“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.
Zoelyn swallowed heavily, her eyes tracing up the spires of the palace to the massive dark forms that circled like vultures above it. She had never seen a dragon before, and just a glimpse of the creatures ahead of her made her realize she didn’t want to see one any closer. “I don’t want to go there,” she whispered.
“I say the same thing every time I come home,” Seth said wistfully as he continued down the street at the same ground-eating pace.
*
“Seriously, Seth? Really? You didn’t have enough to do tonight so you decided to throw in kidnapping and murder for extra entertainment?” The man’s voice cracked through the throne room with enough anger that Zoelyn cringed back against the wall. He was dressed in black armor and a long hooded cloak, but she could still make out enough of his features to realize he looked like a twin of Sovaesh. The only true difference she could see was that this man’s face was free of the brand marks that Jala’s friend bore on each cheek.
Seth shrugged as he dropped Vaze’s body onto the floor before the throne and he smirked. “Does the Lord of Death require me to point out that Vaze is not actually dead?” he asked with sarcasm lacing his words.
“Wait, what?” The man froze in place and examined the body on the ground before him critically before looking back up at the Assassin. "OK, so he isn’t dead, the kidnapping accusation is still valid, though,” he amended as he approached Vaze’s still form and prodded him gently with the toe of his boot. “What did you do to him?” he asked with more curiosity than anger in his voice.