The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey (17 page)

“There are over eight thousand rooms in all
of the buildings combined. The entire grounds cover seventy acres,
and there are stables behind the school that hold two hundred
horses. A science building that literally holds five different
environments inside it. A blacksmith with fifty forges.” He smiled
at her. “I told you it was big. Next time I tell you something is
big, you should listen.” He gave her another grin.

Her eyes roved over the various paths and
arches and columns with dismay. “I’m never going to find my way
around this place,” she whispered.

“Meh…you’ll be fine.” He draped an arm across
her shoulder and pointed with the other hand toward the northern
most side of the school. “That is the common dorm, you won’t go
anywhere on that side of the school.” He motioned toward the
southern side. “That is mostly classrooms for the fifth through
third circles. You won’t have to bother with that either.” He gave
her a reassuring look. “See, close to half of the school you won’t
even need to go near, learning the rest will be easy.”

“If you say so,” she replied doubtfully.

“C’mon, with luck, my household is still
awake. I’d like you to meet them tonight, and then we can find you
a room.” He dropped his arm back down from her shoulder and began
walking again.

She gave a last look at the school and
followed quietly, trying to fight down her growing dread of the
Academy.
I should never have gotten into the coach. I should
have stayed at the Temple,
she whispered to herself quietly so
he wouldn’t hear.

“I’m glad you didn’t,” he whispered back so
quietly that she barely caught the words.

They made their way past the main building in
silence, and she tried desperately to memorize the winding path he
led her on between the buildings. By the time they finally came to
a stop in front of one of them, she was completely lost, despite
her best efforts. They had passed courtyards and statues and
fountains beyond counting, and they had begun to blur in her memory
after the first few. All she could think of now was getting the
sandals off her feet and sitting down for a very long while. She
wasn’t sure what time it was, but the day seemed longer than any
other she could remember
. Had she really just left the Temple
this morning? How was that possible?
She gave a slight yawn,
and realized dimly he was watching her.

“I should have used a portal stone to get us
here. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. You look dead on your feet,” he
said with a look of concern. “I thought you might want to see some
of the city. I didn’t consider how tired you must be.” He produced
another key from his pocket and began quickly to unlock the dark
wooden door in front of him.

“It’s OK. I enjoyed seeing the city. It’s
just all catching up with me now and it has been a very long day.”
She said in a sleepy voice and almost yawned mid-sentence. She
watched him push the door open and motion her through. As she
passed by him, she noticed a large pair of twining snakes carved
into the door. They were forming a circle and seemed to be wrapped
around each other head to tail. “What’s that stand for?” she asked,
indicating the carving.

He glanced at the snakes before closing and
relocking the door. “That’s my house sigil,” he answered without
pause and began moving quietly down the hall.

She walked beside him barely noticing her
surroundings as they went. They passed perhaps five doors before he
turned to one and quietly pushed it open. Dim lighting poured out
into the hall; Christian peered inside silently and smiled.
“Ahh…good, you are still awake.” He motioned her to follow and
stepped into the room.

The room held the appearance of a parlor.
Fine plush rugs covered the stone floor. A massive fireplace
covered most of one wall though no fire burned there now. On one
side of the room, there was a large leather couch where a young man
sat with a small stack of books laid around him in a haphazard
pile. He looked younger than Christian, perhaps even younger than
Jala. His sandy brown hair was long and tied back in a ponytail.
She couldn’t tell his actual height with him sitting, but he seemed
slight. From the simple dark clothes he wore, she didn’t think him
a High Lord’s child but wasn’t sure. He didn’t seem quite right for
the part, though. He was too ordinary. She wasn’t sure if that was
the right word, but her mind was too tired to search for another.
He was smiling up at her widely though he didn’t show any signs of
being about to speak. She gave him a quick smile back and went back
to looking around hoping she wasn’t being too rude. His smile was a
bit unsettling though.

