The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4 The Blessed Curse (46 page)

Zoelyn grinned and settled back against the
wall as the actors began their penance. She had never seen an
acting troupe before, and even if these were spirits, it was still
impressive to behold. She glanced up at Seth and leaned her head
against his arm as she returned her attention to the actors. He
tensed for a breath then settled back once more and she could feel
his eyes on her. A faint smile touched her lips as she kept her
gaze firmly on the play. She didn’t need to see the look on his
face. She knew it would be a faint smile to match her own.

Merro

“I can’t believe you released him from his
cell,” Neph grumbled as he dropped heavily into a corner chair and
watched Jala. She looked exhausted, and from the state of her armor
the trip hadn’t been nearly as easy as she had implied it would be.
Her bright shining chain mail was battered and torn and the leather
pieces of her armor still bore scorch marks.

Jala sighed and unbuckled her bracers,
dropping them onto the table with a loud clatter. “Valor is
devising punishment for him and I’m sure Noble will suffer from
it,” Jala replied quietly. She rubbed her wrists for a moment and
glanced over at him. “If it’s any consolation, Vaze agreed with you
and was voting we hang him.” She smiled faintly and shook her head
sadly. “Noble is a good man and I don’t think the thought of
treason ever crossed his mind. He has poor judgment, as he clearly
displayed with this incident, but he isn’t a traitor.”

“The Assassin spoke of killing your son and
rather than act on that, his mind was occupied with sex,” Neph
growled.

“That was arrogance, not compliance. If Noble
truly believed Legacy was in danger, he would have sacrificed his
own life to save my son,” Jala replied as she lowered herself
slowly to a chair across from him. “He thought he had her and could
have his cake and eat it too. We are all guilty of arrogance from
time to time, Neph.”

“You are too soft,” Neph grumbled shaking his
head at her.

“And you are too hard so we are both at
fault,” Jala countered with a faint smile. With a sigh she crossed
her arms on the table and laid her head down gently, still watching
him. “I hate dragons,” she murmured, her eyes half-closing.

“Nigel and Dresharn will be very displeased
to hear that,” Neph responded dryly.

“I hate their dragons. I love mine,” Jala
amended softly. “What did Jail say when you visited him?”

“I didn’t actually get a chance to speak with
Jail, but Dresharn said he would investigate the matter. It was a
wise choice sending Dresharn to assist in Sanctuary. He seems to
know a great deal about politics and subterfuge,” Neph replied
calmly. She looked ready to fall asleep at the table and he
wondered if he should leave her be. He hated the thought of her
being alone when she was obviously so weak, though. Even if Hemlock
wasn’t planning to move against her, there were plenty of others
that would, and the incident with the spy had proved clearly how
the security in Merro was lacking.

“He should know politics. He was Lady
Nerathane’s advisor for decades,” Jala said through a yawn.
Blinking several times, she sat up slowly and rubbed her face. “I
can’t remember the last time I was this tired,” she admitted with a
faint smile.

“As soon as Valor returns, I will leave you
to rest,” Neph assured her.

“As soon as I’ve rested, we move on Delvay,
so make sure you get sleep as well. Vaze said he gathered enough
information for an attack,” Jala informed him and glanced at the
door. “I know Valor has to be as tired as I am. He must really be
laying into Noble to be gone this long,” she sighed.

“Good. I hope he beats the little shit
senseless,” Neph grumbled.

“And I hope he finds a bit of understanding
and realizes at one point of his life he would have likely done the
same thing,” Jala countered with a smile.

“Finn, maybe, but not Valor,” Neph objected
with a frown. “Valor would have beaten the living shit out of
anyone that even suggested harming Legacy,” he added without a
trace of doubt in his voice. He had seen too much of Valor’s
loyalty and honor to believe anything else about the knight. In
Sanctuary, Valor had been Finn’s drunken shadow, but with Jala he
was a completely different man. He still had his faults, but they
did not even begin to compare with his strengths. Out of everyone
Neph knew, he couldn’t think of another person he would rather
leave to protect and care for Jala.

