The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(36)

“My Nephew is betrothed to her, if he hasn’t already married her. Her child is present and if that isn’t reason enough for you, and you hadn’t thought to count numbers, Nicoli, I will do it for you. With the people she brought with her, and Jin on her side, she has us outnumbered in this room. Leave off with it, Nicoli. She has us on this one and I won’t allow her to be harmed in my home.” Elijah sighed and turned back to Jala.

“This way, Lady Merrodin,” he urged as he started off for the doors.

“I truly regret that things had to take this path,” Jala informed the Lords and bowed her head in respect as she turned for the door.

“I truly regret that you took my crime as your own,” Neph whispered to her as he fell in step beside her. He hadn’t thought to press the matter when she had told him she would take care of his problems, but in hindsight he should have. Given how the council meeting had gone Jala had enough to worry about without adding his difficulties to her own.

“I regret that it was considered a crime at all. If you hadn’t acted, think of how many would be dead now. It will all work out, Neph. I’ve given this more thought than I care to admit and this is the way things had to go,” Jala replied with a faint smile. “Silly me. I thought all the work was done and I had nothing but happily ever after to look forward to. It was just a respite, though. Happily ever after is still a long way off, I’m afraid,” Her smile faded as she glanced back into the council room and then looked to Shade in confusion. “Madren isn’t leaving with us?” She asked softly.

“Guess not,” Shade replied with a shrug looking equally puzzled.

“Maybe I didn’t have his support as firmly as I thought I did,” Jala murmured absently. She exhaled slowly and shrugged as if it didn’t truly matter, but Neph could tell how much it did matter just from the look in her eyes. To Jala, friends were everything. She had done so much to help Madren that she thought it safe to call him friend and ally. “Shade would you be willing to give us a ride back to Merrodin in your ship? From what I understand of this girl I won’t be able to transport her with a spell,” Jala asked meekly.

“I should say no just for the sole reason that you assumed I would give you a ride home as much as you assumed I would be your envoy,”

Shade grumbled, and then nodded to her and rolled his eyes. “I will be outside getting the ship ready. From the expression on Blackwolf’s face when we left the room, I think we should bail from here as quickly as possible.”

“Agreed,” Jala said with a nod before turning to Vaze. “Would you take Neph back to Goswin, please? He will need to gather his people quickly.”

“Gather my people for what?” Neph asked as he quickly took a step back from Vaze before the shadows could even begin to thicken.

Jala blinked and then looked to Neph. “To bring them to Merro, of course. I just said as much in the council room. You are under my protection until we reclaim Delvay Neph. That counts for your people as well,” she explained slowly as if speaking with a particularly slow child.

“Jala, the people of Delvay can be prickly and difficult to deal with,” Neph began cautiously then paused as Valor snorted back laughter and turned away quickly with an expression of pure amusement on his face. Jala was regarding him dryly when he turned back to her.

“You don’t say, Neph. Hmm. I suppose we will all just have to learn to adjust to Delvay *s, then. It may take a while after dealing with your sweet and sunny nature for so long, though,” Jala said with sarcasm dripping from her every word.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Neph replied sourly and gave a quick nod to Vaze. The sooner he gathered his people the sooner he was back home. He doubted that his people would enjoy the trip, however. In their eyes he would be taking them farther from the mountains and from their goal of reclaiming them. In Neph’s eyes, however, being closer to Jala meant being closer to accomplishing his goals. When Jala was involved, things got done, even when they seemed impossible at the time.





Chapter 4





Arovan





The cool night breeze washed over her and brought the sweet perfume of lilacs and roses wafting up from the flowers below. Zoelyn inhaled deeply and stared wistfully out over the gardens. Her window provided a beautiful view of the night sky as well as the carefully manicured flowers. A clear view of everything beautiful that was just beyond her reach. With a sigh she crossed her arms on the window sill and lightly rested her chin on top.

It had been two weeks since they had brought her here and nearly as long since she had been allowed outside. She couldn’t blame them, though. Someone obviously spent a great deal of effort maintaining the grounds surrounding the house, and it was doubtful that they wanted to risk her killing off the flowers with her presence.

“Why don’t you just run away?” a deep voice whispered beside her ear.

The sound nearly made her jump, but she forced herself to remain still so she didn’t spook him. When she jumped at his voice he would stay silent for days, and he was the only one she had to talk to. Despite the fact that she was the one that usually did the most talking. Still it helped to know someone was actually listening. He was typically silent for most of the day unless she asked him a direct question. He would answer her then, unless she had jumped at the sound of his voice recently.