The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 2 Blood Honor and Dreams (39 page)

She nodded slowly, remembering her trial and
the look of contempt Kellis had given her, and the smile he had
offered Lord Morcaillo. She swallowed heavily and looked back
toward the inner city. “What about Finn and Valor and the others?”
she asked. It was possible that Wisp was already in this district.
She had been helping Sovann most nights. She knew Finn and Valor
were still at the Arena in the area reserved for blades. As of Jail
she couldn’t even guess where he might be.

What about Emily
? Marrow asked her,
his concern clear in his voice and through their link.

Emily should be safe enough. The Justicars
don’t know about her yet. It’s the ones they can see we have to
worry about, and Kellis hates Finn
, Jala replied.

“I contacted them and warned them. I hope
they will take me seriously. At the very least Finn will show up
here if for nothing more than to retrieve you. I told him we would
wait at Sovann’s. I’m not sure the Academy is safe right now,” Neph
replied and nodded in the direction of Sovann’s warehouse.

She gave another quick glance toward the
inner city and moved to follow Neph. “Let luck bring them safely to
us Fortune,” she whispered.

Neph gave a slight nod in agreement. Of all
of her friends he was the only one that showed any signs of
religion. “Let Fortune watch over us as well. There is nothing
saying Kellis won’t send men in here after you. He has once before,
after all,” Neph muttered and quickened his pace, glancing back to
make sure she was keeping up.

“I didn’t fight last time. I would this time
around,” Jala told him and the words brought the earlier thought
back to her mind.
This is your calling, to fight, to kill
.
It had seemed like her thought at the time, but now she wasn’t so
sure, the idea of killing had never been appealing to her. Though
if it wasn’t her thought, she wasn’t sure where it would have come
from. Now wasn’t the time to worry over such things, though. The
Barrier and the safety of her friends was more than enough to be
concerned over.

* * *

The sound of low voices from the inner rooms
greeted them as Neph quietly pushed open the door to the warehouse.
It had changed drastically since the last time Jala had been here
and she looked around the entry hall in amazement. The dingy wooden
walls had been freshly painted a crisp white and the air smelled
clean and pleasant. She followed Neph as he made his way into the
main room, her eyes roving curiously over the new additions as they
walked. It was evident Wisp had a hand in the improvements as
curtains now covered the windows and occasional paintings dotted
the once bare walls.

The voices died abruptly as she stepped into
the room and she looked up sharply to find her friends staring at
her in dismay. Wisp’s eyes were nearly the size of saucers as she
crossed the room quickly to Jala’s side.

“What happened?” The little Fae demanded as
she tugged the charred remains of Jala’s dress back into a more
modest covering. Jala glanced down at herself and gave a snort of
amusement wondering how many people had seen the charred remains of
Lady Merrodin stumbling through the streets. That was likely to be
interesting gossip tomorrow.

“Her shields dropped during our duel,” Neph
explained and seemed intent on explaining further but Sovann cut
him off sharply.

“You set my sister-in-law on fire?” Sovann
demanded, rising from the chair he had been lounging in.

“Are you OK, Jala?” Joseph asked from the far
corner of the room.

Jala nodded slightly and smiled warmly at
him. She hadn’t had a chance to see much of him since she had saved
him from Finn at the Pits, but from what Sovann said, he was doing
well here. One of these days she would have a chance to sit and
talk with him, she promised herself. Though by the pile of ledgers
stacked on the table before him it was clear that he was just as
busy as she was. Isador sat at the table as well, with a paper held
loosely in her hand. The Fionaveir’s full attention was focused on
her right now, though, with an expression of concern.

“It was a spell duel, Sovann, but never mind
that right now we have bigger troubles,” Neph replied sounding
irritated at being interrupted.

“I think setting Jala on fire is a rather big
issue,” Sovann pressed. He had crossed the room now and was closely
examining her alongside Wisp.

“Really, I’m fine,” Jala assured them as she
tried to back away from the combined prodding.

“Finn is going to see it as a rather big
issue,” Wisp said to Neph, the look of disapproval written clearly
on her normally smiling face.

