The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 3 From the Ashes (14 page)

“He had a few mishaps on the trip here that
he is likely to suffer for,” Foster began then shrugged. “Minor
things really. Pissed on Connely during the ship ride. I really
think he meant to aim it over the rail though. Ate most of Noble’s
card markers on the ride south from Brannaford. They do look a bit
like candy squares though. You know like the hard candy they sell
in the Amdany sweet shop. Honestly, I’m surprised Nob didn’t die
from that. They were glass markers. Ahh. And then there was the
incident with using Tessa’s undergarments as a pillow because they
smelled nice.”

“When were you going to inform me of this?”
Bridgette asked in a voice that held no anger, simply
resignation.

“Shortly after we found his cold bloated
corpse,” Foster replied with another smile.

“Five hundred and sixteen silver for guessing
the time. How sweet is that?” Noble chimed happily as he moved to
join them and leaned against Foster’s horse.

“How much is your cut?” Bridgette asked
Foster quietly.

“What makes you think I have a cut of that?”
Foster exclaimed softly sounding rather indignant.

“I saw you prod Savy and whisper
now’s
your chance
,” Bridgette explained dryly, looking between the
two of them with a glare of parental impatience.

“Oh well, in that case, thirty percent,”
Foster answered with a shrug, his former indignation forgotten.

“Well considering your good fortune today I
don’t suppose the two of you would mind sorting through our people
and finding any that know how to build. It would seem that I will
need to requisition supplies from Lord Nephondelvayon and I am not
at all sure what I need,” Bridgette said in a tone that brooked no
argument.

“Wood and nails and a lot of them would be my
guess.” Noble offered as he tossed the coin purse from hand to
hand.

Foster snickered lightly and bowed his head
to Bridgette. “We will see what we can find out,” he assured her
with a smile.

Emily watched the two of them ride off and
slowly backed away from the assembled knights. She would return
later to watch them. For now she wanted to know what her companions
thought of the new arrivals. A smile grew on her lips as she moved
quickly back to town. Merro had been getting rather dull recently.
It was good that new entertainment had arrived.

Sanctuary

Shade watched with mixed feelings as the
spell hawk put down in the center of the Sanctuary Sky port.
Symphony was on board that ship and so far he hadn’t managed to
convince Charm that spying on her was wrong. Leaning back on his
ship, he lit a cigarette and contemplated what her reaction would
be if he simply told her what they expected him to do. Most people
would be indignant or angry over such a confession, but he wasn’t
sure about Symphony. He had only spoken with her on a few occasions
and she had seemed very serene. Not at all the sort to lose her
temper easily.

“You look as though you are in deep
contemplation,” Vaze said from just behind him.

“For the love of Fortune, you too? It’s bad
enough having Charm always sneaking up on me. I must be the most
oblivious person in the world,” Shade sighed as he stood straight
once more and looked over his shoulder toward the warrior.

Vaze grinned and shrugged slightly. “If it
makes you feel better, I stepped through the shadows so there was
no way you could have heard me approach,” Vaze offered as he moved
forward into the sunlight, his eyes fixed on the ship as the side
door was opened.

“That actually does make me feel better.
Charm just randomly pops up everywhere and I know he isn’t using
magic to do it,” Shade agreed, relaxing back against his ship once
more. “I don’t want to spy on her, Vaze. I know what it feels like
to be watched constantly. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I spent
close to twenty years of my life with every action I took being
watched and judged.”

“Symphony has lived like that for longer. She
is used to it and it really is in her best interest if you approach
it in that fashion,” Vaze replied his gaze returning to Shade.

“What do you mean if I approach it in that
fashion?” Shade asked.

“If you are there to watch out for her,
rather than to watch her it is in her best interest. If you keep
your ears open for approaching threats rather than for what she is
saying in private, it is guarding, not spying,” Vaze explained.

“Is that what you do? I’m guessing you are
typically the one spying on her with all of your shadow tricks,”
Shade said, his words coming out harsher than he had intended. The
entire assignment had his nerves on edge and it was showing more
clearly than he would have liked. In all honesty, he would have
been more comfortable had Lutheron sent him straight into the heart
of the Glis conflict alone and unarmed. At least, he wouldn’t have
a guilty conscience over it.

