Victory considered the proposal quietly and nodded his agreement. “That meets the requirements that Caspian has set. On one condition, however.”
Graves raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?” he asked.
“That you not hire on against the Fionaveir. There are several High Lords that consider us little better than the Genji, though I do like to think we are far better than goblins,” he answered.
“Clever, I wondered if you would catch that point. I will agree to this.” Graves nodded his agreement as he spoke and seemed amused.
Victory glanced up as Havoc dropped into a chair beside him and slid a beer toward him. The Firym took a long swallow of his beer and gave Graves a smile. “Well, now that’s settled, let’s talk money and see if we can’t make it out of here without being bent over the table. I’ve heard you haggle worse than an Avanti merchant, Graves,” Havoc said as he sat his beer mug down with a loud thump.
“Avanti merchants have nothing on me,” Graves replied with a smile that promised it would be a lengthy negotiation.
Chapter 9
Sanctuary
Shade woke slowly and gave a long sigh. Faint morning light filtered through his heavily covered windows. He sat up slowly and stretched. With a faint groan, he walked over to the window and pulled back the curtain to look up at the sky. Morning was just dawning, and it looked as though it was going to be a beautiful, clear day. With a nod of satisfaction that he hadn’t overslept, he headed for the bathroom and showered quickly.
He left his rooms a short time later, dressed in a perfectly tailored suit in his house colors of blue and silver. The rest of the hall was quiet as he crossed to the small dining room. That didn’t mean anything, though. The others were usually quiet, so there was no way to tell if they were sleeping without checking their rooms. Leah and Lex looked up from their breakfast as he entered the room and he gave them a smile. “Do you two ever sleep?” he asked quietly as he took a seat at the table.
“About as often as you,” Lex replied.
“Poor bastards,” Shade returned with a smirk. He examined both of their plates and decided on an apple from the small basket in the center of the table instead.
Leah gave a light chuckle and poured him a cup of coffee. “So, where did you find the kitten?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
Shade took a bite from his apple and chewed slowly as he watched her. “Well good morning to you, too, Leah. Why yes, I did sleep good. You?” he asked, once he had swallowed.
“Yes, I slept great. Now where did you find the kitten?” She pressed as relentless as she ever was.
He gave a sigh. It was never easy to get Leah off a topic. “My ship had a malfunction on the way back and I had to do emergency repairs in Brannaford. She was stranded there, so I gave her a ride. We talked for a while and here we are.”
“A malfunction on your ship?” Lex asked in disbelief.
“A tree limb through the wing malfunction,” Shade explained in disgust. They both watched him with expectant expressions. He knew better than to try to avoid the conversation. “My parents were fighting again. Mother dragged me into it. Father forbade me from entering the Sky race. In short, my mood was utter shit when I left Morcath. I was drinking before I even left the house and drank even more once I was in the ship. At some point, I ended up spilling brandy all over myself and dropped my flask. When I tried to grab it, I clipped the top of a tree.” He took a sip from his coffee and shrugged. “I shouldn’t have been flying so low or drinking while flying for that matter. I’m not even sure why I was. It was an idiot mistake I don’t plan to repeat. But it all worked out in the end.”
“And now your father is summoning you.” Leah let the statement hang in the air. Both of the twins bore serious expressions.
“The taxes were short. He will want me to explain. He wasn’t actually mad at me yesterday. He was fighting with my mother. She can be rather difficult to deal with at times. My father is a good man and he is looking out for my best interest. I wasn’t drinking yesterday because of him,” Shade reassured them both. I was drinking because of her, he added silently. Better not to get into that with the twins, though. There was so much that he would rather not explain about his family.
The door pushed open and Oma entered silently. She was a tiny, frail thing, barely over five feet with silver blond hair that was pulled back in a braid. She wore a simple lavender dress which made her skin seem ghostly rather than pale. She regarded him with eyes that were such a pale blue they seemed almost colorless, and gave him a faint smile.
“Good morning, Oma,” he said with a returned smile. “I’ve brought another to live with us. I’d like you to meet her once she is up if you don’t mind.” She gave him a nod of agreement and silently took a seat beside him.
