The Elder Blood Chronicles – Book Three(104)

“Are you refusing to remove the magic then?” Jala asked coldly, her eyes narrowing. The fingers on her left hand curled slightly as she poured magic into her remaining focus stones.

“I’m giving you more warning than you deserve. If you choose to fight Avanti this is how you will die little girl. With everyone that you trusted turning on you. Take the offer and accept the marriage. It is the only chance your pathetic little country has,” High Lord Avanti said with a smug smile.

“Kill his guards as a lesson,” Jala ordered Neph calmly and unleashed her magic directly on Avanti’s spell. Her own power slashed easily through the webs of magic that held her people enchanted as Neph turned to face the Avanti with a savage smile on his face. Raising his hands the Delvay mage unleashed the spell he had been holding ready and a cloud of black mist rose beneath the guards and began to wrap quickly around them. With a sharp gesture from his left hand Neph finished the spell and laughed as the guards began to scream as the acidic mist ate away at flesh and armor alike.

“I said kill them not torture them,” Jala snapped and Neph nodded sharply his laughter abruptly dying.

With another gesture he threw a second spell and the screams fell abruptly silent as the bodies of the ten Avanti guards dropped boneless to the ground. “Happy?” Neph asked as he stepped back to stand in front of her once more.

“Not at all,” Jala replied, her eyes locked on the High Lord who was staring a bit slack-jawed at his dead guards. “I wish the High Lord hadn’t believed I was bluffing. His people would still be living if he would have listened to my warning,” she sighed.





“You will regret this choice,” the High lord stammered, his words halting and choked. Looking back up at her he shook his head violently. “You will deeply regret this choice,” he repeated in a louder voice filled with more confidence. “Merro will fall and I will see you in the slave pits you little bitch,” he snarled as he began to back toward his ship.

“I warned you,” Jala said softly as she watched them flee. Her mind was weighing the option of destroying the spell hawk once they had closed the door behind them. She didn’t like the idea of killing Truce or Sovaesh though. Glancing toward the Assassin she noted the slight crease at the corners of his eyes before he turned away to follow his master. Finn’s eyes had creased like that when he smiled, though she couldn’t imagine why the man would be smiling after what had just happened.

Neph started to raise his hand for another spell as the ship rose but Jala shook her head quickly and pushed his hand back down. “No, we’ve done enough damage by killing their guards. Not to mention the wards that are layering that ship. Just let them go.” The anger had faded from her as quickly as it had come and she found herself simply watching the ship disappear as she pondered Sovaesh’s strange behavior. With a weary sigh she glanced back toward Jail. “We need to talk. Gather everyone now, please,” she said softly as she moved back inside the house.





Jala stared silently down the table and watched with a clenched chest as Sovann carefully balanced her son on his leg. She felt her throat tighten a bit as her mind wandered to Finn, but she forced herself to keep watching and ignore the pain. There was a faint shuffling of chairs as the others began to seat themselves. Glancing away from Sovann finally, she watched Neph put the finishing touches on the spells of protection that would keep outsiders from overhearing anything in the room.

“Not even the gods can hear us now,” Neph announced as he nodded to her and took the seat to her left. Valor sat comfortably to her right with Wisp and Sovann closest to him while Jail, Madren, and Bridgette sat opposite. The lady knight shifted a bit in her seat and looked more confused than uncomfortable at being in the room. Joseph sat on the far side of her and if anything, the young man looked even more bewildered than the knight. He had been helping Sovann with every experiment the mage worked on, but as far as actual governmental work, he had no idea what was going on. It was at Jala’s insistence that the two of them were in attendance and she hadn’t bothered to explain to anyone why she wanted them present.

“Thank you, Neph. Before I begin, I’d like to thank Valor and Sovann for their gift to me,” Jala said as she looked at them both in turn. “I truly appreciate all of the work you both put into the staff and cannot thank you enough. It is a magnificent weapon.”

“I should have made one before now. I was kicking myself every day we were in the Darklands for allowing you to go in unarmed. Magic is useful, but you should have something to back it up with when it fails,” Valor replied.