From the Ashes (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #3)(28)

“Soldiers.” Sovann said in a stunned voice as he moved to stand behind her. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? Neph must be warned, go find him quick.”

“And Jail wonders why I wanted to knock you in the back of the head,” Emily grumbled as she stood and dropped down from the ledge of the roof. There were only a couple of places Neph was likely to be at this time of day. Without so much as a glance behind her, she sprinted toward the closest of them.

“I said, raise the god damned timber, not drop it on my f*cking head,” Neph snarled ahead of her and she felt herself break into a smile. While his constant snarling did make her want to knock him in the head as well, it did make him easy to find. She slowed as she rounded the corner and paused long enough for Neph to secure the beam of the house into place with his magic before moving up behind him.

“Neph,” Emily whispered, trying to get his attention without alarming the men working with him on the construction.

“I’m busy, find Jail,” Neph grumbled quietly.

“Jail is with Wisp in the fields while she restores the land. This requires you, anyway,” Emily replied in a slightly louder voice and jabbed him in the back with a talon to emphasize her point.

“Everyone take a break, there is something I must attend to,” Neph said loudly to his work crew. “Like breaking your damned finger. Now what is more important than this?” he added in a much softer voice as he turned away from his men.

“There are soldiers approaching from the north. I have no idea whose they are but there are a lot of them,” Emily explained quietly.

Neph’s expression changed at once. With a muffled curse he dropped the blueprints he had been holding onto a stack of wooden beams and moved off quickly toward the northern side of town. “How many would you estimate?” he asked quietly.

“Well over a hundred, all mounted,” Emily replied without hesitation. Normally the fact that he knew she was still around would have annoyed her into sullen silence, but somehow it didn’t bother her at the moment. Perhaps it was simply her preoccupation with the soldiers approaching, or maybe Jail was right and she was getting used to Neph’s personality.

“Did you see any banners?” Neph asked, his strides lengthening as they grew closer to the northern road.

A small crowd was gathering at that end of town. The soldiers were close enough now that the sound of hoof beats and clanking armor echoed through the streets.

“By the size of the dust cloud, I’d say we are looking at close to three hundred, if they were riding two abreast? Were they?” Neph said, a bit distracted as he shook his head at the gathering people. “Idiots, if it’s a hostile force they have lined themselves up for the slaughter.”

“I didn’t see any banners. They weren’t wearing red and gold like the Avanti. They wore silver armor and yes, they were riding in two ranks,” Emily answered quickly before they reached the onlookers. Once they were among the people she would have to fall silent again. After seeing Devony’s fear at her disembodied voice she didn’t care to think how the average citizen might react. Devony was Elder Blood and should have been used to the unusual simply from the amount of magic she had been subjected to in her life. The majority of Merro’s common folk had witnessed very little magic and had a plentitude of horror stories about the Blight infestation that would guarantee her a painful death if they found out about her.

Neph pushed his way through the crowd and came to a stop near the edge of town. “Bloody hell,” he whispered, though she wasn’t sure if he was actually talking to her or not.

“What? Are they hostile?” she asked, practically breathing the words in his ear to keep from being overheard by the closely gathered people. Neph absolutely despised it when she used a mind link with him. It didn’t seem to bother any of Jala’s other companions, but Neph hated it.

“Worse. They are Arovan. Why are they here now?” Neph grumbled in a disgusted voice as he watched the column shuffle to a halt just outside of town.

“Valor’s knights, I would imagine by the look of them,” Sovann said as he pushed his way through the crowd to stand beside Neph.

“So it would seem,” Neph grumbled.

A woman dismounted from one of the lead horses and handed her reins to her companion before turning to approach them.

“Brings a whole new meaning to breastplate doesn’t it,” Sovann said quietly as the woman drew nearer. Emily snickered quietly while Neph simply glared in response.

The woman was quite favored by the gods if the shape of her armor was any indication of her true form. Though covered with dust from the road the armor was obviously of fine make with intricate details tooled into the polished silver. She removed her helm and shook out long chestnut hair as she drew close. Stopping several feet away she bowed her head in greeting looking between Sovann and Neph as if she was trying to determine who to address.

“Welcome to Merro, Lady knight,” Sovann said, and bowed his head in return.

She smiled and seemed relieved that he had chosen to speak first. “Thank you. I am Bridgette of the Order of the Phoenix here to report to Lord Valor.”

“Sorry, he isn’t here.” Neph said curtly, his eyes scanning the knights lining the road behind her. “From what I understood, he was expecting a thousand knights. Are there more on the road behind you?”