Jail watched Marrow for a moment and looked back to her, his expression clouded with worry. “I’m afraid they will enact their punishment today. Normally there is a delay of several days when the guilty is a member of a high house. It usually requires the vote of a council. This isn’t normal, however, and Valor isn’t of a house that is favored by High Commander Kellis.”
“Then we don’t have much time. Fetch Wisp and Neph. Tell Sovann to keep things in line here. I’ll get my horse and we will all go together,” Jala said and turned on her heels to head for the stable.
“Jala, they won’t listen to you as a High Lady. What are you planning to do?” Jail called behind her.
“Repay Valor. He saved my life and now we will save his,” she replied. Her mind was working frantically to form a plan. There would be five of them. That wasn’t good odds against the assembled might of the Justicars. Then, of course, there would be Cassia and Devron. She sincerely doubted either of them would miss the chance to watch a rival executed.
Loud cursing echoed out from the stable as she approached. Stepping inside she found Finn holding the tether to his mare as she reared back from Marrow her eyes rolling. By the way the floor was churned she had been throwing a bloody fit from the moment Marrow entered.
“Marrow, if you don’t get the hell out of here I’m going to skin you!” Finn roared and his grey mare backed away from him quickly, her muscles tensed to bolt. He hastily began to croon softly to her and held a hand out to steady her. The mare stood quivering the indecision clear in her large brown eyes.
As you wished she is not saddled. I’m going to wait outside now before that vein in his forehead bursts. He really does have an impressive temper, Marrow said, rising from where he had been sitting and letting out a feline yawn as he sauntered toward the door lazily.
“Did you send him in here?” Finn demanded, his voice low but filled with irritation. She could feel his emotions coursing through their link and felt a moment’s guilt. Finn’s concern for Valor was almost overwhelming and made his anger seem pale in comparison.
“I did, so you would wait for me,” she replied as she led her black gelding from his stall. As always the horse was steady and unconcerned with all of the commotion. She wrapped the tether around a post and went to fetch her saddle, only to find Finn blocking her way, his frantic mount dancing at the end of her lead once more. He held the rope firmly with one hand but his attention was fully on Jala. Jala raised an eyebrow at him and started to step around him. He moved, blocking her way again, his expression stormy.
“You aren’t going,” he said firmly. “They are begging for a reason to arrest you and I won’t have you anywhere near them. I will handle this.”
“We will handle this and I am going. We don’t have time for this argument, Finn. Valor’s time is dwindling with every word we speak. So, unless you intend to knock me out as he did you, I suggest you move,” Jala shot back, her voice every bit as firm as his had been. Her violet eyes locked with his green ones and for a moment they simply stared at one another, willing the other to back down.
“They won’t listen to you,” Finn said finally, his voice calmer and she hastily cut him off with a raised hand. He blinked at her in shock but she ignored his stunned expression. Stepping around him, she calmly picked up her saddle and carried it back to the gelding.
“I don’t intend to ask them, Finn. I’m working the details out now but as far as I see it there are only two ways into my district - through the portal stones and through the main gate. I am provisioned for a siege if they push me,” she said calmly as she placed the saddle on the black and began to cinch it. “You are wasting time we don’t have, Finn. Now saddle that half-trained bitch and let’s go.”
Finn blinked again at her tone and words and nodded faintly. “You would risk a siege for Valor?” he asked quietly as he picked his own saddle up from the dirt.
“Or you, or Wisp, or any of my friends,” she said. “I will not simply sit by and allow something like this to happen. I cannot fathom what Chastity did to get arrested, but I cannot imagine it is any worse than what Cassia Avanti does on a daily basis.”
“I really hadn’t considered that option. Do you think we can hold them out?” Finn asked, sounding intrigued.
“That is why I’m leaving Sovann behind. If it comes to that, I’ll have him disable the portal stones and begin the wards on the walls to keep the bastards from climbing. They can drain our magic if we use it directly against them. I don’t think they can drain wards,” she explained and leaned back waiting for him to finish with his mare.
“I had planned to simply cut him free and escape,” he said as he pulled the girth tight. His mare snorted and danced away but he seemed oblivious to her antics. “That had a lot of risk to it, though,” he added thoughtfully and picked up his bridle.
“You think?” she asked dryly and shook her head at him. “I plan to see Chastity safe as well. Your plan didn’t factor her in did it?”
“Well, if I could get to her, it did. Valor was my main priority though,” he said, a bit chagrined.
The others are approaching, Marrow informed her politely and she mounted motioning for Finn to do the same.
“Jail and the rest are here, let’s go,” she said, already turning her gelding toward the stable door.
“Command sets well on you, Jala,” Finn commented with a smirk and mounted the skittish mare who seemed to walk more on her hind legs than all four as she exited the building.