Page 3141

The reapers for the various teams around the world had their own floor in the Tower of Night. Generally, they just stayed there, reading books or watching television while they waited for updates from their deployed servants. They had a rotating group of young servants and even non-servants to do the channel surfing and page turning for them.

Hector checked in with the scouting team in Callum first.

"Any updates on Abolish's movements?" he asked.

The lead reaper's name was Krigoth, partnered to Isaac Sebolt. It took him a moment to retrieve an answer for Hector. 'Everything's quiet. Why? Something wrong?' The entourage of visitors and urgency on their faces must have tipped the reaper off.

"We have it on good authority that they'll be launching an attack on Lorent soon," said Hector. "We'd like confirmation on that, if possible."

'I see,' said Krigoth gravely. 'Well, there's been no reported change. I'd like to say that we would have noticed any major troop movements, but if they're using Invisibility again, then I have to acknowledge the possibility that they could have slipped through Callum unnoticed.'

Hector was afraid of that possibility, too, but from what he understood, the Sandlords had come up with a few countermeasures to that tactic. And while Hector had been in his little coma, Hahl Saqqaf had been kind enough to share their tech with the Rainlords. Isaac's team shouldn't have been totally blind, but that was far from a guarantee.

They had to prepare for the worst, Hector knew.

Problem was, how to go about that? Lorent was huge. If Abolish slipped into the country, they could launch surprise attacks anywhere they pleased. It all depended on what their objective was. If they just wanted to terrorize the populace, that was one thing, but if they wanted another very public conquest like they'd done to Sair, then they might not care about stealth at all.