“You are probably right,” Jala agreed with a
nod. She turned her gaze toward him and Neph could see the sadness
written in her violet eyes.

“I’m sorry I mentioned Finn,” Neph said
softly and wished he had considered his words more carefully before
he spoke them.

“It’s not that,” Jala said with a shake of
her head. She sighed heavily and smiled sadly. “Tomorrow I am going
to do everything I can to give you back your home, and it’s moments
like this that make me wish I wasn’t going to,” she held up a hand
before he could interrupt and her smile faded a bit. “It’s selfish,
I know, but I want you here, Neph. Tomorrow you will have Delvay
back and I will lose you again, and I am ashamed to admit how much
I’m going to hate it. I treasure every moment we have to talk, and
even if we fight, I know you are just trying to protect me. I am
surrounded by people that love me, Neph, and I shouldn’t be so
selfish, considering what I have, but you are the only one that
will get in my face and tell me how stupid I’m behaving.”

“Once I have Delvay back, I can try to awaken
the heroes. I think Zoelyn might be the key to breaking the magic
on them. The moment they draw breath again, I will be back here,
Jala, have no doubt of that. Merro is my home now, but Delvay is a
responsibility that I have to face before I can find my place
here,” Neph replied and smiled ruefully. “I just have to come up
with a way to get Zoelyn to help me. She doesn’t like me much.”

“Try asking her for help, Neph. That is
usually the best approach on such things. You can ask her after we
take the city. She will be with us during the fight,” Jala
suggested with a look of amusement on her face.

“Why in the hell will she be there? I can’t
count the number of times I’ve heard her say violence begets
violence. I can’t imagine her suddenly having a change of heart and
wanting to fight.” Neph’s voice was filled with confusion as he
tried to digest this newest information. He hadn’t even known they
were going to attack Delvay tomorrow and it seemed as though Jala
had already decided who all they were taking. That in itself wasn’t
too surprising, but the fact that Zoelyn was going dumbfounded
him.

“She wants to help me, Neph, and she won’t be
fighting. Apparently Seth has helped her master a few of her
talents, but the one she shows the most competence with is healing.
She asked if she could come along in case any of us were injured,
and her confidence in herself is so fragile right now that I didn’t
dare deny her request. I plan to have her tucked well behind us and
out of harm’s way the entire time,” Jala explained and turned as
the door opened.

Valor let out a long breath as he entered the
room and nodded briefly to the two of them. “I’m not sure which I
am angrier about - Noble being a complete moron or being kept from
my bed longer to punish him. I am so tired right now I think I
could sleep in my armor.” He closed the door behind him and
unbuckled his sword belt tossing it carelessly to the floor beside
the bed.

“You might be able to sleep in your armor,
but you aren’t going to,” Jala informed him with a smirk. “I am not
cuddling steel tonight.” “And I wouldn’t ask you to,” Valor agreed
with a smile.

“And I’m not going to listen to any more of
this,” Neph declared as he rose from his chair and nodded to them.
“Goodnight to you both; may you get the rest you deserve.”

Valor paused in unbuckling his armor and
watched Neph with suspicion as he approached the door. “Are you
sure that is Neph? That sounded way too nice to be Neph,” he
muttered.

Neph paused before opening the door and
looked back at Valor. Sighing heavily he leaned against the wall
and rubbed his face. “Valor, I’m not sure exactly when it happened,
but I realized as I talked to Jala that I actually do respect you
and it’s possible that I even like you as much as I do Jala. That
isn’t something that is easy for me to admit and I hate the words
I’m spewing right now, so when I offer you the courtesy I usually
reserve only for Jala, don’t comment on it please. Just accept that
I consider you a friend and don’t make me regret it.” He pushed off
the wall once more and nodded curtly as he stepped out into the
hall.

Normally he would have responded with
profanity or rudeness, but he couldn’t find it in himself to do it
today. Tomorrow he would be back in Delvay, and he would lose them
both again. He swallowed heavily at the thought and wondered if
Jala realized how closely she had echoed his own thoughts on the
matter. He hid his sadness better than she did, but it was still
there, and there was no way he would part ways with his friends
without their knowing how he truly felt. The world was filled with
chaos right now, and he had no way of knowing if he would ever see
them again after they left Delvay. Things were too uncertain to
know if any of them would survive that long.

