“We should bring her to our side or kill her. A siphon that can kill with a touch isn’t something I want to have against me,” Niaha murmured and Hemlock briefly considered pushing her off the roof. One little nudge and the Bendazzi below would take care of one of his problems.
“Niaha, go mix yourself in among the traders. Spend the day there and find the knight this evening. Get what information you can from him or anyone else that you deem as useful. Do not kill, maim, or destroy unless you get word from me,” Hemlock ordered quietly. His mind was churning with a thousand different things and he didn’t need her sitting behind him whispering for death. Things weren’t right here and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but if people started dying he never would. Jala wasn’t stupid. If her friends died, she would find who killed them. “Anything else?” he asked Ander as Niaha left the roof.
“More political crap that we already know,” Ander replied with a shrug then a brief flash of uncertainty crossed his face.
“What?” Hemlock demanded softly. There was movement below him and it was more than just the child playing with the Bendazzi. His gaze focused on the newest arrival and he frowned. Neph. He had been wondering where the mage was hiding. Rumors in Sanctuary had reported him to be in Merro, but this was the first glimpse Hemlock had of him.
“Well, I’m not sure if it’s important, but the girl seemed to grow excited when she spotted a crow. Maybe a Shifter from Glis?” Ander replied with obvious hesitation.
Hemlock froze in place and slowly turned to look at Ander. He was young and only a half-blood so it was doubtful that anyone had ever told him of history. By his look of confusion and his hesitation it was clear that he had no idea how useful that information was. Ander was usually confident in everything, and it almost made Hemlock smile to see him so uncertain now. It simply proved that his underlings were still terrified of him. It was nice to know the young half-blood was frightened at the thought of wasting his time. The news was hardly a waste of his time, though. If Seth was involved here, things were a lot more dangerous than he had first thought. “Perhaps,” Hemlock murmured. He had no intention of letting Ander know what he had discovered. Let the boy believe it was something as petty as a mere Shifter.
The quiet conversation below had died down and Hemlock sighed silently. He hadn’t managed to catch a word of what Neph said. His mind had been too preoccupied with the thought of Seth lurking somewhere nearby. There were few things that concerned him in this world, but Seth was one of them. The demon had too many reasons to want him dead, and he had no intention of giving him the opportunity to try to kill him.
“Let me get Sovann and we will meet you at Jala’s,” Wisp’s voice called loudly below him and Hemlock turned his attention back to the present.
“Can you soulride her, Ander?” Hemlock asked softly as he watched the Fae disappear back into the house with Legacy. “Easily,” Ander replied with his typical confidence.
“Do so. I want to know what is so important that Neph himself came to speak with Wisp rather than using magic to summon her,”
Hemlock whispered. He glanced around the area once more, carefully scanning the tree tops. “I will meet you in town at the bar by the front gates later tonight. You can report to me there.”
“As you say.” Ander bowed his head respectfully as he spoke. Leaning back farther into the shadows by the chimney, the half-blood relaxed. A faint trail of fog rose from his mouth as his eyes closed. With luck, Wisp wasn’t familiar enough with the Soulreaver talents to detect him, and from the information they had gathered earlier, Ash was still north in the Greenwild. Hemlock doubted Jala would think to inspect her friends with all of the distractions she had, but if she did Ander was expendable.
* * *
“Jala, please calm down and sit so we can talk about this.” Jail’s voice rose above the rest and Zoelyn could hear the tension in his voice. It wasn’t often that Jail visited from Sanctuary, but every time he had before, he had seemed calm and in control. Today he looked exhausted and almost desperate.
“She is too frantic right now to listen. I think she must have had a full jug of stupid with breakfast this morning,” Neph snarled as Jala moved past him once more.
Zoelyn moved farther back into a corner and watched as the High Lady snatched a piece of armor from the table and began buckling it on her wrist. Valor leaned against the wall behind her, already armored in his plate mail, with a guarded look on his face. If he had any objections to the discussion, he had apparently already voiced them.
