The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey (20 page)

“Avanti merchants have nothing on me,” Graves
replied with a smile that promised it would be a lengthy
negotiation.

Shade woke slowly and gave a long sigh. Faint
morning light filtered through his heavily covered windows. He sat
up slowly and stretched. With a faint groan, he walked over to the
window and pulled back the curtain to look up at the sky. Morning
was just dawning, and it looked as though it was going to be a
beautiful, clear day. With a nod of satisfaction that he hadn’t
overslept, he headed for the bathroom and showered quickly.

He left his rooms a short time later, dressed
in a perfectly tailored suit in his house colors of blue and
silver. The rest of the hall was quiet as he crossed to the small
dining room. That didn’t mean anything, though. The others were
usually quiet, so there was no way to tell if they were sleeping
without checking their rooms. Leah and Lex looked up from their
breakfast as he entered the room and he gave them a smile. “Do you
two ever sleep?” he asked quietly as he took a seat at the
table.

“About as often as you,” Lex replied.

“Poor bastards,” Shade returned with a smirk.
He examined both of their plates and decided on an apple from the
small basket in the center of the table instead.

Leah gave a light chuckle and poured him a
cup of coffee. “So, where did you find the kitten?” she asked with
a raised eyebrow.

Shade took a bite from his apple and chewed
slowly as he watched her. “Well good morning to you, too, Leah. Why
yes, I did sleep good. You?” he asked, once he had swallowed.

“Yes, I slept great. Now where did you find
the kitten?” She pressed as relentless as she ever was.

He gave a sigh. It was never easy to get Leah
off a topic. “My ship had a malfunction on the way back and I had
to do emergency repairs in Brannaford. She was stranded there, so I
gave her a ride. We talked for a while and here we are.”

“A malfunction on your ship?” Lex asked in
disbelief.

“A tree limb through the wing malfunction,”
Shade explained in disgust. They both watched him with expectant
expressions. He knew better than to try to avoid the conversation.
“My parents were fighting again. Mother dragged me into it. Father
forbade me from entering the Sky race. In short, my mood was utter
shit when I left Morcath. I was drinking before I even left the
house and drank even more once I was in the ship. At some point, I
ended up spilling brandy all over myself and dropped my flask. When
I tried to grab it, I clipped the top of a tree.” He took a sip
from his coffee and shrugged. “I shouldn’t have been flying so low
or drinking while flying for that matter. I’m not even sure why I
was. It was an idiot mistake I don’t plan to repeat. But it all
worked out in the end.”

“And now your father is summoning you.” Leah
let the statement hang in the air. Both of the twins bore serious
expressions.

“The taxes were short. He will want me to
explain. He wasn’t actually mad at me yesterday. He was fighting
with my mother. She can be rather difficult to deal with at times.
My father is a good man and he is looking out for my best interest.
I wasn’t drinking yesterday because of him,” Shade reassured them
both. I was drinking because of her, he added silently. Better not
to get into that with the twins, though. There was so much that he
would rather not explain about his family.

The door pushed open and Oma entered
silently. She was a tiny, frail thing, barely over five feet with
silver blond hair that was pulled back in a braid. She wore a
simple lavender dress which made her skin seem ghostly rather than
pale. She regarded him with eyes that were such a pale blue they
seemed almost colorless, and gave him a faint smile.

“Good morning, Oma,” he said with a returned
smile. “I’ve brought another to live with us. I’d like you to meet
her once she is up if you don’t mind.” She gave him a nod of
agreement and silently took a seat beside him.

“Which brings me to another point,” Leah
began. She waited until Shade was looking at her again before she
continued. “You didn’t warn her at all about Madren, did you?” she
asked.

“I thought I would be here for their first
lesson, so I didn’t bother with warning her before we got here. And
it seemed rather rude with Madren sitting in the room,” he
explained with a frown.

Oma gave him her own silent look of
disapproval which was somehow worse than any scolding Leah could
give.

“You didn’t warn me, either, and I had to
break his nose,” Leah pointed out.

“She didn’t look like the type to break a
nose,” Lex added.

“I’ll talk with her after the lesson,” Shade
promised.

