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

Remaining silent, Jala considered his words and nodded slowly. “What did you put in your mouth before you went to fight?” she asked.

“You caught that?” he asked with a grin and chuckled lightly. “It was a prop I had Sovann make for me, basically a liquid filled ball that would resemble blood when I broke it between my teeth,” he explained. “It was cherry flavored and tasted good enough that I really didn’t want to spit it at him. Showmanship though,” he shrugged and grinned again. “If you ever find the need to fake your own death I highly recommend using one. They are like candy.”

She rolled her eyes at him and sighed. “I was devastated and lost in despair and you were enjoying candy,” she grumbled.

“Well, to be truthful, the sword through the chest rather ruined most of the enjoyment. See, I thought through moving the innards around. I, however, did not consider dulling the nerves. I really should have. It was rather excruciating. I thought Val was going to vomit on me when he had to draw it back out. Honestly, for a knight to be so squeamish is just wrong,” he said and glanced around them as they made their way up the stairs to their hall. “Is Emily with you?” he asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I should claw your wound back open for making her cry like you did,” Emily hissed from the shadows.

“Well there is my answer,” Finn said dryly and flicked his gaze in the direction of the voice.

“Why do you want to know?” Emily asked from another location, suspicion thick in her voice.

“Because it’s nice to know when I’m alone with my wife,” Finn replied and then looked to Jala with confusion. “Why, exactly, does she hate me so much?” he asked.

“Because she scanned Shade’s mind and he hates you I suppose,” Jala replied with a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know but I think she will realize you are a friend soon.”

Shaking his head Finn led the way up into their hall and paused by the doorway watching her. She glanced at him raising an eyebrow at the grin on his face and then looked around the entry way in confusion. “What?” she asked at last.

Shaking his head, he motioned ahead toward their rooms with that same smile on his face.

“Infuriating at times, you know,” she muttered and began walking again. Her steps slowed a bit as they neared Valor’s door and she noticed it was wide open. She had lived with the knight long enough to know that could be a recipe for embarrassment. One never knew when a half-naked woman would stagger out, or Valor himself for that matter. Silence loomed from the doorway as she drew closer and she glanced inside. The room was bare, with not even a curtain still remaining. Confused, she looked back to Finn who was smiling wider and still silent. With a dark look to express how much she appreciated his silence she continued on and noticed as she progressed down the hall that each of her companions’ rooms were empty and all of the doors were open.

“Did they reconsider their allegiance?” she asked at last when she reached Neph’s door. Seeing his room empty was like a punch to the gut. While she considered all of her companions trusted friends, Neph had grown closer than that during their daily training.

Finn shrugged wordlessly and she had to repress the urge to slap him again. Taking her arm gently he tugged her toward their room and pushed the door open. It was empty, aside from her trunks that sat near the doorway. “The last to be moved,” he explained quietly.

“Moved where?” she asked, her eyes flicking between him and the trunks.

“To your hall, Lady Merrodin,” Finn replied calmly.

“What?” Jala asked staring at him.

“While I was hunting for Devony, Valor and Neph repaired the Merrodin Hall. It hasn’t been used for some time but mostly it was just dusting and minor repairs. While they were busy at that, Wisp and Sovann were finishing your orphanage in the Merro district. Your vassals are dutiful Milady.” He winked at the last and picked up one of her trunks. Carefully, he balanced it on his shoulder as he had the day he had moved her into this hall.

“The orphanage is done?” she asked faintly and felt joy at the thought. That put them one step closer to repairing the damage to her people.

“The building is secure and safe and the clinic is provisioned. Sovann has started to pass the word among the streets but we won’t officially consider it open until you have a chance to look it over tomorrow after school.” He carefully balanced the other chest and nodded toward the door.

“Why don’t you let me carry those with magic?” she asked motioning toward the chest.

“I’ll let you carry this one with magic. Honestly, Vezradesh, how could silk weigh so much? Are you hiding bodies in it?” he replied, lowering the larger of the two back to the floor carefully.

“Shoes mostly. Oh, and jewelry,” she said with a smirk and quickly cast a levitation on the chest. With a faint tremble the chest rose into the air and rocked unsteady for a moment before settling into a steady hover about a foot from the ground.

“I think you may have too many shoes,” Finn commented dryly and headed out the door.

“I don’t,” she replied, falling into step behind him once more.

“Of course you don’t. All women are apparently obsessed with shoes,” Finn replied with amusement.

“It’s not obsession, Finn,” she said pointedly as they headed back down the stairs. “Consider this, my dear. I have about two hundred dresses of all different styles and color. According to Sanctuary’s ridiculous fashion code, I’m expected to wear a different set of shoes depending on occasion, style of dress, weather, and so on. If it were as simple as changing a tunic I could get away with owning two sets of boots such as you do, the fancy ones and the OK-to-get-blood-on-them ones,” she explained as Finn motioned toward one of the curving garden paths.

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