The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4 The Blessed Curse (17 page)

The child was perched in a seat a few feet
away, watching her with enormous violet eyes. He looked quite
young, perhaps two years of age, but there was remarkable
intelligence showing in his expression. His dark red hair was
tousled and her eyes lingered on the streak of white that crossed
one temple. He followed the direction of her gaze and his hand rose
to the white hair and shrugged one tiny shoulder. Smiling at him,
Zoelyn tugged a lock of her own hair from under her hood to show
him that it was white too. A wide smile split his face and his hand
dropped back to his lap. Leaning out of his seat he peered toward
the doorway and then up at his mother who stood balanced against
the wall leading into the cockpit of the Spell Hawk.

“We are good to go once your husband
returns,” Shade announced.

“Before he gets back, Shade, I have another
favor to ask of you,” Jala began hesitantly, her eyes flicking to
the doorway. “He won’t like it,” she added softly.

“Obviously from the way you are acting,”
Shade replied with sarcasm thick in his voice.

“Have you ever heard of Tevonale?” Jala
asked, her gaze going to the doorway once more.

Movement in the back of the ship drew
Zoelyn’s eyes from the conversation and she watched in silent
horror as a Bendazzi the size of a small pony rose from the shadows
and paced toward the High Lady. She had no idea how she had missed
the creature when she got on the ship, but then the predators were
said to be excellent at hiding. Zoelyn’s lips parted and a slight
gasp broke from her lips rather than the warning she had meant to
call. The child hopped from his seat and moved to stand in front of
her shaking his head quickly. The Bendazzi turned to watch them as
he passed, his yellow eyes fixated first on her and then the child
before pausing beside Jala and shoving her roughly with his massive
white head. Zoelyn stared dumbfounded at the massive predator that
was the scourge of the Arovan wilds, acting like a tame hound and
slowly turned to look back to the little boy.

“Marrow,” the child announced in a high voice
as he pointed at the Bendazzi.

“Marrow?” Zoelyn repeated in confusion.

“Stop it, Marrow!” Jala snapped as the
Bendazzi pushed against her once more with more force.

“I don’t know, Jala, if your Familiar thinks
it’s a bad idea, which he apparently does perhaps we should listen
to him,” Shade said, his hesitation clear in his words.

“I can’t, Shade. I swear, I can do it. You
saw the way Blackwolf acted in there. We have to have a place for
them to go and Tevonale is perfect,” Jala pressed her hand,
clenching at her side as she spoke.

“Perfect, aside from the fact that it is
shattered and cursed at the moment,” Shade argued. “Daddy coming,”
the child announced as he waved out the door.

“Shade?” Jala pressed, her voice sounding
urgent.

“Fine, I will stop there, but that’s it. I’m
not condoning this plan and if Valor stops you, I will applaud
him,” Shade grumbled.

Zoelyn watched them both in confusion and
wondered what she had missed in the few moments that her attention
had been set on the Bendazzi. She searched Jala’s pale face for
answers but found only a faint smile as Valor stepped onto the
ship. All traces of the urgency that had been in her voice were
gone from her demeanor.

Valor returned Jala’s smile and carefully sat
a wooden crate down beside the door. Zoelyn watched him and felt
her hopes sink as he began to pull the door shut behind him. It was
probably for the best, anyway. She could see no way they would have
gotten the mare onto the ship even if she had still been in the
stable.

“We are ready, Shade. Thank you for your
patience,” Jala announced the moment the door was sealed. “Thank me
after I get you to Merro,” Shade replied, still sounding rather
grumpy.

“Is he upset that I took so long?” Valor
asked with puzzlement clear in his voice.

“No, I don’t think that is it at all,” Jala
assured him as she took a seat and motioned for her son to join
her.

Valor watched her silently and one eyebrow
slowly rose. His head cocked to one side and he smiled down at the
little boy. “Mommy is plotting isn’t she?” he asked in a pleasant
voice.

“Mommy is not plotting. That sounds so
devious, Valor,” Jala replied with a heavy sigh. “Mommy is most
definitely plotting,” Shade called from the cockpit and Valor’s
smile widened.

“What are you planning that I won’t like?”
Valor asked, his voice still cheerful and to Zoelyn’s surprise he
seemed amused rather than angry.

