The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4)(136)

“Jala leave! Do not come in here!” Valor’s voice rose frantically through the sound of combat.

Glancing over at her, Neph grinned and shook his head. “It’s always good to ignore Valor.” The others had gathered behind them nervously and were watching him and Valor for any sign of what they should do. “Vosha, you are a dragon, but are you the fire breathing variety of dragon?” Neph asked as he pulled up his strongest shields.

Vosha shifted and shook his head quickly. “No, actually I haven’t exactly mastered my draconic breath yet,” His reply was hesitant and it was obvious the boy didn’t want to admit his failings in front of Zoelyn.

“Impress Zoey later, Vosha. Once we are out of here,” Jala snapped. Her own shields were in place now and he could see her readying her first spells. Neph knew she wouldn’t listen to Valor. How could she, after all. Jala was simply not the sort of person that could walk away and leave a friend to die, but then, neither was he.

The tempo of swords picked up again, followed by a grunt of pain and Jala looked ready to bolt through the door. Moving swiftly to her side, Neph grabbed her by the arm and shook his head quickly. “Fools rush in, and your fool already rushed in. We have to use logic here. Once we move inside we stay beside each other and use our shields together. If mine starts to fail I’ll drop back behind you to bolster it until I can strengthen it. The same goes for you. Got it?” He spoke quickly and glanced once more at the fire in the room then back to Zoey and the two boys. “Jala, the two Bendazzi and I are going in first. Hang back here and help where you can. This is going to be bad, kids so if you don’t come in we won’t blame you. Staying alive is your only priority right now and we don’t expect the help.” He looked at Zoey as he spoke. Normally she was the most mature of the three, but right now she looked terrified. She gave a quick nod in response to his words, but didn’t budge from where she stood.

“Vaze, fall back! Fall back!!” Foster’s voice rose to nearly a scream and Jala tensed beside him. Another explosion rocked the room and the ceiling shuddered once more.

“They are going to collapse the whole place on us!” Jala snarled as she glanced up at Neph. “You ready? I’d much rather kill them before they have a chance to do the explosion thing again.”

“Let’s kills some Rivasans,” Neph agreed as he moved slightly ahead of her and glanced into the room. “A lot of Rivasans,” he amended as his eyes quickly scanned over the figures moving in the room. An arrow thudded into the door beside his head and he pulled back hastily. “You have your ward against missiles up, right?” he asked quickly.

“Of course. You taught me to sleep with that damned spell active,” Jala snapped back. Her eyes were on the arrow and she had paled a bit at the sight of it. “Is it all of them at once, Neph?” she asked in a quieter voice.

“Looks to be that and more, Sweety. We aren’t leaving them, though. I won’t budge from here anymore than you will,” he replied quickly as he leaned through the door once more and then back quickly. “We move in and we go right as fast as we can. There is a small group of swordsmen there waiting for us, but with the Bendazzi we should be able to kill them quickly enough to gain purchase in the room.” Jala nodded in response and Neph let out a sharp breath before nodding back to her. “Let’s kick these pigs,” he mumbled as he drew on his own magic and pushed forward into the room.

Arrows slammed into their shields the moment they passed through the doorway. Neph did his best to ignore the steady clatter off his shields and the wall behind him as he closed on the waiting swordsmen. The Rivasans had turned to face them and stood ready with their swords behind a make-shift barrier of crates. From what he had seen of the room as they entered the entire place had been staged with the scattered barriers. There was no way this was anything but an ambush, and that meant Merro had a spy. The plans had only been made this morning, and the room had been a private one. That meant the spy had to be in Jala’s inner circle. The thought settled in his mind as he unleashed his first spells on the Rivasans. Everyone that had been in that room was a friend of his with the exception of Vosha, and he highly doubted the young dragon was the spy.

Pushing the thoughts away, he focused again on the battle and drew on his magic once more. They needed to push farther into the room and find a position that offered them some kind of advantage. The options were limited, however. He could hear Jala unleashing spell after spell behind him and the stream of arrows seemed to have slowed. That at least helped. With the archers out of the picture he didn’t have to worry so much about his shield failing.