Leah gave a snort of amusement. “By then, I
doubt she will need a warning,” she said.

Oma was sipping quietly on coffee and
watching them, and then slowly turned to look back toward the door.
She looked back to Shade and motioned in that direction.

Shade glanced that way and then back at her.
“She’s up?” he asked. Oma answered with another nod, and he stood
and crossed to the door. He leaned out to find Jala looking up and
down the hall as if unsure if she should try a door or not. “We are
down here,” he called and gave her a smile when she turned to face
him. She returned the smile and moved toward him. She wore a blue
gown today with the same silver coat she had worn the previous day.
He decided his house colors suited her quite well. He wondered
briefly if she had dressed that way intentionally or by chance.
“Good morning,” he said once she was closer. “Did you sleep
well?”

She gave a slight chuckle. “I don’t think
I’ve ever slept that well,” she admitted.

He stepped back to allow her to enter the
room, and she smiled to Lex and Leah. “Good morning,” she greeted
the both of them and paused at Oma. “You must be Oma. My name is
Jala. It’s nice to meet you.” She gave a slight bow of the head
which caused Oma to smile.

Oma gave her a small nod and looked
meaningfully at Shade. It was clear she had something to say, but
it would have to wait. He knew she wouldn’t speak in front of the
others. She never did. He raised an eyebrow and gave a half shrug
and smiled, hoping she understood and that the conversation could
wait. “Go ahead and have a seat.” Shade indicated a chair and
looked to Leah, trying to ignore the fact that Oma was still
staring at him.

Leah rolled her eyes and stood. “Sure, I’ll
play maid. You want breakfast too, Oma?” Oma gave a slight nod, her
attention still focused on Shade as Leah headed off toward the
small kitchen in the back of the dining room.

Jala had been examining the room during the
exchange but looked up quickly at Leah’s departure. “I could have
gotten my own food,” she objected, her expression a bit concerned.
“She didn’t have to play maid for me.”

“You are a guest. She actually works for me.
It won’t kill her to fetch food despite how she grumbles,” Shade
reassured her. “I have to leave very soon to meet my father, and
Lex will be heading to the Arena to prepare for the Ring of Swords.
But you will have Leah and Oma here, as well as Madren,” he
explained, as Leah returned with two plates of food and dropped
them heavily in front of Jala and Oma. Jala’s eyes widened a bit,
but Oma ignored the gesture and began to eat.

“Thank you, Leah,” Jala said meekly. She
examined the food for a quick moment and began to eat, as well.

“Good morning, all,” Madren called cheerfully
from the door. Shade suppressed an inward groan. He and his
household were well used to Madren by now. He was incredibly
intelligent, and possibly the smartest person Shade knew. It was
every other area that Madren failed in. He didn’t have the usual
social filter most people had that kept them from blundering.
Socially, blunder was the only word one could use to describe
him.

Madren sat down at the table oblivious to the
twins and Shade watching him and gave Jala a smile that covered
half his face. “Good morning to you especially,” he fairly
purred.

Jala looked up at him and blinked before
hesitantly speaking. “Uhh…good morning…Madren.”

Madren’s smile widened, and Shade briefly
pondered how that was even possible. “I got you a present to
commemorate our first study day together,” Madren chirped happily
and set a brightly wrapped box in front of Jala before she could
voice an objection.

The twins and Oma turned to stare at Shade,
and he gave them a helpless shrug. What was he supposed to do now,
grab the gift before she could open it? He gave a sigh. “One does
not usually give gifts for such things, Madren,” Shade said
quietly.

“I know, but I wanted our beginning to be
remembered always,” Madren replied, nudging the box closer to Jala
while urging her on with nods.

“Our beginning?” Jala asked in confusion and
slowly picked up the box, glancing at Shade as she did so.

With obvious hesitation, she unwrapped it and
opened the box. Her jaw dropped. Shade leaned closer to get a look
inside the box and had to suppress the urge to slap himself in the
face at Madren’s brilliant blunder. Jala looked from the diamond
necklace inside to Shade and then to Madren. “I, uhh, I think this
is a bit much, but…umm…very generous, Madren.” She tried to slide
the box back to him, but Madren kept pushing it back to her.