Jala sighed heavily once more and leaned back
in her seat to stare up at the ceiling.

“It isn’t plotting, Valor. It is something
that must be done,” she replied after a long moment of silence.

“Oh, one of those,” Valor said with a knowing
nod and then shook his head slightly rolling his eyes. “How bad is
it, Shade, on a level of one to ten?” Valor called as he picked the
wooden box up and carried it closer to the seats. Carefully he sat
it down beside Zoelyn’s seat and dropped heavily into the chair
across from her.

“Forty-seven and a half,” Shade replied
loudly.

Valor paused in the process of opening the
crate, his eyebrow rising once more as he glanced over his shoulder
toward the pilot’s seat and then looked to Jala.

“He is insane, remember. At worst it is a
six,” Jala muttered as she glared in Shade’s direction. “Fifty,”
the child announced cheerfully and Valor snorted back laughter.

“Treason, Legacy, that is treason,” Jala
sighed, shaking her head at Valor. “Seven perhaps,” she
amended.

“Before I get started on dealing with Jala,
could you tell me if I grabbed the correct horse Zoelyn?” Valor
said quietly as he finally pulled the lid of the crate up to reveal
the tiny bay mare that was prancing inside, looking less than
pleased with her situation.

Zoelyn stared down at the animal, her eyes
widening as she spotted the white scars. “What did you do to her?”
she gasped before she could stop herself. There was no doubt it was
her horse, but she was so small and looked so terrified.

“I had her shrunk for transport. Don’t worry,
it is a common spell and Jala can reverse it when we arrive in
Merro,” Valor explained as he carefully replaced the lid of the
box. “The stable master was impressed with her. Said she was a fine
mare of good stock and even tempered. It’s hard to get praise from
that man on any horse. You should be proud,” Valor added as he
stood up from his seat once more and paced slowly to stand by the
doorway to the cockpit.

“Valor, before you begin your conversation
with Shade, can we handle something else? It shouldn’t take long. I
simply had to wait until we were off the ground to address it,”
Jala cut in before Valor could even open his mouth to speak.

“Address what?” Valor asked in confusion.

“Address who, rather,” Jala corrected and
rose from her seat. “Zoelyn has a Blight with her. I wanted to wait
until we were off the ground so he had no place to go if he was
spooked,” she explained with a smile.

“Uhh. What if he doesn’t get spooked and gets
angry instead?” Shade asked quickly.

“He doesn’t get angry!” Zoelyn spoke up
quickly, her eyes flashing between the three of them as she half
rose from her chair.

“Well, that saves me from asking if she knew
about him,” Jala said in amusement. Her eyes moved past where
Zoelyn stood and fixated on the air behind her. “Will you speak for
yourself or shall I speak to Zoelyn on your behalf?” Jala asked
quietly with no trace of the hostility Zoelyn had expected to find
at the mention of a Blight.

“Old one or young one?” Valor asked. He
seemed relaxed as well, but his hand was on his sword hilt.

“Young, but cleaner than Emily was,” Jala
answered, her expression unreadable as she studied the Blight. “And
a bit more familiar than I would have expected in appearance, Val,”
she added softly.

“Familiar how?” Valor asked his hand easing
back from his sword hilt.

“He is most definitely of Arovan blood,” Jala
explained, her eyes meeting Valor’s for a long moment and then
returning to the Blight.

“He doesn’t bother anything. Please, he just
helps me with small things and keeps me company. He isn’t dangerous
and he has never killed anything or hurt anyone,” Zoelyn said
quickly as she took a step in what she hoped was the correct
direction to put herself between the High Lady and her only
friend.

“Zoelyn, I have no intention of killing him
for being a Blight. You don’t need to be so worried I promise you.
As long as he is peaceful, so are we. As I said, I don’t believe in
Undrae by birth,” Jala’s voice was soothing as she spoke and Zoelyn
felt herself relaxing once more, simply from the sound of the High
Lady’s voice.

“Seems to have better manners than Emily,
too. She would have already told us to fuck off,” Valor observed
with a smirk.

Jala nodded and smiled, her gaze flicking to
the back of the ship. Eyes twinkling, she looked back to Valor and
smiled wider. “Emily says exactly that in response,” she informed
him and turned her gaze back toward Zoelyn. “So he doesn’t talk?”
she asked.