Vaze shook his head slowly. “I have guarded
her once or twice but I’m not usually in the Fionahold. I travel
often. My shadow tricks, as you call them, are more useful bent to
other tasks.” If Vaze was offended, he didn’t show any sign of it.
His words came out open and friendly with no trace of aggression to
them.

They both fell silent as Symphony emerged
from the Spell hawk and looked around the city. Even from this
distance Shade could recognize the expression of distress on her
beautiful face as her eyes found the damage to the city. Despite
the Fionaveir’s best efforts of cleaning up the city, it was
difficult to cover all trace of such destruction in a matter of a
week’s time.

“Someone is going to have a lot of explaining
to do,” Vaze murmured with a slight shake of his head. He ran a
hand through his dark grey hair and smiled faintly at Shade. “Glad
it isn’t going to be me,” he added.

“Lutheron, then?” Shade asked, as he watched
Lutheron and Faramir approach to greet Symphony. A small crowd of
people had formed around the Spell hawk now, and from the looks of
things the future Empress would be busy for a while.

“Or you, or Charm. Won’t be me, though, I’ll
be gone,” Vaze replied with a shrug.

“I thought you had to kill the Blights
first?” Shade objected, turning his attention to Vaze who was
already stretching as if he was about to leave.

“Already did. There were only seven of them
that I found in the city and they were a rather pathetic bunch
compared to the ones in Glis,” Vaze answered, sounding a bit
bored.

“What?” Shade demanded incredulously. “When?
How?” he added quickly, determined that if Vaze was going to answer
his first question he would answer the others as well.

“Who, where?” Vaze said with a faint chuckle.
“Last night and with magic. It’s done.”

“Why aren’t you in Glis mopping them up then?
If it’s so easy for you to kill Blights why not rid the world of
them?” Shade asked, the anger in his voice surprising even him. It
didn’t seem right however that two countries were at the brink of
utter destruction from the Blights and this man killed them
easily.

“These were underground where the shadows are
thickest, and I did say they were a pathetic bunch compared to the
ones in Glis. Which implies that I have, in fact, been in Glis and
Arovan fighting them. You have quite the temper on you, Morcaillo,”
Vaze explained, with a shake of his head.

“I go by Shade now, not Morcaillo,” Shade
reminded him.

“As you wish. Are you still going to distract
Lutheron for me as we discussed before?” Vaze asked.

“I don’t really think you need me to,
considering how busy it looks over there, but yes I will keep
Symphony with me and try to get her interested in the hawks,” Shade
agreed, letting his temper cool once more. He couldn’t really
understand why he had grown so angry so quickly. It wasn’t as
though Vaze alone could save Glis and Arovan, anyway. That was a
job that required more than one person.

“I need to go soon. Jala is rapidly
approaching something that she will need my help for. If I don’t
get there soon one of them will likely die if not both of them,”
Vaze pressed.

“There isn’t much I can do about it now,
Vaze, she is swarmed with people,” Shade protested and looked back
toward Vaze once more. “How is it exactly that you know the
Darklands well enough to find Jala anyway?” he asked, though he
didn’t really expect an answer.

“Eight years ago a small cult of mages rose
in Nerathane. They were practicing Death magic and necromancy and a
few of them decided to seek the ultimate power for their kind.
Lutheron sent me into the Darklands after them to make sure they
didn’t find what they were seeking,” Vaze answered.

“Damn! Not a task I would have wanted. I take
it you got them all,” Shade said with a nod of respect. He had
never actually met a Death mage himself, but there had been enough
material about them in the Academy’s library that he hoped he never
did.

“All but one. I think the demons got that one
though. I searched through the shadows for weeks for the bastard
but came up with nothing,” Vaze said and nodded toward Symphony
once more. “Once she clears that crowd, buddy up to her.”

“Why isn’t the current distraction enough?
Why do I have to be there?” Shade asked in confusion.