“It was not intentional, but we have bigger
issues,” Neph continued still trying to inform them of the
Barrier.

“I can’t believe you were so careless Neph,”
Sovann cut in again and Neph responded with a growl. Grabbing
Sovann roughly Neph drug him to the window and tore the curtain
down. Sovann struggled briefly against the bigger mage’s grip but
subsided as Neph grabbed him under the chin and forced him to look
up at the crimson sky.

Wisp ceased her prodding examination as
Sovann stared blankly out the window, his body limp in Neph’s
grasp. “What is it?” Wisp asked as she released Jala and made her
way to the window.

“Our bigger problem,” Neph said, pointing up
to the clouds.

Jala watched Isador and Joseph cross the room
as well and waited patiently for the realization to settle on her
friends. Joseph simply seemed confused as she had been, but the
other three were as pale as milk.

“How did they get majority?” Isador
whispered. She above all, had reason to be terrified. If the
Justicars found her in the city they would kill her without
question, simply for the tattoos she bore, and now she had no hope
of escape.

“I have no idea,” Neph admitted and moved
back to stand by Jala. With a slight frown he looked her over and
motioned toward the back room. “It might spare me a fight with your
husband if you would consider changing clothes,” he suggested
quietly.

Jala nodded her agreement and smiled at
Sovann. “I’m going to borrow your bath again Sovann,” she informed
him and crossed the room wondering if she would be able to hear the
conversation despite the walls. She didn’t really want to miss this
discussion, but Neph was right, she did need to change before Finn
arrived.

“What are we going to do?” Wisp asked, her
voice faint with shock.

“Stay here for now, I don’t know if the
school is safe,” Neph answered, his voice strong and steady. He had
apparently recovered quickly from his own shock.

“Agreed. I don’t think any of us should be in
the inner city until we know more about what is going on,” Sovann
said.

She closed the door to the bathroom and
looked down at Marrow who was pacing along the wall. The Bendazzi
kept turning his direction toward the inner city as if he could
sense the Blight from this distance.

“I’m sure she will be OK,” Jala offered,
though she had been worried about the child herself all day.

I do not care for the feeling of being
trapped. Adjusting to the city was hard enough when it wasn’t a
cage for all of us
, The Bendazzi’s voice was a low growl in her
mind and agitation coursed through their link.

“I can’t say that I care much for the thought
either,” she admitted, pausing in front of a mirror to look at
herself. The skin on her right side was bright pink on her shoulder
and face. Turning her head from side to side she examined the
extent of the damage to her hair and sighed, the mulberry curls
were singed badly and much shorter on the right side. She frowned
at the reflection, she knew she could fix the skin with a simple
healing but she wasn’t sure about the hair. Pulling lightly on the
magic she repaired the discoloring to her skin and turned toward
the bath tub. If it was only her hair damaged perhaps Finn wouldn’t
be too upset. Slipping into the hot water she leaned back and
closed her eyes trying to ignore the agitated Bendazzi as well as
the other concerns gnawing at her mind. She focused on her link
with Finn and found anger and concern. At least she knew he was
alive.

Are you well? Is the duel over
? she
asked him hoping the mental link wouldn’t distract him if the fight
wasn’t over.

There was no fight. It was a trap. The
Justicars were waiting at the Arena, though Valor and I both
managed to evade their attention. I’m not sure what grounds they
were planning to arrest me on but I’m sure I’ll find out soon
enough
, Finn answered.

Are you safe now
? she asked him, her
eyes fluttering open. She sat up in the tub awaiting his answer and
silently calculated how quickly she could get to him if he wasn’t.
With a long sigh she realized she didn’t even know what part of the
city he was in. She rubbed a hand across her face and chewed on her
lower lip.

For now, Valor is getting the horses while
I gather things from the hall. We will be on our way to you
shortly
, Finn answered seeming a bit distracted.

Don’t worry about our things, Finn. We can
get new things
, she replied her concern growing. If the
Justicars realized he wasn’t going to show at the Arena, the hall
would be the next place they looked. Every minute he wasted there
was another minute they had to catch him.