“How can we do anything to help them, Jala?” Wisp asked as she quickly stepped out of Jala’s way. The Fae was watching everyone in the room with open curiosity on her face and didn’t seem nearly as alarmed as Jail and Neph.
“Only Valor and I are going. I am not taking soldiers with me,” Jala explained in a distracted voice. Her attention was focus ed on the armor buckles rather than her agitated friends.
“Fucking brilliant. You and Valor against eight dragons and a thousand or so Soulreavers. You are quite the tactician, Jala,” Neph growled. The Delvay took two steps to his right and intentionally stopped directly in front of Jala as she moved to gather another piece of armor. “No,” he said levelly as she looked up at him with annoyance.
Zoelyn raised an eyebrow and glanced at the others in the room. Every last one of them had a look of apprehension aside from Wisp who seemed interested and Neph who looked furious.
“What about Legacy? Last time you left the city without him the Nightblades attacked. Surely you don’t plan to take him with you?” Jail spoke up once more with a look of hope on his face.
“I am making other arrangements,” Jala said carefully. Jala turned to look back at Zoelyn and smiled faintly. “For my son as well as Zoey. No one in the city will have to worry about keeping them safe.”
“What kind of arrangements?” Wisp pressed in a concerned voice. The Fae followed Jala’s gaze and her bright green eyes settled on Zoelyn with an intensity that made her skin crawl.
Frowning, Zoelyn shifted away from her stare and looked back to Jala. Wisp had never looked at her like that before and she didn’t like it at all. It wasn’t a friendly gaze; it was predatory. It didn’t look as though Jala noticed. Once again, the High Lady was focused on her armor.
“The kind that involves me.” The soft voice rose from the shadows and Zoelyn’s breath caught at the sound of it. Seth usually appeared as a Raven first, and she hadn’t even known he was in the room. He moved forward, stepping closer to Jala, and pushed her hand away from the armor buckle. With a smirk on his handsome face he quickly fastened it and patted her gently on the cheek. “I will be guarding them both while Jala is gone,” Seth added as he gazed around the room daring anyone to object.
“A Demon? This is your solution? You are going to risk your life as well as Valor’s to help a nation that isn’t even our ally and leave your child and only heir with a demon?” Neph snapped, his eyes flashing with anger.
“Naturally it would be you that objected,” Seth sighed and rolled his eyes. “Have another candlestick handy Jala?” he asked with an amused smile as he moved to stand closer to Zoelyn.
Zoelyn stared up at him with a mixture of dread and excitement as he approached. She still hadn’t fully conquered her fear of him, but it was dwindling quickly. Seth had given her a new lease on life and a purpose, and yet as Neph so clearly pointed out, he was a demon.
“I trust Seth,” Jala began.
“And you trusted Symphony too, remember? Where has that gotten us? The Fionaveir have left everyone to rot,” Neph broke in before she could continue.
“Do not compare Seth with Symphony. He has reason to protect Legacy and you know it!” Jala snarled back with more anger than Zoelyn had ever heard from her before.
“And how do you bloody well know that his intentions are in your best interest and not his own? I, for one, sincerely doubt he is so instantly loyal to his new master. After all, if he was such a gre
at guy, why exactly is he a demon now?” Neph bellowed in response.
“I fail to see how screaming is helping anything here,” Sovann murmured with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair.
“You need to set your priorities in Merro, Jala. Seravae isn’t your ally, Ash is, and he is living in Merro. You cannot risk Legacy and you are whether you realize it or not,” Neph continued.
“I think a dagger might work better than a candlestick,” Seth said quietly with a wink to Zoelyn. Stepping forward he cleared his throat quietly. “Does that mean she should stay out of Delvay as well, Neph?” Seth asked loudly, bringing silence to the room once more. All eyes shifted to him and Seth smiled. Holding out both hands he shrugged in a mockery of apology. “Just curious, because it is the same principle. Delvay never formally acknowledged Merro as an ally. You did. There is of course the same problem with Legacy as well. Surely she can’t take the child to Delvay anymore than she can to Seravae, and leaving him here is simply not an option.”