* * *

“Three Magebreakers, twenty archers that I
could count, and about two hundred swordsmen. At least ten of them
were full Elder Blood.

This won’t be an easy fight,” Vaze informed
them all from his seat at the table.

Jala nodded slowly, her gaze moving over the
map of Valemuir in front of her. Glancing up, she caught Neph’s eye
and motioned toward the map. “This map is confusing,” she informed
him as she slid it toward him.

Neph grinned and nodded at her. “That’s
because most of the city is actually inside the mountain. It’s
confusing because it is built on levels,” he informed her as he
pointed to the largest open area on the map. “This is the area
above ground. The main wall is here, as well as a few buildings
that are used for curing meat or brewing. The snow cats have dens
there as well, but I doubt the Rivasans have left any alive.” His
finger slid across the map to the first level of the city. “The
main housing is here as well as the barracks. The entrance to House
Delvay is along the Northern wall. Some of the other houses have
multiple layers as well, but House Delvay is the only building in
Valemuir that extends all six levels below ground.”

“So, in order to take the city we have to
gain control of the courtyard area somehow and move through layer
after layer of several different houses,” Valor said with a
frown.

“If the Delvay had wards against Shadow magic
that would be the only approach. I only found one part of the city
that was protected from my magic, however, and it was only a single
room in House Delvay,” Vaze said with a smile. “So my idea is to
start on the lowest level of House Delvay and work our way upward.
With that approach, we should keep the element of surprise on our
side for quite a while. With luck we might even manage to take a
few of the Pure bloods out of the picture before the real fighting
erupts.”

Jala nodded thoughtfully, her eyes once again
on the map. “Aside from House Delvay, which houses on this map
extend the deepest into the ground, Neph?”

“The storage rooms go four layers. The ones
on the east wall are food and the ones along the north wall are
weapons and crafting materials,” Neph replied, moving his hand from
area to area as he spoke. “Other than that, House Zengael is the
largest building. It goes four floors as well, but doesn’t cover as
much space as the storage areas or House Delvay.”

“Do you want to take more with us, Jala?”
Valor asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jala seemed to consider the question as she
looked from Vaze to Zoelyn and then to Neph. “Ten Elder Blood could
be a problem,” she murmured and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t
want to take Sovann or Wisp. I might have, had Wisp not told me
this morning she was pregnant, so that kind of puts a stop to that.
I don’t want to endanger their child,” she exhaled deeply and
drummed her fingers on the table, then looked over to Vaze. “Do you
know where Sovaesh is?” she asked thoughtfully.

“The last I heard from him, he was in Rivana
trying to track down another Changeling,” Vaze replied with a
shrug. “All right, then. That only leaves one option,” Jala sighed
and smiled at Valor.

“Who?” Valor asked in obvious confusion.

“Dresharn and Jail are needed in Sanctuary
and Nigel and the Three Sisters are guarding Glis’s borders. Wisp
and Sovann are out of the question and Shade is negotiating with
the Blights. Sovaesh is busy, so I really have limited choices when
it comes to Elder Bloods that can help us. I’m going to summon
Vosha and we will take Dray with us as well. That gives us seven
pure blood and two Bendazzi on our s ide. So, nine to their ten. I
think we can pull it off,” Jala explained with a shrug of her
slender shoulders.

“Vosha is only a boy and Dray has no
experience with fighting. Zoelyn is going as a healer and you
neglected to count the twenty archers and two hundred swordsmen in
your calculations of even,” Neph pointed out with a smirk. He shook
his head at her with amusement and couldn’t help but feel a bit of
pride that she had so much faith in her people.

“Vosha may be young, but he is a young dragon
and he was raised by Dresharn and the Three Sisters. I have no
doubt he knows how to fight,” Valor pointed out with a smile and
nodded to Jala. “Might I suggest we take Foster as well. He is
Elder Blood as well, and his Earth crafting could come in handy
underground.”