From the Ashes (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #3)(38)

“Decent? Well, we left Merro around forty-three days ago so I’d say about forty-four days,” Valor answered and leaned back against the side of his horse.

Vaze nodded quickly, his hand still clamped over Fiona’s mouth. The woman was glaring at him coldly enough to freeze the blood in just about anyone else. Vaze, however, ignored her completely and motioned with his free hand toward the rock he had been perched on. “Set up a small camp over there and we will eat. There are a few things we need to talk about before we go on,” Vaze offered and then glanced to Valor once more. “You have water as an element, don’t you, Valor?”

“Yes,” Valor replied, sounding a bit confused with the abrupt topic change, but Vaze simply nodded and motioned them both off toward the rock before pulling Fiona aside for an apparently private discussion.

Shrugging, Valor took the reins and led Valorous to the rocks and helped Jala dismount. “How well do you know him?” he asked quietly as he glanced toward Vaze once more.

“Are you asking me if we can trust him?” Jala asked as she pulled one of the tarts from the bag. Just the smell of the food was making her mouth water. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything other than dried beef. She started to offer the other to Valor but he had turned away, back toward the horse.

“Essentially. Can we?” Valor asked as he untied the blanket from the saddle and dropped it to the ground for her to sit on.

“I don’t know. Like I said, I haven’t seen him since I was twelve, but the memory I have of him is a good one. Do you remember when…” Jala paused as her mind registered what she had been about to say. Swallowing her bite of tart she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and cleared her throat. “Do you remember just before we found Finn in the Justicar’s hall, outside, when I grabbed my head?” Jala asked, the image of Finn lying in a pool of blood branded freshly onto her mind.

“I remember, “Valor said quietly and from his expression he was focusing on the same fragment of that moment as she was.

“That was from a mind block coming down. Lutheron, another of the Fionaveir had placed it there to make me behave. Vaze objected to it and encouraged me to keep standing up for myself. That was the last time I saw him,” Jala explained.

“Ahh. But that’s because I’m not seen when I don’t wish to be. It wasn’t the last time I saw you though, Curly. I did check on you,” Vaze said as he walked over and leaned against one of the rocks. “Forgive my delay. That was a bit of Fionaveir business that I thought she should be apprised of, given that we are her namesake. She is checking on something for me now and should return soon. In the meantime, let’s see about getting you some food cooked.” He moved away from the rock once more and shrugged a bag from his shoulder and dropped it to the ground lightly. Crouching down beside it he began to pull various items from it and sort them on the ground beside him.

“I mean no offense, but I find your arrival rather suspicious, so forgive me if I’m slow to trust and hesitant to eat the food you offer,” Valor said quietly, his eyes locked on Vaze’s every movement.

Jala froze and looked down at the half eaten tart and then to Valor with a look of mild pleading. “Please don’t suggest it’s poisoned. It tastes too good to be poisoned,” she whispered as she examined the tart critically.

“It’s not poisoned.” Vaze assured her.

“Which is exactly what someone poisoning you would say,” Valor returned dryly.

“She is halfway through the tart. If I had actually poisoned her and she asked that, I wouldn’t deny it was poisoned. I would say ha-ha I win,” Vaze objected.

“He has a point,” Jala agreed as she took another bite of the tart. The filling was still warm enough to steam in the chill air.

“You are correct to be suspicious, though, Valor. I commend you on that. You swore on your friend’s lifeblood to keep her safe and a death oath is the most sacred word a man can give. So what can I do to put your mind at ease?” Vaze stood slowly and folded his arms behind him looking at Valor with a calm expression.

“Tell me why you are here to help her, for one,” Valor said, his tone still rigidly formal. His eyes had narrowed at the mention of the oath, and Jala couldn’t really blame him. She had been the only witness to those words, and she had told no one of them.

Vaze leaned closer toward Valor and summoned a small globe of light in his hand. Holding it just under his chin he pointed to his eye with his free hand and blinked a couple of times. “Do you see that?” he asked. “Purple or violet eyes. It’s a mark of his blood. Magdalyn had violet eyes just as her daughter does, though Magdalyn chose to hide them.” Standing straight once more Vaze flexed his free hand and the shiny black armor began to ripple and then parted like oil on water revealing the muscular pale flesh beneath. “So is this.” Vaze said quietly as he drew a small line across his forearm and watched pale gold blood well in the wound.

“We are kin?” Jala breathed, staring at Vaze in shock.

“Your Uncle, to be precise. Magdalyn was my half-sister. War tends to breed during every conflict. Most of the children die in their mother’s wombs but a scant few have lived. Magdalyn was a product of the Goswin fall; I am a product of the Veyetta war,” Vaze explained. “Three Divine were locked in the Barrier. Of the three of them, only one has chosen to bring progeny into existence. You and I are proof of his determination to spread his blood.”