Neph stared at Seth with fury written on his face, but the logic of Seth’s words left him silent. Zoelyn could see the desire to snarl written all over the Delvay’s face, but the Demon had trapped him. There was no way he could continue to object without sacrificing aid to his own country in the process.
“If I don’t help Seravae right now, the wrong faction will win in their civil war. I need Sirena to lead there. She is Ash’s mother, and with her on the council we would have another vote in our favor,” Jala began in a more rational voice. She inhaled deeply and forced Neph to meet her eyes. “I know I am taking a risk, but if Sirena loses, they will move on Arovan next. I will lose a potential ally as well as Arovan for being too cautious. If Nerathane hadn’t moved, I would have left it alone, but with Dragons involved I have to act,” she finished and dropped into a chair at the table at last. Leaning forward, she covered her face with her hands for a long moment before slowly looking up at Neph again. “It’s Symphony’s place to stop this, but she isn’t doing anything. I have no choice, Neph.”
“I just don’t understand why you always have to be the one doing it,” Neph said quietly as he joined her at the table. His expression was one of pure defeat.
“Because no one else will,” Valor said softly, speaking for the first time since they had gathered in the room. He moved forward to stand behind Jala and the neutral mask he had been wearing faded away showing the sadness he had been hiding. “They are too weak or they just don’t care. Either way, no one is moving. Jala is right, we have to do this.”
“And if you both die in the process?” Jail asked quietly.
“Then they will be slightly delayed on their return home, but they will return, I assure you,” Seth answered firmly. “There is too much that they must do to allow them to rest in peace.”
“And once again we have to trust you,” Neph grumbled.
“Only Jala has to trust me. The rest of you can cry yourselves to sleep every night and chew your fingernails in frustration. It hardly matters to me,” Seth replied with a smirk.
“I trust Seth,” Jala repeated quietly as she stood once more from the table. “Even if he is working for his own interests now rather than mine the goal is the same. Keep Legacy safe,” she added with a shrug to Neph. “Seravae will be taken care of in a week at most. By that time Vaze should be returning from Delvay and we will have the information we need to attack there. That only leaves the Blights to handle and hopefully Shade is making progress there. If we work swiftly we can have this all finished before the council in Sanctuary.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Jail said with a shake of his head.
“Nothing worth doing is ever easy, Jail, and we are saving a world. It won’t be easy, but it will get done,” Jala replied with a faint smile. Her gaze rose once more to meet Zoelyn’s eyes. “You will be staying with Seth longer than last time. A week here is five weeks there, but you will be safe.”
“It gives her more time to learn,” Seth offered with a wink and a nod toward the door. “Let’s gather Legacy and the mountain of toys I’m sure he will want to take. By the time we are done with that, Jala should have her affairs in order here.”
“Be careful, Jala,” Zoelyn murmured as she followed Seth from the room. The day had definitely not turned out as she expected. Jala going to battle dragons, and five weeks in the Darklands. It was enough to keep her awake for days with worry.
“Jala can handle the dragons. There are only two full-blood dragons in Seravae right now. The rest are half-bloods,” Seth assured her as he closed the door behind them.
“I swear you read minds,” Zoelyn mumbled with a faint shake of her head.
“I read expressions and yours screams concern. I had to guess which you were concerned about, though. It could have been Jala, or it could have been five weeks of my company. I chose the answer that was less insulting to me,” Seth explained and gave her a devilish smile. “By your answer, though I was right and you no longer fear my company.”
“I didn’t say that. You are still frightening,” Zoelyn objected quietly.
“Ahh. But from the look on your face in the garden when you saw my messenger, it’s frightening in a good way. Perhaps exciting is a better word,” Seth smiled at her and her breath caught again. It wasn’t the same expression as the one he had used in the council room. It was as if he had two different smiles entirely, one that he showed the rest of the world, and one that was for her alone.
