The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey (35 page)

Sovann looked at her and smiled. “I will help
you if I can, Jala. What is it you need?” he asked in his eternally
patient voice.

“Your essence wine works off of stored magic,
correct?” she asked, and he nodded. “I’d like to fill some stones
for you. I don’t want coin for it. I simply want the, shall we say
exercise. I don’t think I’m using enough magic daily to strengthen
my reserves, and I’m not sure what else I can use that much power
on. Would you mind?”

Finn gave a snort of laughter. “Would he
mind? Do you have any idea how much he sells a bottle of that wine
for?” he asked her. She shook her head in answer, and he gave
another snort of laughter. “Take the gold from him, Jala, you could
likely use it, and he has more than enough of it,” he urged.

If you don’t get me food soon I’m going to
go hunting in the city. Whether it be rats or beggars, I will find
meat
. Marrow warned her.

She gave a sigh and smiled at Sovann. “I’ll
still refuse the gold if you will part with meat for Marrow. He is
threatening to eat beggars.”

Sovann gave a chuckle and rose. “I’ll fetch
some at once. Please beg him to remain patient for just a couple
more minutes,” he said as he left the room.

Finn watched his brother leave the room and
looked across the table at her. “Are you spoiled, Jala?” he
asked.

She frowned in confusion at the question and
shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she answered hesitantly.
“Why?”

“I am,” he replied. “Not by my parents of
course, my father is not the spoiling sort. I have more or less
spoiled myself. I have lived life as I want it and have grown used
to getting my way,” he continued, and her confusion grew.

“And?” she asked, unsure where this was
going.

“And your pettiness will not win over my
being spoiled. It would be best if you relent. I will win this,” he
explained.

“We shall see,” she replied with a frown.

He smiled and leaned back in his chair. “One
question for you,” he said with an arrogant smile.

“What’s that?” she asked, somewhat
suspicious. He appeared to be gloating, and she wasn’t sure
why.

“Do you know where the housing department is
at the Academy? You know all students are required to stay on
campus, and if you do not have a High Lord’s hall to stay in, you
must go to them for a room assignment.”

Her frown deepened and she shook her head.
“No, but I’m sure Sovann can tell me if I ask,” she returned
cautiously.

“Nonsense, I will show you. I know the man
that runs it. We are on fairly good terms. I helped him out with a
duel or two. Not much of a fighter that one, but he has an
excellent memory for who has helped him.” Finn replied.

She gave a slight nod and sighed. “It would
seem you are correct, and you will win,” she conceded after a
moment.

He nodded his head the gloating smile still
on his handsome face. “You will come to realize I always do. Be it
with swords or words I always win.”

The scent of blood was thick in the air and
had the horses dancing with every step. Solace placed a hand on her
mare’s neck as the animal snorted. They were still a quarter of a
mile from the village and the air was thick with flies even here.
Hawk rode beside her, his tan face creased in a frown. Caspian had
suggested it was a Shifter causing the problems when he had sent
them here, but she had her doubts.

She knew her people too well. They tended to
follow the behavior of the animal they could turn into. A wolf
Shifter would seek others of his kind and form a pack, while a cat
Shifter would be a solitary hunter and tend to be a charming social
person. There were several other types of Shifters, of course, but
the cat and the wolf were the most predatory. It was, of course,
possible that a pack of the wolves had broken faith and was
responsible for the deaths on the borders. She didn’t think so,
though. Her gut told her otherwise, and Solace had learned to
listen to her instincts. They had kept her alive so far.

The forest around them was beginning to give
way to cultivated lands, and the trees were growing sparse. Her
view of the village was now clear with few obstructions. There were
perhaps twenty buildings, mostly houses with an inn and a few
barns. No one moved in the streets, not even chickens. Overhead,
carrion birds wheeled, and she could hear their calls from in the
town, as well.

