The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey (44 page)

Jala watched Shade for the first few minutes
of the flight and tried not to think how much differently her first
flight had gone. He had been so calm and relaxed and had answered
her endless questions with a patience she only saw in Sovann now.
The thought depressed her, and she leaned her head back against
Finn’s shoulder. She turned her legs to where she sat draped across
his lap, spreading her weight to what she hoped was easier on
Finn’s legs. “Maybe we should have just stayed in bed,” she
whispered to him.

He looked down at her with a look of pure
indignation. “Now you say that?” he demanded, though his voice held
no anger at all. “After we have already left the city and are on
our way. Had you said that while we were still at the Academy I
assure you, I would be smiling right now.” He gave her a gentle
kiss on the neck and winked at her. “And so would you.”

“So does this new found cuddliness mean the
two of you are a couple now?” Wisp asked in a low voice, leaning
closer to the two of them. “I had wondered when I didn’t see a
single warmer come out of Finn’s room all week but shrugged it
off.”

Finn gave a non-committal shrug and remained
silent. Jala twisted a strand of hair around her finger and
considered the question. It wasn’t really hers to answer, she
didn’t think. She hadn’t even paid attention to the lack of women
around Finn recently. But now that Wisp mentioned it, he had been
alone every time she had seen him, except for the occasional
presence of Valor or Wisp. Valor seemed almost a constant presence
in Finn’s life, and it was clear the two had been friends for quite
some time.

“You do both realize poor Valor is going to
be walking around in a constant state of exhaustion and dehydration
trying to keep his share, as well as Finn’s share, of the single
ladies of Sanctuary satisfied.” Wisp pointed out with obvious
amusement.

“I doubt he will complain,” Finn replied.

Wisp’s eyes widened at the comment, and a
smile rose on her perfect lips. “Oh my, that’s more of a yes than I
had expected to get. How perfectly wonderful, I had always thought
you were allergic to commitment.” She gave Jala a wink and her
smile widened. “A Bendazzi and a Finn. You are quite possibly the
most proficient big game hunter I’ve ever seen.”

Finn gave her a glower in response and Jala
snickered. She gave Finn a light pat on the cheek. “I bagged this
one in the market square,” she teased, trying to hold back her
grin.

“It’s so good to see the two of you becoming
such good friends,” Finn muttered dryly, rolling his shoulders and
leaning more heavily into his seat. “I wish I’d thought to bring
the proper herbs to keep you both snoring on the trip, had I known
how close you were I’m sure I would have remembered them.”

“Drugging us, eh? Perhaps you should let Jala
sit here and gossip with me and you can move forward a seat and
trade recipes with Madren,” Wisp suggested with a snicker, drawing
another glower from Finn.

“For that, I might just punt you from the
hawk, pixie,” he grumbled.

Jala grinned at the banter and pulled her
cloak around herself. With her free hand, she took Finn’s and laced
her fingers with it, pulling it up to her chest. She gave him a
softer smile and squeezed his hand lightly. “I’d rather you not
move seats. I’m quite comfortable.” His glower disappeared and he
returned the smile.

The afternoon sun glared down as they
disembarked the spell hawk. It hadn’t been a long flight, in truth,
but the tension in the ship had been thick for most of the voyage.
With a sigh of relief to be in the open air again, Jala stepped
down behind Finn and took a long, deep breath. Wisp gave her a grin
and nodded her silent agreement. Finn stopped just beyond the ship
and looked around warily. He surveyed the broad open country and
looked back at Shade. “This is not Goswin. Where are we?” he asked,
his tone only a note or two from demand.

Shade looked over from where he was unloading
his gear and frowned. “It’s Rivana. Look at the map, Finn. I didn’t
have a choice where to land. Had I chosen North Goswin we would
have been here for days trying to reach the forest, and you can’t
fly a spell hawk over South Goswin, there are too many fluxes.”

“Fluxes?” asked Jala, her own eyes roving
their surroundings with more apprehension now. She didn’t care much
for the thought of being on Rivana soil so soon after Finn had
killed Devron.