“Because I placed a few charms on you before
I let you know I was here, and I need you close to her so my charms
will affect Symphony as well as Lutheron. Faramir, too, hopefully,
I don’t want her having any clue as to what I’m doing,” Vaze
explained.

“Why me, exactly? Why not place your charms
directly on them?” Shade objected, turning fully to face Vaze.

“Because you agreed to help, which means
naturally that you agreed to accept my magic. They, however would
object to this entire endeavor, which means my magic would be much
more difficult to place on them. You really are making this more
difficult than it should be, Shade. I thought you wanted to help
Jala,” Vaze complained, the irritation finally seeping into his
voice.

“I do want to help Jala. I’m just not sure I
want to help you. I feel like there is something integral that I
should know that you are not telling me,” Shade replied with a
heavy sigh.

“Like what?” Vaze asked, the irritation
thicker in his voice.

“Like why you want to help her?” Shade
offered. “Like why Lutheron would object if you have already dealt
with the task that he gave you,” he added his voice growing a bit
louder.

“I want to help her because she is my blood
kin and I owe her that much. I don’t want Lutheron to know because
he sees her as a pawn that is no longer useful and has written her
off. He would see me going after her as a waste of a valuable
resource he could use elsewhere. Like in Glis and Arovan killing
Blights for example as you apparently believe I should be doing,”
Vaze snapped his own voice rising a bit.

“Damn, that is cold,” Shade said with a shake
of his head and looked back toward Lutheron. “Is that really how he
sees her?” he asked in a quieter voice. The more he learned of
Lutheron, the more he disliked the man. The Fionaveir were supposed
to be the good guys from what he had heard, but it certainly wasn’t
looking that way to him.

“That is how they all see her right now,
Shade. The moment this moved to war instead of a council vote, Jala
lost her value to everyone but a handful of people,” Vaze
explained.

“You don’t even know her, though,” Shade
pointed out. He had spoken with Jala of her family before and she
had never once mentioned Vaze. If she knew she had living family,
she would have told him about it, regardless if the man was
Fionaveir.

“Correction, she doesn’t know me. I know her
quite well. I probably know the true Jala better than you. I was
there the day Lutheron had the Mind magic worked on her so she
would behave properly. That magic is gone now and as you can see by
the fact that she is in the Darklands, she is no longer behaving
properly. She broke the magic herself. I told Lutheron to have it
removed when she came to Sanctuary but he refused. Serves him right
that she is using her own mind rather than obeying him,” Vaze said
with what sounded like pride in his voice.

“You think her going to the Darklands was a
good idea then?” Shade asked in disbelief. That had been the last
thing he had been thinking when he heard where she had gone.
Insanity had been the first thing that had come to mind.

“If she truly believes she can accomplish her
task, then yes,” Vaze replied, his gaze once more on the crowd
around Symphony as if he was waiting for the slightest chance to
shove Shade toward her.

“But you don’t think she can…” Shade pointed
out, letting his words trail off.

“I never said that. I said she needed help or
one of them would likely die, if not both. Likely, Shade, that
means there is a possibility not a certainty. Jala has a rough road
ahead. She can’t afford to lose any friends even a lush like Valor
Hai’dia. I sincerely doubt I will have time or opportunity to help
her in the future. I have to offer her what I can now and try to
insure that she keeps what assets she has,” Vaze explained and
nodded once again toward Symphony. “Go now. She is heading toward
the hall. If nothing else, ask her about her flight. Just stick by
her. Lutheron won’t object to your presence, given the task he
assigned you.”

“Good luck,” Shade said with a sigh as he
pushed off the ship once more and began to make his way toward
Symphony. There was no reply behind him and when he glanced back
Vaze was already gone. Shade shook his head and tried to sort
through the feelings stirring through his chest. Disappointment,
trepidation, and more anxiety than he cared to admit. The
disappointment was easy enough to understand. He could have
redeemed himself fully in his own eyes by helping Jala and wiped
his failure in Rivana from his mind completely. The trepidation and
anxiety were no doubt revolving completely around Symphony and his
task of spying. He had a fragile friendship with her as far as he
knew. How long would that friendship last, though, if she found out
he was watching her and reporting back to Lutheron?