The Blessed Curse (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #4)(58)
“I can’t allow that. I don’t know my way around Delvay so you have to be there to guide me,” Jala returned with a smirk.
Chapter 8
The Darklands
Zoelyn staggered as her barefoot caught on another cobble stone. Pain lanced through her foot and it was only Seth’s hand on her arm that kept her upright. The image of her heavy boots propped in the hall beside Legacy’s door surfaced in her mind and she mentally cursed herself for removing them. Another rock bit at the bottom of her foot and she stumbled once more.
“Continue like this and I will carry you the rest of the way under my arm,” Seth sighed.
“I can’t keep pace with you, barefoot, without tripping,” Zoelyn replied in a voice that quavered like a child’s. She hated herself for the sound of it, but it couldn’t be helped. She was terrified to the core. The dead surrounded them on all sides, hovering just out of reach and watching them with an intensity that made her stomach roil.
“Fine then,” Seth said as he stopped in his tracks and carefully shifted Legacy to rest in the crook of his arm. He pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her waist to lift her. Turning quickly, Zoelyn twisted free of his grasp and staggered back several feet from him. He watched with a smile and looked past her to the spirits that filled the city. “Not a wise choice, little Undrae. They are hungry,” he warned.
“She hates to be called that and I can’t say that I’m fond of the word either,” Vaze said quietly as he stepped from the shadows behind Seth. His armor covered him from head to toe, masking his face, but Zoelyn recognized his voice clearly, and relief washed over her in a flood.
Seth sighed dramatically and turned slowly to face Vaze with a look of annoyance. “Shadow hopper, you are very much out of your league. I suggest you scurry back to Jala now before you irritate me further.” “Zoelyn, are you all right?” Vaze asked, ignoring Seth’s words completely.
She nodded quickly and looked frantically for a way to get to him. “Terrified, but not hurt,” she gasped.
“Just a moment and I will take you back home,” Vaze assured her gently as he squared his shoulders to face Seth. “You have an arrangement with Jala concerning Legacy. That is difficult enough for Jala to accept. You crossed the line when you took her ward. The girl is under Jala’s protection and I will be leaving with her.” His tone had grown cold as he spoke, and his hand dropped to rest lightly on his sword hilt.
“Am I supposed to kill you while holding Legacy?” Seth asked in amusement. He grinned and shrugged one shoulder. “I could, you know, perhaps without even waking him, but I think it might trouble the child when he woke covered in his Uncle’s blood don’t you?”
“There doesn’t have to be a fight here, Seth. All you have to do is continue to Finn with his son and leave the girl with me, ” Vaze replied sharply.
“The Undrae,” Seth began, emphasizing the word, “is coming with me. You don’t understand what she is, Shadow hopper, and I do. If you are worried for her well-being, then follow, but if you try to stop me, I will kill you. I am not like the other guardians of the Darklands that you have faced. Only the Lord of Death stands above me on power here. Remember that before you threaten me.”
Shadows rose around Vaze and he moved almost faster than Zoelyn could follow. In one breath he was facing Seth in the next he was beside her with one arm pulling her back into the darkness. Zoelyn clung to his arm desperately as the shadows swirled around them then faded to mist. A strangled gasp broke from Vaze, and he staggered into her. His hold on her arm loosened as he dropped to his knees on the rough cobbles.
Zoelyn watched him in panic and slowly looked past him to where Seth stood just behind them. She hadn’t even noticed him move, and yet there he was with a bloody dagger in one hand and Legacy sleeping soundly in the other. Seth casually wiped the dagger off on his pants and slid the blade back into its scabbard at his side. With an amused smile he watched as Vaze crumpled fully onto the cobbles.
“Now you walk, regardless, little Undrae, and I suggest you do your best to keep up. The dead are hungry and you have just enough life to tempt them,” Seth informed her as he reached down and lifted Vaze effortlessly by his sword belt. Seth wasn’t tall enough to lift the man’s body fully from the ground and Vaze’s arms and legs hung limply against the loose cobbles.
“You killed him,” Zoelyn gasped, her eyes locked on Vaze’s still form as Seth half carried him down the street. The shock of what she had just witnessed left her frozen in place with her mind reeling. It had all happened within seconds. In one breath she had been on her way home to Merro and in the next her savior was dead at her feet.
“A rather obvious statement, but if you recall I did warn him first. It was more like suicide than homicide, in all honesty. Which is what I will label your death as if you don’t start walking,” Seth replied casually.
The air chilled around her and Zoelyn glanced back to see several of the spirits closing on her. Fear overwhelmed her judgment and she bolted after Seth, the cobbles biting painfully into her feet as she ran. She slid to a halt just behind him and tried desperately to avoid looking down at Vaze’s body.
“Wise choice, little Undrae,” Seth chuckled as he turned a corner and headed for the black stone palace that sat brooding in the heart of the city of the dead.