“Not often,” Zoelyn answered with a shrug.
“How did you even know he was here? I wasn’t even sure that he had
followed me.”

“I can see Blights,” Jala explained with a
wink and looked to Valor once more. “He doesn’t seem to be hostile.
What do you want to do?” Valor shrugged and leaned back more fully
against the wall. “Offer him a room at the house would be the
polite thing to do. Between you and Emily if he chooses to step out
of line he won’t make it far,” he suggested with a smirk.

“You are going to let him stay with me?”
Zoelyn gasped, her eyes moving between the two of them quickly. No
one in Arovan would have accepted a Blight so easily.

“We judge by actions, not blood. You will see
when you get to Merro,” Valor explained with a grin and turned to
look back at Shade. “So what did Jala ask you to do?” He asked
casually as if the matter of a Blight on the ship were no longer of
importance.

Zoelyn watched them both carefully, but their
attention truly did seem to have moved on. She had expected an
interrogation at the very least.

“Stop at one of the islands in the Black Sea
on the way back to Merro,” Shade replied without hesitation.

“Why would she want to do that?” Valor asked,
his grin widened and he turned his head to watch Jala as she
crossed her arms and stared at the two men.

“Because she is a flaming nutter with a death
wish,” Shade offered with a shrug.

“I am not the flaming nutter on this ship. I
have never once destroyed a city with exploding goblins,” Jala
clarified. “Ya? Well I’ve never won a battle because my enemies had
to pee either,” Shade shot back sounding a bit indignant. “It
worked, didn’t it?” Jala snapped, though there didn’t appear to be
any true anger in her voice.

“So did the goblins,” Shade pointed out with
a smirk.

“Thank the Divine you fell in love with me
rather than him. Had the two of you had time to formulate plans
together, I shudder to think what the world might have faced,”
Valor sighed.

“Our plans do work, Valor. They are simply a
bit unconventional,” Jala said with a sigh.

“So what is the plan this time?” Valor
pressed, his dark blue eyes settling on Jala.

“I’m going to raise the Tevonale islands,”
Jala informed him, her chin tilting upward as she spoke as if
daring him to object. “So, essentially rebuilding a continent,
then?” Valor asked, his voice still calm, but Zoelyn could see his
eyes growing stormy. “The Blights will need a land to claim as
their own if Shade succeeds in swaying them from Glis. Which he
will succeed in,” Jala explained as if it was perfectly rational to
discuss repairing a destroyed country.

“I don’t like it,” Valor grumbled. “Why can’t
we simply set aside a territory in the Greenwild for them? That
wouldn’t require risking your life using this much magic
again.”

“I won’t be risking my life, Valor. I know
exactly how to do this using the least amount of magic. It can’t be
the Greenwild, or Gaelyn or any other place that borders another
land. It has to be separate or they will be blamed for everything
that goes wrong in the neighboring country and you know it,” Jala
said quickly as she moved closer to him and took his hands in her
own. “Think about it, Valor. Who else would give them the benefit
of the doubt?”

“I don’t like it, but I see your point,”
Valor sighed and pulled her closer to him. He nodded slowly and
kissed her forehead. “I will concede to this on one condition.”

“What’s that?” Jala asked as she stared up at
him with a look of adoration.

“The moment I sense you are draining yourself
too far, you stop the magic,” Valor answered and watched her
carefully as she shifted in his arms.

“But what if I’ve almost completed it and I
have just another second or so to go?” Jala asked with a faint
frown.

“Then I will knock you out to end the magic
right then and there if you don’t look like you are going to stop
the spell yourself,” Valor replied with a grin.

“Way to go, Valor. If the woman won’t listen,
beat her. That’s a fine lesson to teach your son,” Shade cut in
with sarcasm dripping from his words.

“I have to agree with Shade here,” Jala
objected, pulling back a bit from Valor.

“Then I’ll politely ask Zoelyn to knock you
out,” Valor amended with a slight chuckle.

“Uhh.” Zoelyn mumbled, shifting in her seat.
Until the mention of her name she had been content to simply watch
them. She could learn a lot about people by watching them and so
far what she saw from the two of them gave her hope about her new
home. Right up to the point that Valor brought her into the
conversation.