On the other side of the room, was a small
card table where two people sat, a man and a woman, both so alike
they must be twins. They had dark hair, black from what she could
tell but in a different light it might be dark brown. They were
watching Christian as he approached, but she saw them give
occasional glances to her, as well. Both of them wore black
leather. The woman’s was tight fitting, and from what Jala could
tell, was designed more for appearance than any sort of armor. Once
again, she couldn’t gauge actual height, but it wasn’t hard to tell
that both would be bigger than she was, if they stood. The man’s
form was slightly bigger than his sister but not by much. They were
easily the most intimidating people she had ever seen.

Christian dropped lightly into a chair across
from them and shared a few quiet words, then seemed to notice she
hadn’t followed him to the table. She glanced toward the couch and
found the young man seated there still staring at her with the same
smile. She gave him another quick smile and looked back to
Christian. He gave her a reassuring look and waved her over.

She crossed the room quickly, to stand beside
his chair. Perhaps too quickly, by the way the twins smiled. Their
eyes were gold she noted. She had never seen anyone with gold eyes
before. They were both attractive, as well. The man had a more
dangerous look than Christian, but was still eye-pleasing, and the
woman was still feminine and beautiful, despite her heavily toned
muscles. They were studying her just as closely as she was them,
she noticed with slight amusement. She saw the man give an
approving nod of his head to Christian as she gave in and pulled
out a chair to sit.

“This is Alex; he prefers to be called Lex.”
Christian motioned toward the man. “And this is Aleah. She prefers
to be called Leah. Don’t ask me why they hate the letter A so much.
I’ve never been able to solve that particular mystery.” He motioned
toward the woman and gave them both a grin that they readily
returned. “Lex, Leah, this is Jala. She will be staying here with
us.”

“You got a new kitten,” Leah said with
obvious amusement. “Did you hear that, Madren, you aren’t the
kitten anymore?” she called to the boy on the couch.

“He will always be a kitten,” Lex interjected
quietly. “A mentally deficient. Should have been a drowned kitten,”
he added with a faint smirk.

“And that is Madren,” Christian said, turning
in his chair slightly to indicate the boy. “Lex and Leah are my
swords. Madren is kind of a Historian for me. I say ‘kind of’
because it’s more of a general knowledge position. I just don’t
have a better title for it at the moment. Pretty much he is a font
of knowledge.”

She nodded her understanding, and he turned
his attention back to the twins. “Did Oma already retire for the
night?” Christian asked.

“Of course, it’s barely night anymore and
dawn isn’t more than an hour or two off, Shade,” Leah replied
through a yawn of her own.

“You were supposed to be back hours ago,” Lex
pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

“Leave him be, Lex. He was obviously busy
picking out a new kitten,” Leah chuckled.

“Don’t tease her, Leah. I doubt she is used
to teasing. Give her time to get to know you before you torment
her.” Christian’s tone was not angry, but it held no room for
objection either.

Leah gave a nod. “You got it, Shade. No
teasing the girl, only Madren,” she agreed readily.

Christian rolled his eyes and looked past Lex
to a sword resting against the wall behind him. Jala had noticed it
as well but had chosen to ignore it. They were intimidating enough
without weapons. “Is that the new one, Lex?” He asked with obvious
curiosity.

Lex reached behind him and pulled the sword
over and casually set it before Christian on the table. “Finished
it last night,” he said.

Jala stared at it in wonder. She couldn’t see
how anyone could possibly fight with it. It looked to be at least
her height in length, and the blade must have been eight inches
wide near the hilt.

“You sure you actually know what a sword is,
Lex? This looks more like a lance. Are you planning on using a
horse when you fight with this beast?” Christian asked, without
actually touching the sword.

As if to prove a point, Lex calmly reached
over and picked the sword up by the hilt and held it straight above
him without any obvious effort. He raised an eyebrow at Christian
after a minute and then propped it back up against the wall behind
him.

“Ok, point proven. You are tough, and I am a
bitch. I bow before thee.” Christian gave a light chuckle and
mocking bow as he spoke. Lex returned the grin and then slid him a
bottle, still without a word.

Christian eyed the bottle doubtfully and
looked up to Leah. “His newest batch?” he asked.

