Rise of the Citadel (The Search for the Brights Book 2) by Aaron Thomas

prepared for an attack. You at least learned one thing
from me.”
    Kilen made a
small chuckle at his statement, the others looked at him quizzingly.
    “Jace made a
comment, it is nothing pertaining to this conversation.” They still looked at
him, so he continued to talk. “Okay, so how can we prepare for what is inside?”
    Joahna, always a
leader, spoke without waiting for input from Max. “I will test the fog a little
more tomorrow while you practice the sword and magic with Max. When you are
ready, we will carefully make our way into the forest until we stumble upon
their camp, or they confront us.”
    Max nodded his
agreement, and Jace spoke in unison inside Kilen’s mind.
    Jace agrees and
so do I. Now, how by the brights sword, are we supposed to convince them to
join King Atmos in battle?”
    Joahna reached
up and scratched his chin as if it helped, “That is a hard question. I think
there are too many roads of diplomacy they could go down. I am not even sure
the king’s former advisor, the great Calvin Parker, could convince them.
    Jace spoke for a
while directly to Kilen and ended with “Tell them what I said .”
    Kilen repeated
the words Jace spoke as best he could, “Jace says the he was trained in
diplomacy and has spoken to a couple traveling Elder Wizards in the past. He
has spoken to kings, queens, nobles, and the like. Over time he has negotiated
treaties, merchant exchanges, and troops for war. He says if we can get inside,
he will be in the best place he could be to arrange the agreement. Jace will
tell me what to say and how to say it.”
    Max stood, “Wow,
thats a much better plan than I had. I was going to say go in swinging, but
that will work also.” Joahna and Kilen both looked at him and shook their
heads. “What? If you’re going to die, you might as well go down in a blaze of
glory. After all, it's how I died the first time.”
    They all laughed
at the remembrance of Max’s death, ironically thinking of it as his first.
     
     
     
    **********
     
     
     
      From the trees
above the small camp, Alexander watched as Kilen and two elementals talked
amongst themselves. He found no one else close enough to summon elementals and
keep them this close to Kilen. This meant the elementals were most likely
Kilen’s. Which was a ridiculous thought because Kilen was talking to them like
they were people. Not to mention all three were moving differently at the same
time. The effort of holding an elemental would take its toll on any human body
but here he sat, just outside the grounds of the Elder Wizards chatting, with
his elementals. If the boy could control two elementals at once, he would
exhaust himself way before he was able to attempt entrance into the Elder
Wizards presence.
      He watched as
each moved independently, in awe of the the control the boy had. How each one
spoke in a different voice and looked differently as well. The amount of
control it would have taken for each would probably rip a person's
consciousness in two if held for any amount of time, yet here he sat.
    The
conversations were not exactly deep, but each statement made perfect sense and
not a word was slurred or misspoken. Alexander noticed the two elementals had a
Fire Realm accent, which was peculiar even to a crazy wind wizard. Alexander
couldn’t hear all of what was being spoken, but what he could hear was about
the Elder Wizards, diplomacy, and Jace, rest his soul. When he felt as if he
had heard enough he dropped from his perched position from high in the trees.
He landed beside the fire without so much as a sound. The three stood almost in
unison, but the earth elemental was the only one to draw a sword. Kilen and the
elementals all stopped when they saw it was Alexander.
    The wind wizard
squatted to warm his hands by the fire.
     
     
     
    **********
     
     
     
    Kilen knew he
had been found out. His secret of being able to summon two elementals was
ruined by Alexander’s presence. Alexander rubbed his