Blood, Honor and Dreams (The Elder Blood Chronicles, #2)

“You would be amazed how often I’ve been doing that very same thing lately,” Shade said with a grin and closed his fingers around the globe. He took another drag from the remnants of his cigarette and winked at Charm. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered and sent the spark of magic into the volatile liquid.

The echoing booms of explosions filled the air and Shade looked down at the small globe in his hand and let out his breath. He allowed himself another smile and glanced over at Charm. “I wish we could have seen it. I hope Lutheron got a good look so he can show us.”

“Shade, do you realize how often things explode when you are around?” Charm asked quietly. The expression on his face was pensive.

“I know. I think I may have found my true talent in life,” Shade said, grinning wider as the last of the explosions resounded below them.

“Please don’t say that,” Charm muttered and looked back to the black view screen. “So how are you going to get us down?” he asked quietly.

“Got it all worked out, Charm. No worries, my friend,” Shade replied and dropped the globe back into his pocket. “It might be a little rough at first though, just to warn you.”

Charm gave a silent nod in response and buckled the seat harness. He glanced over at Shade once he had finished. “You are a crazy bastard, Shade,” he said in a calm voice and rubbed his face with a gloved hand. “I’m not sure that I will ever adjust to it. I’m trying though, I really am.” He paused again and lowered his hand to look meaningfully at Shade. “I’m a rogue at heart, however, and typically we sneak, we hide, we backstab. It’s a self-preservation thing that rogues have developed. We linger in the shadows and allow warriors and such to charge blindly in, and then we collect the spoils when those idiots have gotten themselves killed. At no point in my training did my mentor ever mention explosive goblins, or high speed flight, or using one’s self as bait for very large pissed off serpents. This is simply not my style.”

Shade grinned widely at Charm. “None of my teachers spoke of this kind of fun either. No doubt they didn’t want to get my hopes up for the future. Just think, Charm, from the looks of things this is just the start of it. With a war beginning, imagine the fun we can have.”

“I do believe you entirely missed my point,” Charm said dryly and sighed. “I now have more incentive than ever to fulfill Symphony’s wish of a Bloodless rebellion,” he added faintly and fell silent, his gaze locked on the black view screen.





Chapter 25





Sanctuary





Winter was settling firmly over the city and the icy wind cut through her coat like a knife. Pulling the folds of it tighter around her, Jala shuddered and glanced down at Marrow who looked completely unfazed by the day’s temperature. Shaking her head slightly, she looked back up at the wooden supports being placed and tried to ignore her chattering teeth.

In the past month, they had managed to rebuild a good portion of the Dock ward in her district. While this hadn’t been one of the wards they had planned on fixing first, it had moved to the forefront due to its distance from the inner city. Her companions were wary of the Justicars and felt the farther they built from that part of Sanctuary the better. All in all, she had to agree with them. She didn’t like the idea of her people being subjected to the Justicar’s tilted view of justice either.

Warm arms wrapped around her waist and Finn pulled her back against him tightly. His breath was warm on her neck as he kissed her lightly. “You look half frozen. Why don’t you wait inside until they need you?” he suggested and glanced back at one of the finished buildings behind them.

She followed his gaze and fought back the temptation of the warm firelight that flickered through the windows. “I want to learn how this is done. I think I have the basics of which supports need to go up first but I haven’t seen them brace a roof yet,” she explained.

“Are you switching from High Lady to carpenter then?” he teased. Warmth poured from him like an oven and she nestled closer against him. His Firym blood made him as immune to the winter wind as Marrow was and she envied them both.

“I think if I’m going to govern a city, I should know what it took to build the city and how to properly maintain it,” she replied, still keeping her gaze on the massive oaken timbers being hoisted by the work crews. It would be so much easier if they would simply let her use magic to lift the timbers, but Neph had argued against it. He insisted that the people be allowed to do the work and she had relented. His points had been valid ones. The foremost point being that they would respect it more if their own sweat went into it.

That, and the fact that most in her city needed the work desperately. For that reason alone it had been easy to recruit workers for her projects. There was a food shortage in most of the city now, and thanks to Valor, her district was better provisioned than most. So while they didn’t have an over-abundance of coins they did have plenty of supplies. It had been Jail’s idea to offer the terms for labor. The people of her city could, of course, simply buy the food with coin, but for those without coin there was now hope. For helping to rebuild the city, they could not only earn food, but clothing and homes as well. Once the announcement had been made, the labor force had swelled well beyond what she had hoped for and the progress they were making was impressive.

“So what’s this one to be?” Finn asked, his attention turned on the building taking shape before them.

“A temple,” she said and expected him to laugh. Finn was far from religious and often teased Neph for his devotion to the Aspects and Divine.

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