From the Ashes (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #3)(165)

“Thank you,” Truce whispered to the Assassin as the sound of running footsteps filled the hall.





“If they made their house any bigger they would have to set up campgrounds in the hallways for visitors that were trying to get from one side to the other,” Neph grumbled.

“In Delvay, they live in huts and you can spit across the room. Delvay don’t need big houses because they are manly,” Valor mocked in a parody of Neph’s deep voice.

“In Delvay, we use Arovan knights as floor mats and eat their horses for dinner,” Neph said, giving a Valor a dark look.

“In Merro, you both shut the hell up and try to act dignified when we conquer other countries,” Jala snapped, cutting them both off before the conversation could worsen. She had to admit though, Neph was right. The Avanti house was too damned big. They had entered the city at the first sign of surrender and thirty minutes later she was still trying to reach the High Lord to settle terms.

“Isn’t he supposed to come to you for this?” Neph asked as they followed the servant up another flight of stairs.

“How much farther?” Jala growled to the servant.

“The top of these stairs and to the right, Lady,” the woman answered in a quavering voice. She didn’t look more than twenty at the most and obviously had never expected to be the one guiding invaders through her master’s house.

“Better not be very far to the right. I’m sick of walking,” Neph grumbled.

“Lazy bastard,” Valor said with a quick glance at Neph.

Jala let out a weary sigh and glanced back at them. Against everyone’s advice she had only brought an escort of two as well as her Bendazzi. At the time it had seemed like a splendid idea. Neph was like a big brother to her and Valor was her anchor. They were the two that she trusted most in the world, but she had forgotten how they bickered. “I should have brought Ash and Jail. They are both so serene,” Jala mused aloud, a trace of longing in her voice.

“That you would have fallen asleep with boredom and fallen back down the stairs, broken your neck, and died. Then Avanti would triumph. Wise choice to bring us,” Valor said with a charming smile.

Neph snorted in amusement and smiled at her. “I would have laughed. Even when they rolled your body into the ground I would have been laughing, and I would have made the tombstone myself. Survived everything but the stairs,” he said with a wicked smile.

“Yours is going to read. She had no choice but to kill him. He wouldn’t shut up. And I bet you get yours a lot sooner than I get mine,” Jala promised sweetly and let out a sigh of relief as they reached the end of the hall.

The servant bobbed her head meekly and held up a hand. “Please wait here while I announce you,” the woman said in a voice that held a note of pleading.

“I don’t think so,” Jala said darkly as she moved forward and pushed the woman aside. Shaking her head in disgust, Jala shoved the doors open roughly and stalked into the room, her eyes scanning the occupants immediately. Truce sat at his father’s desk and a red-eyed Cassia was tucked into a chair in the corner, a napkin clutched between her delicate hands. A tall man in the uniform of an Avanti elite stood near one wall while two guards stood on either side of the door.

“Lady Merrodin,” Truce stammered as he rose to his feet, his gaze flicking to the door. No doubt the man was wondering why his servant had failed to announce her.

Jala stared at the guards for a breath then slowly turned to look at Truce. “I’ve crossed half the city to speak with you. You surrendered, remember? Why did you not meet me at the gate?” She asked coldly.

“I thought it would be best if we discussed such things privately,” Truce began, his tone faltering as he watched her.

“We never should have let her through the gates. Daddy would have killed her,” Cassia sobbed, bringing the tattered napkin to her bloodshot eyes.

Jala watched Cassia for a long moment and then looked back to Truce, no trace of mercy or amusement on her face. “Where is Sovaesh?” Jala demanded. She had expected the man to be in the room when she arrived but there was no sign of him.

“In prison, Lady Merrodin. He killed my father,” Truce explained in a voice that didn’t seem quite as grief-stricken as Jala would have expected.

“Bring him here now,” Jala snapped.

“He is in prison. Did you not hear my brother?” Cassia snapped, her voice rising. “He is going to die for what he did, as you should have,” she added with a whine.

Jala crossed the room in two quick strides and brought her hand so hard across Cassia’s face that it knocked the woman from her chair. Sobbing, Cassia began to crawl away but Jala’s eyes were already fixed on Truce who stood staring with a look of utter shock on his handsome face. “If this bitch says one more word to me I will forget any thought I had of mercy and leave your heads on spikes and your city in ruins. Is that understood, Truce?” Jala hissed, not bothering to look at the guards who had gone for their swords. Valor and Neph still stood by the door, as did her two Bendazzi. If the guards chose to attack they wouldn’t manage to get their swords clear of their scabbards before they were dead.

“Take my sister from the room now. See that she is kept in her own quarters until Lady Merrodin is gone from the city,” Truce snapped quickly and the elite moved at once to obey. Apparently neither man was willing to gamble on Cassia being smart enough to keep her mouth shut.