From the Ashes (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #3)(148)

“What’s that?” Jala asked finding her voice once more.

“That we keep quiet the fact that your new arrivals are dragons. I do not trust the man you have married and I’d rather he did not know what we are. I lived as a merchant in Sanctuary as you recall. Let him believe that my retainers and I are simply here to handle the supply issue for now,” Nigel said cautiously as if he was afraid of offending her.

“Of course. I would prefer that as well,” Jala agreed with a quick nod. “Finn truly bet me?” Jala asked not sure how she felt about that knowledge.

“He had to, for what he asked. He had nothing else that would equal the value of my assistance,” Nigel answered with a smile, then cocked his head meeting her eyes once more. “Did you watch the fight, Lady Merrodin?” he asked softly.

“I did,” Jala admitted. She could still picture the awful moment when Kithkanon’s sword had plunged through Finn’s chest.

“I was a frequent guest at the Arena. I believe I watched nearly every fight Finn ever fought. Never before had I seen such tenacity in him. Within the first few blows of his sword I knew my bet was lost. Finn was phenomenal with swords on any given day, but not even the Divine of War himself could have bested him that day. He had too much riding on the bet to lose,” Nigel said with a smile. Standing straight once more Nigel adjusted his coat and bowed his head to her. “If you will permit me, I will gather my companions and see that the supplies are distributed to your army.”

“Of course. We are running low and I would greatly appreciate it as would my men,” Jala said with a smile.

“I’m sure they would,” Nigel said as he glanced back down at the bowl and looked up at her with another smile. “Dragon meat tastes terrible,” he said with a wink as he turned to walk off.





“Those are not slaves in armor,” Neph said quietly as they drew to a stop. They had crossed the border into Avanti days ago, though it had taken quite a bit of convincing to get Jexon to continue on with his men. After the last victory in the Greenwild, Jexon had considered the war over. It had been Jala’s insistence that if they didn’t break the Avanti completely they would simply be riding north again in another month.

“Those are Elites,” Badger drawled as he leaned back in his saddle, the broken end of a grass stem protruding from his teeth. He glanced over at Jala and smiled. “I hate Avanti Elite,” he said with a slight shake of his head.

“We can expect Serpent teeth from them so we should have the healers on standby,” Valor said in disgust. Vanguard shifted beneath him and Valor dropped a hand to the horse’s neck to calm him. The horse could sense the coming fight and he was already working himself up for it.

“Why did they choose here?” Jala asked. The field before them was flat and level leaving a perfect path for a cavalry charge. From what she could tell there was no terrain advantage to the Avanti forces at all. There weren’t even trees for them to fall back to.

“Arrogance,” Jexon said as he rode up. Jala glanced over her shoulder to watch her husband, her disgust rising at just the sight of him. “These are trained soldiers, Jala. They don’t expect any difficulty from you at all,” Jexon continued, his voice oddly polite.

I don’t like his being nice. It makes me more nervous than when he has that devious smile on his face, Marrow said. The Bendazzi flattened his ears back and paced away from Jexon’s horse to sit closer to Valor despite Vanguard’s prancing hooves.

“It looks even, numbers wise,” Neph said, his eyes still roving over the Avanti forces.

“I don’t like the ground they have given us,” Jala insisted. It seemed too much like a trap to her, though she couldn’t tell where they might be hiding any surprises. The ground was flat and level without so much as a bush showing.

“Caltrops in the grass maybe?” Badger offered hesitantly. Shrugging, her father looked over to Valor and raised an eyebrow. “What do you think, Lord Hai’dia?” he asked. Jala raised an eyebrow at the title and smiled at her father. He didn’t use the lord title when he addressed anyone else in the army.

“It could be, but I doubt it. I would guess that they plan to rain arrows down on us from across the field. That I can block for my Knights though with a simple wind spell,” Valor said after a short pause.

“Could you perhaps summon another storm?” Jexon asked and they all turned to look in surprise at the polite tone he was still using.

Valor shook his head slowly eyes flicking to the bright blue sky that held only a trace of clouds in it. “Too much effort with the weather this clear. I wouldn’t get much in the way of results till nightfall,” he said cautiously with suspicion clear in his voice. Apparently he didn’t trust Jexon’s new courtesy any more than Marrow did.

Jexon nodded slowly and let out a long sigh. “My Soulblades cannot do a wind spell to block the arrows. The best they could do to avoid the Serpent’s teeth would be a spirit form to cross the field, but not all of them have that ability and for those that do their attacks would be delayed while they regained their physical forms,” he said with a shake of his head.

“I’ll lead the assault,” Valor announced, straightening in his saddle and glancing over his shoulder to locate his Knights.

“Valor, I don’t like this,” Jala insisted. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something felt wrong. On the surface the battlefield looked to be in their favor. It was perfect for her knights and the infantry would be able to maneuver easily as well.