“Indeed. You are going to love this one,”
Leah replied, trying hard to suppress a smile but failed
miserably.

“What flavor is it?” Christian asked, his
tone still doubtful.

“Try it and guess,” Lex urged as he pushed a
glass over.

Christian looked at the bottle and then to
Jala who was watching the exchange with tired curiosity. “I’d offer
you some, but you really don’t want it, I’m guessing. Lex here,
decided he is going to learn to make wine. Despite how often I try
to convince him to stop, he keeps trying to learn,” he explained
and then with obvious hesitation poured a glass. “It’s green, Lex,”
he pointed out, the doubt thicker in his voice.

“Just try it, Shade,” Lex urged again.

Christian slowly picked up the glass and
swirled it a moment watching the wine carefully before taking a
sip. He held it in his mouth for a moment, his expression going
from doubtful to what looked almost pained and then swallowed with
obvious effort. He looked at the wine and then to Lex with a
wounded expression. “Why?” he asked. Leah finally lost the fight
with the smile and burst into merry laughter. Despite herself, Jala
found herself laughing, as well.

Lex gave him a frown. “Could you tell what I
used to make it?”

Christian smacked his lips together a couple
of times, the wounded look still clear on his face. “I’m not really
sure, Lex. Pickles?” he answered with a shrug.

Lex’s expression darkened, and both Jala and
Leah laughed harder. “It was melon and apples,” Lex growled.

“What by the Aspects did you do to those
apples before attempting to ferment them?” Christian demanded.

“I thought it was better than the last
batch,” Lex grumbled.

“It was, but the last batch tasted faintly of
dead fish, Lex. It doesn’t take much to improve on that,” Christian
replied with a shrug. “You are missing your calling, my friend.
Quit trying to make actual wine. Take the recipes you have now and
sell them to the Justicars. They will get confessions from
prisoners in record time without the mess of standard torture, and
you will make a tidy profit,” Christian suggested. Leah burst into
renewed laughter.

Jala fought down her own laughter and looked
at Lex with sympathy. “Have you tried Jimpa fruit?” she asked. “It
has a very sweet flavor and I’ve heard it makes good wine, though
I’ve never tried it.”

Lex looked at her and frowned. “What is a
Jimpa? I’ve never heard of that before.” He looked to Christian for
the answer but found Christian staring at Jala with a thoughtful
expression.

The answer came instead from the couch behind
them. “A Jimpa is a fruit from a tree that grows wild in Merro
only. There were a few attempts to cultivate it into an orchard
fruit, but it required so much magic that the endeavor was deemed
unworthy of the effort. No one was ever able to understand why it
would only grow in Merro, or why it couldn’t be transplanted
successfully,” Madren called to them in a happy voice.

Jala was watching Madren over her shoulder
and purposefully keeping her face turned away from Christian. She’d
had no idea Jimpa only grew in Merro. She had never seen any near
Bliss but hadn’t thought anything of it. She slowly turned back
around in her chair and glanced at Christian. He raised an eyebrow
briefly but didn’t say anything.

“Well there goes that, I suppose. Nothing
left in Merro. Thanks for the suggestion though.” Lex gave a sigh
and spun the bottle of wine lazily.

She nodded quietly and decided to remain
silent for the rest of the conversation.

“I probably need to show Jala to a room. She
has had a long day.” Christian started to push his chair back, but
Leah motioned him to wait.

She slid an envelope across to him. “This
came for you earlier. Figured I’d wait till you were about to leave
the room before I gave it to you, in the event it was bad news,”
she explained with a smile.

Christian settled back into the chair and
gave her a dry expression. “Gee, thanks, Leah.” He examined the
seal quickly and tore it open. He read over it quickly and gave a
sigh. “From my father. I have to meet with him in the morning. That
changes my plans a bit.” He glanced over at Jala and then folded
the letter and slid it into his pocket. He turned in his seat and
looked toward the couch. “Madren!” he called and waited for the boy
to look up from his book before continuing. “Jala needs help on
basic knowledge of the Houses and Bloodlines. I want you to go over
them with her tomorrow, all right?”