“Which brings me to another point,” Leah began. She waited until Shade was looking at her again before she continued. “You didn’t warn her at all about Madren, did you?” she asked.
“I thought I would be here for their first lesson, so I didn’t bother with warning her before we got here. And it seemed rather rude with Madren sitting in the room,” he explained with a frown.
Oma gave him her own silent look of disapproval which was somehow worse than any scolding Leah could give.
“You didn’t warn me, either, and I had to break his nose,” Leah pointed out.
“She didn’t look like the type to break a nose,” Lex added.
“I’ll talk with her after the lesson,” Shade promised.
Leah gave a snort of amusement. “By then, I doubt she will need a warning,” she said.
Oma was sipping quietly on coffee and watching them, and then slowly turned to look back toward the door. She looked back to Shade and motioned in that direction.
Shade glanced that way and then back at her. “She’s up?” he asked. Oma answered with another nod, and he stood and crossed to the door. He leaned out to find Jala looking up and down the hall as if unsure if she should try a door or not. “We are down here,” he called and gave her a smile when she turned to face him. She returned the smile and moved toward him. She wore a blue gown today with the same silver coat she had worn the previous day. He decided his house colors suited her quite well. He wondered briefly if she had dressed that way intentionally or by chance. “Good morning,” he said once she was closer. “Did you sleep well?”
She gave a slight chuckle. “I don’t think I’ve ever slept that well,” she admitted.
He stepped back to allow her to enter the room, and she smiled to Lex and Leah. “Good morning,” she greeted the both of them and paused at Oma. “You must be Oma. My name is Jala. It’s nice to meet you.” She gave a slight bow of the head which caused Oma to smile.
Oma gave her a small nod and looked meaningfully at Shade. It was clear she had something to say, but it would have to wait. He knew she wouldn’t speak in front of the others. She never did. He raised an eyebrow and gave a half shrug and smiled, hoping she understood and that the conversation could wait. “Go ahead and have a seat.” Shade indicated a chair and looked to Leah, trying to ignore the fact that Oma was still staring at him.
Leah rolled her eyes and stood. “Sure, I’ll play maid. You want breakfast too, Oma?” Oma gave a slight nod, her attention still focused on Shade as Leah headed off toward the small kitchen in the back of the dining room.
Jala had been examining the room during the exchange but looked up quickly at Leah’s departure. “I could have gotten my own food,” she objected, her expression a bit concerned. “She didn’t have to play maid for me.”
“You are a guest. She actually works for me. It won’t kill her to fetch food despite how she grumbles,” Shade reassured her. “I have to leave very soon to meet my father, and Lex will be heading to the Arena to prepare for the Ring of Swords. But you will have Leah and Oma here, as well as Madren,” he explained, as Leah returned with two plates of food and dropped them heavily in front of Jala and Oma. Jala’s eyes widened
a bit, but Oma ignored the gesture and began to eat.
“Thank you, Leah,” Jala said meekly. She examined the food for a quick moment and began to eat, as well.
“Good morning, all,” Madren called cheerfully from the door. Shade suppressed an inward groan. He and his household were well used to Madren by now. He was incredibly intelligent, and possibly the smartest person Shade knew. It was every other area that Madren failed in. He didn’t have the usual social filter most people had that kept them from blundering. Socially, blunder was the only word one could use to describe him.
Madren sat down at the table oblivious to the twins and Shade watching him and gave Jala a smile that covered half his face. “Good morning to you especially,” he fairly purred.
Jala looked up at him and blinked before hesitantly speaking. “Uhh…good morning…Madren.”
Madren’s smile widened, and Shade briefly pondered how that was even possible. “I got you a present to commemorate our first study day together,” Madren chirped happily and set a brightly wrapped box in front of Jala before she could voice an objection.
The twins and Oma turned to stare at Shade, and he gave them a helpless shrug. What was he supposed to do now, grab the gift before she could open it? He gave a sigh. “One does not usually give gifts for such things, Madren,” Shade said quietly.
“I know, but I wanted our beginning to be remembered always,” Madren replied, nudging the box closer to Jala while urging her on with nods.
