Gathering of the Titans: The Tol Chronicles Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

not asking.”
    “Wha…what time would like to leave, Sir Knight?” the clerk stammered.
    “ Now works for me.”
    “Please have a seat. I’ll arrange it. Departure will be in about fifteen minutes.”
    “See how easy that was?”
    Even with a private express carriage benefiting from Crimson right-of-way, it still took the rest of the day to get to Fenurian. The carriage terminal had been destroyed by an aftershock; there were a couple of military tents serving as the station for the time being. A driver and two officials met Tol there. Koxo Nilred of the Royal Engineering Corps and Dosk Belbomit of the Royal Society for Cultural Antiquities sat in the back of the government diplomatic pram with Tol to brief him on the situation.
    “Apparently,” explained Koxo after introductions had been completed, “One of the magically-induced quakes opened a chasm along a major fault running parallel to the Masron Mountains near the northern end. A child had fallen into the chasm and, while not seriously injured, required a technical rescue team to extricate. The team had glimpsed what appeared to be evidence of non-natural structures further along in the chasm and notified the RSCA, who dispatched Bosk, here, to investigate. The next day a trio of titans suddenly appeared and claimed the area inside the chasm as their own, on the grounds that it was an ancient titan city that contained a burial site and was therefore subject to the Ancestors Graveyard edict.” He motioned for the other passenger to continue.
    “The RSCA does not look favorably on this petition, for obvious reasons: the area contains a potential treasure house of antiquities and must be explored and catalogued with that in mind. Preliminary reports are that it consists of multiple large underground complexes, each filled with who knows what manner of historically valuable artifacts.”
    Nilred finished up. “The titan position does not appear flexible and more of them arrive every day. This has the potential to turn ugly, so we asked the king for help. He sent these sealed instructions for you.”
    Tol broke the Royal Seal and opened the single sheet. It read:
    Greetings, Sir Tol-u-ol, from His Majesty Aspet I.
    You are hereby assigned to a high-priority diplomatic mission, the essential details of which should have been revealed to you by now. I want the titans handled with utmost respect and diplomacy, but bearing in mind the almost inestimable historical value of this newly-discovered site at the same time. Find a compromise acceptable to all, and don’t get yourself or others hurt in the process. I do not trust anyone else with this mission, which is why I yanked you in off leave. Selpla will get over it.
    Any supplies or personnel you need for this mission will be handled by Crimson Logistics. You have an unlimited writ, but please spend with discretion. The writ is unlimited; the treasury is not.
    Thank you for your service, Knight Protector. You have my respect and affection, always.
    Aspet I, King of Tragacanth
    Tol folded the missive and tucked it into his overjack pocket. There was something else in there. It was a pocket he hadn’t used in a while; he wondered what it could be. He felt around and realized it was a pen. Not just any pen, though: it was Eyejay. He chuckled. “I thought you were sent back to the Quartermaster’s Office when I got promoted.” There was a pause as the long-dormant audio systems came back online. “No such good fortune,” was the somewhat shaky reply. Tol smiled. This assignment just got a little more interesting.
    Titans were semi-mythical to most of Tragacanth. Everyone knew about them, but very few had actually laid eyes on one, despite their enormous size. Titans grew anywhere from three and a half to five meters in height, yet they were offshoots of the same ancestral prototypical species on which all the other races of N’plork were based. For whatever reason, they began to grow larger and larger, leaving