“Magical flux, they are somewhat of storms
really. No pilot will fly over Southern Goswin because of them.
Some side effect of the failed spell the witches were casting,”
Shade explained. “The best I can say is, we hurry and cross the
border. I doubt they will have time to respond to us being here
before we are beyond their reach. I will stone the spell hawk and
take it with us, so we can leave from another location. Still, I
feel it necessary to point out that we wouldn’t have a problem if
you hadn’t killed the High Lord’s Son.”

“Indeed. Well you’ve pointed it out and I
still don’t regret the action,” Finn replied, not bothering to look
at Shade as he spoke. He was too intent on getting the horses out
of their boxes and handing them off to Wisp for the dispelling.

“Is it likely that they could even tell we
are here?” Jala asked dubiously. The area looked quite remote to
her, and she doubted there was a village anywhere for miles.

“That depends on if Shade disabled his
location crystal, if he didn’t then every sky port within two
hundred miles knows we are here,” Finn answered. “Which of course
he didn’t because it is illegal to fly without one and Shade of
course would not want to cause a scandal,” he added, rolling his
eyes in a look of utter disgust.

“Not all of us are criminals,” Shade snapped
back.

“I am not a criminal,” Finn growled as he
mounted his horse and tossed Jala the reins to her own mount.

“Of course not, that’s why we are running
toward a border,” Shade replied dryly.

“Please stop. Both of you, please,” Jala
pleaded, looking between the two of them. Finn had the grace to
look mildly ashamed, but Shade continued to glower. “You are both
here to help me, I know, and I appreciate it so much, but so help
me if you keep bickering at each other, I’m going to stay with the
witches.”

“Don’t even joke like that,” Madren broke in,
his tone sounding nervous. He raised a hand toward his forehead and
made a gesture Jala wasn’t familiar with.

“What was that?” she asked, indicating his
hand. Madren remained silent and shook his head frowning down at
the ground rather than meeting her gaze.

“Warding gesture against evil,” Finn answered
with a smirk of amusement. “You are Shade’s man, Madren, don’t you
realize according to his philosophy, evil doesn’t exist. Everything
is grey. You should learn a warding gesture for slightly darker
grey than you.”

“Finn!” Jala snapped, glaring at him.

“I’m sorry. I’ll behave,” Finn apologized,
the words only slightly broken from his continued snickering.

“Why don’t we go now that Shade has the ship
stoned? Before the Rivasans turn up to show us how dark of grey
they are,” Wisp suggested and nudged her horse into motion. Jala
gave a curt nod of agreement and urged her horse up beside
Wisp’s.

Silently, the others fell in behind them with
Madren moving to the lead, presumably to guide their expedition.
The borders between the two lands were as stark a contrast as the
borders of Merro and the Greenwild. Where the Rivasan border ended
the ground turned to new forest thick with underbrush where trees,
barely more than saplings, clawed at each other in an effort to
gain the sun’s attention.

“Lucky you brought me,” Wisp said and gave
Jala a wink. With a dainty hand, she motioned gently to the trees
and hummed a bit under her breath. With creaks of protest, the tree
branches parted making an overgrown but serviceable path through
the tangled woods.

“I didn’t know you were an earth mage,” Jala
grinned at Wisp. She had heard of the crafters from Sovann, but
Wisp was the first she had actually seen working magics.

“Oh I dabble a bit, enough to make life more
convenient, but nothing serious. I can’t move mountains like the
great ones supposedly did. I can make the trees bend a bit and
remove the worst of the vines, though,” Wisp replied happily and
continued to clear their path as they rode.

“We need to make it to the old wood before
dark,” Madren said from ahead of them. He sat rigid on his horse
and Jala could see the faint gleam of sweat on the back of his neck
despite the cool breeze.

“Why?” asked Wisp. Her attention was focused
on her magic and Jala doubted she had noticed Madren’s
distress.

“This is the beginning of the Dead fields.
According to tales, there is a new tree for each man that fell in
the last battle. Those souls were bound here as well as the
witches, and they rise at night. Whether the number is accurate or
not, I couldn’t say, but I know a damned lot of men died here. We
don’t have a spirit mage to keep the dead at bay so it’s better
just to hurry,” Madren explained, his voice low and sounding a bit
choked.

“Death must delight in this place. That’s a
lot of souls she had been denied,” Finn said dryly.

