From the Ashes (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #3)(76)

Symphony nodded slowly as she digested the information and took a small sip from her drink. Eyes widening, she looked down at the glass and then back to Vaze with a questioning look. “What did I just drink? It tingles,” she demanded.

“Essence wine. One of Sovann Sovaesh’s inventions. Not only does it get you drunk it restores your magic at the same time. Not the best idea in my opinion but a popular drink among the Elder Blood,” Vaze explained with a grin. “She has youth surrounding her Symphony, but she has the cream of the crop. The ones that fled the city with her were the most talented of this generation. With the exception of Shade whose high moral standards unfortunately left him out of that particular group.”

Symphony raised an eyebrow and looked to Shade who simply nodded in answer. “High moral standards?” she asked skeptically.

Shade frowned at her and pursed his lips. “The part that Vaze didn’t tell you, then, to clarify for you. Jail Han’shy will use his Mind magic on anyone for anything that he wants. He has no qualms whatsoever on using it for a dark purpose – say to have someone kill someone else so that Jail himself has no blood on his hands. Valor Hai’dia is a drunken womanizer that I have personally witnessed kill someone for the offense of spilling wine on his tunic. Wisp Faydwer is a manipulator of the top degree. She will bat her eyelashes and blow you a kiss even as she is deciding where to plant the knife in your back. Neph doesn’t even require an offense such as spilled wine to kill you. All you have to do with that one is look at him the wrong way. So there is the other side of the coin,” Shade explained with a dark glance toward Vaze.

“Is this true?” Symphony asked looking quickly back to Vaze.

“A bit dramatic I think, but some of that may have occurred in the past,” Vaze admitted hesitantly.

“Will they corrupt her then?” Symphony asked quickly, a worried expression forming on her face.

“Ask the hundreds that she killed on the night we took the city. The Jala I met in Brannaford wouldn’t have done that,” Shade answered softly before Vaze could even open his mouth. The sound of voices from the hall rose and Shade silently stepped back farther into the shadows and activated his camouflage to hide.

The worried expression vanished instantly from her face as the door opened and Lutheron stepped inside. Bowing, the second in command stepped aside, allowing the rest of the council to enter as well as a few people that Shade didn’t recognize.

“Symphony, how was your flight?” Caspian asked in his customary quiet voice as he moved to sit beside her.

“Wonderful. Thank you for asking. I think I’m finally learning how to properly control the hawk,” Symphony replied.

The hawk and her instructor, Shade mused as he settled back against the wall, his eyes scanning every face in the room and the expressions they wore. He would mark every detail of the meeting from tone of voice to flicker of eye. It was best to have clear evidence of suspicion when dealing with Symphony. She was one of the rare individuals that put absolutely no value on rumors. For her there had to be proof.





Chapter 15





Merro





A wave of dizziness washed over her as the translocation magic faded from them. Jala opened her eyes slowly and let out a sigh of relief as she recognized the bedroom they had left hours before.

“Shit,” Valor muttered beside her. “Hello Neph,” he added in a weary voice.

Turning, Jala spotted the Delvay mage sitting in a chair in the corner, his feet propped up on the edge of the bed and a stormy expression on his face. “Hello Neph,” she echoed Valor in a soft voice and raised her hand in a half-hearted wave.

“What would you think if a friend of yours had just recovered from a near death illness and requested sleep and then when you went to check, you found your friend was gone?” Neph asked, his voice flat and his expression growing darker.

“I would, uh… I would wonder where they were,” Jala answered in a halting voice and dropped down to sit on the bed facing Neph. All she wanted was to crawl under the covers and fall into a deep dreamless sleep, but that was apparently going to be a while.

“My first thought was she lied to me rather than where is she,” Neph said his eyes locked on her accusingly. He folded his arms across his chest and looked from her to Valor. “My second thought was that Valor should have stopped her from leaving when she was obviously so weak. Instead the dumb ass went with her.”


“I have no right to tell her what to do, Neph. I swore to follow her, not lead her,” Valor said flatly as he leaned back against the wall with an exasperated look on his face.

“He tried to stop me, Neph, but I insisted,” Jala broke in before the argument between them could build. “I had to save Sebastian Blackwolf before Death regained strength. I had limited amounts of time to do it in and I knew you would object. I didn’t want to lie to any of you, but I didn’t want to fight with you either. It had to be done,” she explained in a level, calm voice as she pulled her boots off and lay back on her bed with a groan.

“Had you considered possibly that had you told me that I might have understood?” Neph growled his temper apparently not soothed by her explanation in the least.

“Have you considered that you swore to obey her and she has no reason to explain her actions to you whatsoever?” Valor shot back.