“Fifteen or so houses, so at least thirty in
population,” Hawk said, his voice quiet and calm. Hawk was as
steady as one could ask for when it came to partners. He shifted in
his saddle and pulled his horse to a stop. The mare danced lightly
and turned her head, desperately wanting to be gone from this
place. “Easy, love,” he murmured to the beast and quieted her with
a hand. He turned his brown eyes to Solace and shook his head.
“This is not the work of Shifters.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Solace agreed. She
scanned the village and sniffed the air. “Dead three days, if I’m
getting the scent right,” she said after a moment. “The blood has
had time to spoil and dry, and I can smell rot in the air.” With a
frown, she blew air from her nose in an unladylike snort. There
were times she regretted having such fine-tuned senses, and now was
one of them. She couldn’t get the scent of bad blood from her nose.
She shook her head slightly, trying to clear the smell, and Hawk
handed her a small cloth dabbed with the faintest amount of lilac.
She smiled and accepted it gratefully, knowing the only reason the
ranger carried such a thing was for her. No self-respecting
woodsmen would have perfume on them otherwise, for the scent was
too easy to track.

“Shall we leave the horses here?” he asked,
and she nodded in answer. He swung down easily and hobbled his own
mount before turning back to her.

She had dismounted as well, but frowned at
the hobbles. It was, of course, likely that whatever had killed the
people in the village was long gone, but she wasn’t sure she wanted
to tie her horse’s legs. In the event that they needed to flee, she
would prefer not having to remove the straps before the beast could
run.

Hawk noticed her look and shrugged. “If it
comes down to it, I’ll cut the strap and make new hobbles,” he
explained and waited for her to secure her own mount.

She gave a slight nod and with his theory
used her own hobbles. As shaken as the horses were now, it was
possible they would break a tether and bolt if anything spooked
them further. She gave the mare a final pat on the neck and
followed Hawk into the village. He scanned the ground as he walked,
searching for any tracks that might give them an indication of what
had performed the massacre.

“Did we get any reports from the locals on
what they know about this?” Hawk asked as he frowned at the
ground.

“It’s a remote village; no close towns to
speak of. Most of these people were trappers and such, the sort
that don’t need or care for cities. It was a hunter that got word
to us about this. Other than that report, we have nothing and he
was here at least a day after the deaths,” Solace answered. She was
having little luck finding any tracks in the dusty road. So far the
only marks she could see were human and horse, and from what the
hunter had described of the bodies this was not a human attack.
They found the first body not far from the edge of the village.
From the looks of it, the man, if it was a man (Solace was not
exactly sure on that), had been trying to flee. The body was
mangled almost beyond telling it was human. Hawk knelt near it and
searched the ground for tracks.

“Birds have been at it, but scavengers
haven’t done all of this. Whatever killed him ate part of him.” His
voice trailed off as he spotted something. Leaning forward a bit,
he frowned. “Solace, have a look at this,” he said quietly, his
voice sounding unsure.

Solace looked back down at him; her eyes had
been searching farther into the village. There were bodies strewn
everywhere, some lying halfway out of houses. She moved to his side
and crouched beside him. He pointed a finger at a track near the
man’s side. “Is that a child’s track?” she asked, confused.

“Not one I’ve seen before. It has claw
marks,” he replied.

She studied the track closer. It appeared at
first glance to be the barefoot mark of a small child, until you
looked closer and noticed the indention of claws that Hawk was
pointing out to her. “What sort of child has claws? Shifters don’t,
unless they are in their animal forms. Maybe demon blooded?” she
said hazarding a guess. While those with demon blood were often
more bloodthirsty, they were rarely this savage.

“It’s not the claws that bother me so much as
the track has no blood in it. The ground around it is soaked. That
footprint is mostly bare. The child stood here as this man died, or
killed him itself,” he said leaning back on his heels and looking
to her.

