the waterskin, Khari followed Gavin into the cell.
    “There’s not much here,” Gavin said.
    Khari nodded, taking in the room. The leather bonds had been cut. They lay in the sand where Kaiden had rested. Nothing else had been disturbed. Even the lantern still hung on its peg on the wall.
    “So it was the Londik, then?” Gavin said.
    Khari frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. There’s nowhere for them to go. They must know I can find them anywhere within the warren here.”
    “Have you . . .” Gavin started, but Khari was already nodding.
    “Yes, yes, I reached out to see if I could sense Kaiden, but he’s beyond my senses. Granted, I was limited, but I would guess he’s no longer in the warren. But the questions remain.”
    “Who did it and why?”
    “And where are they now,” Khari added. “I’m sure we’ve traitors among us within Evrouin’s people. I don’t trust them. No one trusts them.”
    “So what do we do?”
    Khari looked over at him. “What do you think we should do?”
    “We’re already stretched thin just trying to bring in supplies to feed this group. We don’t have the resources to send out more search parties to try and find Kaiden. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
    Khari nodded, waiting for Gavin to continue.
    “We also can’t just leave him. He was the cause of so much death, so much destruction. But if we accuse the Frierd as a clan of aiding him, or any of the clans for that matter, it will just cause even more tension between them. They’re already at each other’s throats. We can’t get any of them to agree on anything.”
    “So what do we do?” Khari asked again.
    “I think we need to discuss it at the Gathering tonight. Spread the word please, Khari. I would like everyone there. We’ll burn a shufari for our fallen brother. But I’ll need your help.”
    Khari frowned as she listened to Gavin’s plan. It was bold, but it just might work. If , that is, Gavin could pull it off. Looking into his eyes then, watching how he worked, Khari was surprised to discover she thought he just might.

Chapter 6
Chance
    “The first Iteration on the Schema is that which begins with the first and simplest evolution of metal. Colloquially, the Rahuli call this Iteration the ‘magnetelorium,’ though this scholar has always expressed a particular dislike for the names given to the first tier Iterations.”
    —From Commentary on the Schema, Volume I
     
    Cobb leaned back against the wall of the greatroom, cursing the twinge in his bad leg. The idiot boy, Gavin, stood in the center of the room in front of a massive bonfire in which they had burned a shufari for Meseck. The entirety of the Rahuli people were either spread out on the sands in front of him or else seated on the various levels along the walkways up the walls. The boy had gotten himself into trouble twice recently without having Cobb there to help him. Now he’d gone and called this Gathering without telling him anything about it.
    Fool.
    “People of the Sharani Desert,” Gavin said, raising his hands to still the soft hum of conversation. The crowd quieted.
    Cobb grunted. The boy had an interesting place with the people. Many of them lauded him a savior because he rallied them against Taren and those that had followed him. Others still only saw the outcast. Yet Gavin acted as if he led them even when he didn’t. At least this time the boy was wearing his greatsword.
    “Who leads you?”
    The question caught the crowd off guard. The silence, if anything, deepened.
    “Your Warlords are dead,