“Maybe,” she whispered and swallowed heavily. “We should get Legacy,” she added in a slightly louder voice, hoping her words would drive his attention elsewhere. She truly had no desire for him to see her blushing.
I could keep you safe. Why do you have to go with him? Dray’s voice echoed in her mind and she turned to look around. She had forgotten about Dray as much as she hated to admit it. Guilt prodded at her as she considered how lost he had been without her the last time she traveled with Seth to the Darklands. It had taken Emily knocking him out to control him until she was back, and she had only been gone for one night.
“I need the time to train, Dray,” Zoelyn explained as she tried to guess where he was. Typically he was near her, but he was using a mental link now, so he could be anywhere in the house. It still amazed her that he was able to use mental links with her at all. Every other person that had tried to use magic on her failed, but Dray somehow managed it.
You could train here, Dray protested, a note of stubbornness rising in his voice.
“I will have longer there to train and Seth knows what I need to work on,” Zoelyn explained calmly.
“Your Blight has an issue?” Seth asked with a smile. He scanned the hallway quickly and his golden eyes settled almost instantly on the wall behind her. “She is coming with me, and she will return when Legacy does. I promise to bring her back in one piece, boy. Surely you can contain your jealousy for a week.”
I don’t like him, Dray informed her coldly. You shouldn’t trust him.
“There are a lot of people that would say the same about us Dray. Don’t trust her, she is Undrae. Don’t trust him he is Blight. I like Jala’s belief of judging on merit,” Zoelyn sighed.
“He is a self-created monster. He wasn’t born a Demon. He chose a path in life that made him one,” Dray said in a quiet voice. It was rare that he actually spoke aloud with others around, and she knew he had only done so now so that Seth would hear as well.
“Everyone can find redemption, Dray,” Zoelyn replied quietly. “If they choose to look for it,” Dray growled.
Seth smiled at the Blight and nodded his head slightly. “Wise for your age. I am a self-created monster. You are correct. Everyone that I murdered, tortured, or destroyed was my enemy. Remember that, Dray before you decide to piss me off.” His smile turned cold as he spoke and he bowed his head once in the Blight’s direction. “We are leaving now. You have a week to exist without her. I think you will survive. Get in my way now, though, and I can promise you won’t.”
“Please, Dray. I will be fine. I promise,” Zoelyn assured him with a smile.
“You have them fooled, but not me. I’m not afraid of you either. When the time comes I will be ready to send you back to hell again,”
Dray promised in the loudest voice she had ever heard him use.
Seth had turned to leave, but at the Blight’s words he froze mid-step and slowly turned to look back at the Blight. “Even the Divine fear me,” he whispered and the tone of his voice made her skin crawl. “I am the Crow King. I am the Herald of Death. I am the Nightmare of thousands. Women shiver at the mention of my name and grown men weep at the thought of facing my blades, and yet you say you do not fear me.” He stalked toward the wall where the Blight stood and his hands dropped lightly to his daggers. “You can hate me. You can say you don’t fear me, that’s fine. Bide your time, little Blight, and when you decide you are man enough to send me back to hell, let me know.”
“The moment you hurt Zoey will be the moment I kill you, Demon,” Dray hissed. “How touching,” Seth smiled again and shook his head at the Blight.
“Please stop,” Zoelyn whispered behind them and Seth bowed his head at once his hands moving instantly from his dagger hilts.
“The Elder Blood are such savage creatures. We snarl and growl like the most primitive animals,” Seth said with a sigh and his smile lost all hints of the former coldness he had shown Dray. “If you are waiting for me to hurt Zoey, you have a very long wait, Dray. I am trying to help her,” he added in a kinder voice and winked at her.
“You see, Dray, I will be fine,” Zoelyn added as relief surged through her. With the way Seth was acting, she had thought there was going to be a fight.
The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4 The Blessed Curse Page 27