Solace frowned and stood slowly. “Let’s have
a look at the rest of them and see if we can find more signs,” she
suggested. With a last look down at the track, she moved off toward
one of the closer houses. She could see legs protruding from the
doorway in a tangle, what remained of legs anyway. Most of the skin
and meat was gone. “What the hell are we seeing here, Hawk?” she
asked in disgust, as they approached the still form and a thick
cloud of buzzing flies.

Hawk seemed to consider the question for a
moment. “If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say Kali has been working
again. This doesn’t fit the patterns of anything we’ve seen
before.”

“I will never understand why that woman lives
as she does. Consider what good she could do if she only tried,”
Solace sighed, disgust deep in her voice.

“Everything acts in its own nature, Solace.
She is creating population control for us,” he said, stepping over
the body and into the house.

“You condone it?” she asked in disbelief,
following him inside. The smell was nearly choking in here. The
smell of rotting bodies mixed with rotting food. Plates of dinner
sat on the table undisturbed and long spoiled. She moved closer and
idly moved a fork beside one of the plates. All of the settings
were still in place. They had been killed just before dinner and
apparently hadn’t even realized they were in any danger. She
counted three bodies in the room - a woman, a man, and a small
child. A new family then, young parents most likely, and in their
first house. She looked around the small dwelling and noticed that
it was better than most she had seen. “These two would have had a
bright future together, if not for this,” she sighed, and looked to
Hawk. He was intent on the bloodstained floor and held the same
frown on his face. “What is it?” she asked, moving closer.

“More clawed tracks. These are adult,” he
answered her and stood. He looked around the house, eyes lingering
on certain details. “Door hasn’t been broken, and there’s no sign
of forced entry. Either it came through one of the windows or they
let it in.”

“I can’t imagine them letting it in,” she
said doubtfully.

Hawk shook his head in agreement. “Not
intentionally at least. Whatever it is we are looking for, it’s
human in form. It seems to disdain clothing too. If the tracks are
any indication, all that I’ve found so far have been barefoot.
Though I would say it would be difficult to find boots to
accommodate clawed feet.” He swept his gaze around the room once
more as she stepped from the house.

After a moment, he followed her out and they
made a thorough round of the village. In total, there were
forty-two bodies as well as dead livestock. Hawk let out a long
sigh and chewed on his lower lip. Solace watched him. It was one of
the few signs Hawk had when he was very upset. The normally calm
ranger wasn’t prone to emotional outbursts, and to see him chew his
lip meant things were bad, although she didn’t need to watch him to
know that. They had found few tracks and fewer hints otherwise to
tell them what they hunted.

“The way I see it, we have two choices here,”
he said at last.

She nodded having reached the same
conclusion. “We either turn back into Glis and warn House Blackwolf
of what we have found, or we head farther into Gaelyn and try to
find these creatures before they kill more,” she said.

Hawk gave a quick nod. “Exactly, so what is
your preference?” His gaze had already moved to the cultivated
fields to the south of them. Glis itself was a wilderness and the
Shifters preferred hunting over farming. Gaelyn, however, was
heavily populated with many villages and farms, and no High Lord to
protect them.

“South into Gaelyn. Let’s stop these things
before they kill more,” she said after a moment’s thought. “Let’s
do what we can for the dead here first, though. I think it will be
easiest if we drag the bodies into that big barn over there, we can
burn it, and at least give them somewhat of a pyre.”

Hawk nodded agreement and moved off to gather
the first of the bodies. Solace let out a long sigh and moved to
help. It would be bloody disgusting work, but it was the least she
could do for the dead.

She was bone tired by the time they rode out
from the village, but neither of them had wanted to camp there. The
horses stepped lively, eager to be away from the blood. Solace
glanced back over her shoulder and watched the thick black smoke
filling the sky. She let out a long breath and sat straight in her
saddle. With a slight increase of pressure on the mare’s sides, she
moved up beside Hawk. He looked over at her as she slowed her mare
to match his pace. His tanned face was streaked with soot and dirt,
and he looked as tired as she felt. With a weak smile, he took her
hand and gave it a light squeeze.

“What is it?” he asked after a moment.