“It’s almost as beautiful as you are.” Madren
fairly sighed the words.

Leah cleared her throat and stomped hard on
Shade’s foot. He let out a short surprised grunt and cleared his
own throat before speaking. “Madren, do you remember all of those
talks we have had about appropriate behavior?” he asked.

Madren gave him a slow nod but remained
silent. His hands began to fidget slightly and his lower lip
trembled.

Shade sighed. “Madren this is not
appropriate. For a study day, an appropriate gift would have been a
cup of coffee or maybe some tea. If you were exceptionally nice, a
Danish,” he paused, forcing Madren to meet his eyes. “Do you see
the difference, Madren? Appropriate coffee and Danish.
Inappropriate hugely expensive diamond necklace. Notice how
different those are?” His voice was a bit harsher than it probably
needed to be, but his patience was gone. How, by all the Aspects,
could this have seemed like a good idea to the idiot? He wondered
if Madren was even worth the effort at times. But in truth, without
him, Madren really had nothing else. If Shade didn’t give him a
place, no one else would.

With a muffled sob Madren stood abruptly and
fled the room. Both the twins snorted in amusement and Lex lightly
applauded. “I really think you are making progress with him,” Lex
said with obvious sarcasm.

Jala was shifting her gaze between the
necklace and the door and then looked to Shade. “Did I miss
something?”

Leah gave a nod and smiled at Shade. “Why
don’t you explain, Shade?” she said in an overly sweet voice.

Shade gave a healthy sigh and stood. “Walk me
to the door and I’ll explain, Jala.” She stood wordlessly and
followed him out the door. Once well out of earshot of the others
he began. “Madren is the last of his house; he was a bastard of the
line and was in school when the house was killed off. He has been
in this school for close to twenty years. He has nowhere else to go
as far as he can see. When I got here three years ago, it was a
traditional pastime for students to torment him. He is horrible
with people and he is lonely.” Jala was watching Shade and nodding
slowly. He gave her a shrug and continued. “I took him in and kept
the others off him for the most part, but he can be difficult to
deal with. As I said, he is lonely and his self-esteem isn’t the
best, so he tries to buy affection. He is highly intelligent. His
memory is perfect as far as books go. Socially, however, he is a
disaster. He did the same to Leah when she came here. She thinks
her breaking his nose stopped him, but that wasn’t it.” Shade
rubbed his face and gave her a faint smile and shrug.

“What did it?” Jala asked with obvious
hope.

“Something that won’t work with you, I’m
afraid,” he replied. He wasn’t really sure if he wanted to admit to
what he was about to say, but it seemed best to explain it fully.
“I had a talk with him shortly after she broke his nose. I assumed
if I didn’t do something drastic she would hurt him a lot
worse.”

“Drastic?” Jala asked.

“I told him she was actually a man. I told
him I had hired the twins as swords but in order for them to
protect me well, one of them had to pretend to be a woman. In case
a woman ever attacked me, because it wouldn’t be right for a man to
hit a woman. So he thinks Aleah is really a man named Lee, and if
Leah ever hears that story she will kneecap me.” He emphasized the
last point. He really wasn’t sure she would stop with a
kneecapping.

Jala repressed a snort of laughter. “And he
believed it?” she asked in disbelief.

“Fully and completely, and I’m going to trust
you to keep that between the two of us. Now before I go, a quick
explanation about Oma. I believe I promised you one last night. Oma
is an Empath, In fact, a very strong Empath. She is a half-blood,
and I’m not really sure of what Bloodline. Her mother was a
courtesan and died in birth. She felt her mother’s agony and death
as she took her first breath in this world. It has left her a bit
scarred, and for the most part, she avoids people. When I found
her, she was living on the streets, and she wouldn’t speak to me
for months. I kept at it and eventually persuaded her to come here.
She is the only one in my wing that does not actually attend the
school. She stays in these rooms and, for the most part, avoids
people aside from those few of us that live here. She will likely
never say a word to you, but please do not take offense, she
doesn’t do it to be rude,” he explained quickly, and then opened
the door. “Now, as much as I’d rather not, I have to go or I’ll be
late. Good luck with your studies and if Madren gives you more
trouble let me know when I return.”