Jala looked around at the forest and
contemplated how long it would take to count the trees. For as far
as she could see in all directions, new growths of maple and oak
covered the landscape. “That’s a bloody lot of dead,” she mumbled
to Wisp.

Wisp looked over at her with a mild frown.
“Haven’t gotten to Goswin in history yet, have you?” she asked.

Jala shook her head. “No, I’m on Faydwer now,
actually.”

“On the day of the falling, two of the
northern armies were here as well as the entire southern army, over
three hundred thousand died on that single day. It was the worst
disaster since the founding of Sanctuary. Until the fall of Merro
and Veir, that is.” Wisp eyed the trees as she spoke with a bit
more reverence, and it seemed to Jala that her earth crafting took
on a gentler note.

“Did you notice there is no wildlife?” Jala
said quietly. She hadn’t really noticed the silence when they had
first entered the woods. With growing unease, she looked around,
hoping to spot a bird or squirrel, or any sign of life other than
their small party.

“If you were wildlife would you show yourself
with the scent of Bendazzi in the air?” Finn asked with a
smile.

Jala gave a nervous chuckle at his attempt to
lighten her mood and refrained from pointing out that Marrow had no
scent. “How far until the older part of the forest, Madren?” she
called ahead.

“Three or so hours at this pace,” Madren
answered.

Wisp gazed up at the sky in contemplation and
then urged her small bay mare into a trot. “Less, if we move a bit
faster, and I’m inclined to move a bit faster.”

The trip through the new forest was a silent
one for the most part. The attention of the group had been focused
on navigating through the thick brush and trying to ignore the
coming dark. Of all of them, only Finn seemed unfazed by the
surroundings. At one point, Jala had actually heard him whistling a
rather bawdy tavern song behind her.

She had spent most of the ride thinking the
old wood would be a sort of sanctuary from the dangers of the Dead
Fields. The reality of how wrong she had been, dawned as they
neared the ancient trees. The unease of the newer growth was
nothing compared with the oppressive feel of the dark giants. The
underbrush gradually fell away in small degrees as they neared, and
the path widened enough that Wisp’s magics were no longer required.
She felt more than heard Finn move up to ride beside her as they
crossed under the nearly black canopy. While it was only dusk
beyond the Tolanteer forest, under the branches it was already as
dark as full night. Being raised in the country, Jala had never
really known fear of the wilds or of darkness, but the feel of this
forest was wrong to her every sense. It was as if the trees
themselves were filled with anger. Even Marrow seemed on edge in
the forest, keeping to the shadows and watching his surroundings
with caution. She suppressed a shiver, and glanced over at Finn to
find him watching her quietly. Embarrassed at her own nerves, she
looked away quickly and tried to put herself at ease.

“Can you imagine what a bunny from this
forest must look like?” he asked in a low conversational voice. “I
bet they have fangs.”

She looked over at him again and shook her
head slightly. “They may indeed, I don’t think I want to meet
anything from this forest other than the one I’m seeking,” she
replied with a nervous chuckle.

“Still, it’s not as bad as the Scarlet
Jungle. Everything in that place is a carnivore, I swear,” he said
with a smile and gazed around at the towering trees as if he were
strolling in a garden.

“You’ve been to the Scarlet Jungle?” Jala
asked, eager for a distraction.

Finn gave a slight nod and pulled a flask
from his saddlebags. “Naturally, that’s where I learned to use
swords. It’s also where I developed my taste for Firewater.” He
offered her the flask and took a long pull himself when she shook
her head in refusal. “See, I’m originally from Avanti, but when I
was sixteen or so I had a bit of a difficulty there. So my father
takes me aside and tells me as long as I live by his coin under his
roof I will obey what he says.” Finn paused and gave her a grin.
“So, of course, I was packed that afternoon and gone by that night
without a coin to my name or an idea where I was going.”

“I don’t even know how old you are now,” Jala
pointed out when he paused for another drink.

“Twenty-six in a month or so,” he replied,
grinning at the shock that must have shown on her face. “I know you
likely thought me younger. I’m one of the older students, but I had
to get the coins to enroll, so I spent a bit of time mucking about
before I went for higher learning.”