I’ll be there soon, Vezradesh
, he
assured her and she felt the link between them drop.

With a silent curse she let herself sink back
into the water and closed her eyes once more. “If you have ever
loved me at all Fortune, bring him safely to me,” she
whispered.

Sanctuary

Emily watched silently as the red clouds
enveloped the city. She didn’t know what it meant, but the sight of
them was not a reassuring one. They were the color of fresh blood
in places and the deeper red of drying blood in others. Neither was
a sign of good fortune she decided.

Movement ahead of her drew her attention back
to her quarry. She had noticed the Blight on the way to classes
this morning, and had left Jala with Finn and Marrow to pursue it.
She didn’t like the thought of them hunting at the Academy. That
was simply too close to her own dwelling for comfort. There was no
way she could allow this one to claim this territory. It would
bring others and then keeping Jala safe would be impossible. The
only thing to do was kill it before others showed up.

Finding a place to kill it was proving
difficult. She had been following it for most of the day and, so
far, opportunity hadn’t presented itself. There were simply too
many witnesses on the Academy grounds. Every time she had drawn
close enough there had been someone walking down a path, or sitting
in a garden, and now even more people were filing out of the
buildings to stare up at the sky. She fought back the urge to snarl
her frustration and continued tracking the creature. There had to
be some place she could ambush it.

She had been within range several times and
she knew it sensed her as well as she sensed it. Paranoia rose in
her briefly as she considered that thought. It was possible the
Blight was leading her into a trap. Did it know she was defective?
She hesitated in her steps and the creature gained distance on her.
With a silent snarl she quickened her pace and continued the
stalk.

Though she hated to admit it she really
didn’t like hunting without Marrow anymore. The Bendazzi’s silent
presence beside her was reassuring, and she tried not to focus on
how much she missed him right now. It was better that he was with
Jala, though. Perhaps they knew why the clouds were bleeding. She
had more faith in Marrow keeping Jala safe than any of her human
companions. The nightly hunts with Marrow had proved to her time
and again how formidable the Bendazzi truly was.

Commotion near the stables drew her attention
and she turned to see Valor riding hard out of the stable leading
both Finn and Jala’s horses behind him. The young knight’s handsome
face was drawn with worry and his long silver hair was in disarray.
She had never seen Valor looking so out of sorts. The knight was
usually quite impeccable in his appearance. Her steps slowed as she
watched him race the horses down the path toward the Merrodin hall.
She looked up at the swirling red clouds once more and then back in
the direction Valor had disappeared. The urge to follow him was
almost as strong as her desire to track the Blight and she slowed
further as the decision warred in her mind. He had seemed frantic
and the way he rode suggested an emergency. Perhaps Jala needed
her.

Letting out a silent sigh she continued after
the Blight. Valor was competent. Whatever the problem was, he and
the others could handle it. This was something that needed to be
done that only she could do. The Blight’s path had veered away from
the crowded gardens toward the thick woods of the Academy grounds.
She felt her adrenaline beginning to build. There was no doubt in
her mind that she could find an ambush point amidst the towering
oaks.

Winning the fight might be the difficulty.
Always before she had been with Marrow. This would be her first
fight alone. She had an advantage, though,. She knew how to fight
her kin and kill them quickly. It was a talent she had honed over
the past few weeks with careful diligence. She had grown as well,
and was far stronger than she had been when she and Marrow had
first started hunting the creatures. Jala was right in her
assumption that the meat hadn’t gone to waste. Her instincts were
simply too honed to allow her to ignore meat from a kill. She
increased her pace, shortening the distance between her and her
quarry. The Blight had gained substantial ground as she had watched
Valor. Within moments she had the gap reduced to twenty paces and
then fifteen. Crimson light dappled the forest floor as she crossed
silently beneath the trees. The world itself seemed to be holding
its breath. Even the night birds had gone silent and she wondered
how they knew what was coming. Normal animals couldn’t sense a
Blight and neither she nor her prey had made any noise since
entering the woods.