Feudlings In Smoke (Fate On Fire Short Story)

Read Feudlings In Smoke (Fate On Fire Short Story) for Free Online

Book: Read Feudlings In Smoke (Fate On Fire Short Story) for Free Online
Authors: Wendy Knight
been sent to recently should have had a large number of Carules waiting for her. So he had been running through phone records and e-mails ever since.
    The phone records and e-mails of his own colonists.
    Dani paled, her eyes widening. “What? Why? That's horrible!”
    “I know. But she says the Carules are expecting her when she goes to these battles. And since the only one who knows where she's going is me…”
    Dani went to the kitchen, flipping on the stove as she dug through his cupboards, hopefully looking for pancake ingredients. Will had forgotten to eat, and pancakes sounded mighty good. “You aren't the only one who knows where she's going, Will. Her grandfather knows, too.”
    Will froze, mid-typing. “Richard?”
    “Not him, of course. He wouldn't want his precious weapon outnumbered. But someone with him could be jealous of her or afraid of her or just tired of the war. We should check them out.”
    Franklin.
    His mother's husband. Will had never met him, but if what Ari said was true, the man was the worst kind of slime ball. And he hated Ari. Ari had told him stories… Vivian wouldn’t stand up to him because of her fear of Richard. And when Ari didn’t behave, both men took it out on Vivian. Rumors said his mother was super powerful, but she wouldn’t use that power because she was afraid, then, that Richard would hurt Ari. It was a vicious, vicious cycle.
    Thinking of Vivian convinced him. It was time to put in a call to his own Edren spy.
    “I'm going for a walk. Hopefully the fresh air will clear this fog trying to smother my brain.” He stood up and wandered out the door, grabbing his phone off the coffee table as he went. Dani gave him a distracted wave from the kitchen.
    Once outside, Will scrolled through his contact list 'til he got to the M's. He hit send and waited three rings.
    “Will? Is everything okay?”
    “Hi Mom. I'm not sure. Can you talk right now?”
    He heard rustling in the background, and then the sound of a door clicking shut. “Yes. I can now.” Vivian had the barest hint of an accent. She'd grown up in the U.K., but as far as Will knew, she hadn't been back since she was young.
    “Mom, when Ari gets sent out to a battle, who knows?” He wandered aimlessly down the dusty road, waving as friends passed him. He headed toward an empty cul-de-sac so he couldn't easily be overheard.
    “I do, usually. Richard does, always.”
    “What about Franklin?” Will asked.
    She paused before answering. “Yes, Franklin knows. He usually accompanies her. What is this about, Will?”
    “Ari thinks there's a spy in the colony. I don't believe that's possible.”
    He heard Vivian's sharp intake of breath. “Why, exactly, does she think there's a spy?”
    Will quickly told her everything Ari had told him, and the information from his maps. “The Carules know she's coming, Mom. Someone is telling them.”
    He could hear her breathing on the other end, so he knew she was there, but she didn't speak for several long moments. “I don't think it's Franklin.”
    His mother wasn't strong like Ari. She didn't fight, although it was rumored that she had once been powerful. She hid the fact that she knew Will was alive from everyone, including her father, although that might have been to protect him more than to protect herself. She stayed at the family estate to protect Ari, because Ari wouldn't leave until she could free Will.
    So actually, maybe she was stronger than them all.
    “I'll look into it, Will, and see what I can find out. In the meantime, I would look at who in your colony has a direct line of communication with the Carules Council.”
    Will knew these people as well as he knew his own sister. They were all powerful, which is why their respective sides believed they had to die, but none of them had anyone high up enough that they could speak to the Council and live to tell about it.
    Except Dani.
    Will's eyes unwillingly strayed up to his house, where Dani, the woman he loved,

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