“Our beginning?” Jala asked in confusion and slowly picked up the box, glancing at Shade as she did so.
With obvious hesitation, she unwrapped it and opened the box. Her jaw dropped. Shade leaned closer to get a look inside the box and had to suppress the urge to slap himself in the face at Madren’s brilliant blunder. Jala looked from the diamond necklace inside to Shade and then to Madren. “I, uhh, I think this is a bit much, but…umm…very generous, Madren.” She tried to slide the box back to him, but Madren kept pushing it back to her.
“It’s almost as beautiful as you are.” Madren fairly sighed the words.
Leah cleared her throat and stomped hard on Shade’s foot. He let out a short surprised grunt and cleared his own throat before speaking. “Madren, do you remember all of those talks we have had about appropriate behavior?” he asked.
Madren gave him a slow nod but remained silent. His hands began to fidget slightly and his lower lip trembled.
Shade sighed. “Madren this is not appropriate. For a study day, an appropriate gift would have been a cup of coffee or maybe some tea. If you were exceptionally nice, a Danish,” he paused, forcing Madren to meet his eyes. “Do you see the difference, Madren? Appropriate coffee and Danish. Inappropriate hugely expensive diamond necklace. Notice how different those are?” His voice was a bit harsher than it probably needed to be, but his patience was gone. How, by all the Aspects, could this have seemed like a good idea to the idiot? He wondered if Madren was even worth the effort at times. But in truth, without him, Madren really had nothing else. If Shade didn’t give him a place, no one else would.
With a muffled sob Madren stood abruptly and fled the room. Both the twins snorted in amusement and Lex lightly applauded. “I really think you are making progress with him,” Lex said with obvious sarcasm.
Jala was shifting her gaze between the necklace and the door and then looked to Shade. “Did I miss something?”
Leah gave a nod and smiled at Shade. “Why don’t you explain, Shade?” she said in an overly sweet voice.
Shade gave a healthy sigh and stood. “Walk me to the door and I’ll explain, Jala.” She stood wordlessly and followed him out the door. Once well out of earshot of the others he began. “Madren is the last of his house; he was a bastard of the line and was in school when the house was killed off. He has been in this school for close to twenty years. He has nowhere else to go as far as he can see. When I got here three years ago, it was a traditional pastime for students to torment him. He is horrible with people and he is lonely.” Jala was watching Shade and nodding slowly. He gave her a shrug and continued. “I took him in and kept the others off him for the most part, but he can be difficult to deal with. As I said, he is lonely and his self-esteem isn’t the best, so he tries to buy affection. He is highly intelligent. His memory is perfect as far as books go. Socially, however, he is a disaster. He did the same to Leah when she came here. She thinks her breaking his nose stopped him, but that wasn’t it.” Shade rubbed his face and gave her a faint smile and shrug.
“What did it?” Jala asked with obvious hope.
“Something that won’t work with you, I’m afraid,” he replied. He wasn’t really sure if he wanted to admit to what he was about to say, but it seemed best to explain it fully. “I had a talk with him shortly after she broke his nose. I assumed if I didn’t do something drastic she would hurt him a lot worse.”
“Drastic?” Jala asked.
“I told him she was actually a man. I told him I had hired the twins as swords but in order for them to protect me well, one of them had to pretend to be a woman. In case a woman ever attacked me, because it wouldn’t be right for a man to hit a woman. So he thinks Aleah is really a man named Lee, and if Leah ever hears that story she will kneecap me.” He emphasized the last point. He really wasn’t sure she would stop with a kneecapping.
Jala repressed a snort of laughter. “And he believed it?” she asked in disbelief.
“Fully and completely, and I’m going to trust you to keep that between the two of us. Now before I go, a quick explanation about Oma. I believe I promised you one last night. Oma is an Empath, In fact, a very strong Empath. She is a half-blood, and I’m not really sure of what Bloodline. Her mother was a courtesan and died in birth. She felt her mother’s agony and death as she took her first breath in this world. It has left her a bit scarred, and for the most part, she avoids people. When I found her, she was living on the streets, and she wouldn’t speak to me for months. I kept at it and eventually persuaded her to come here. She is the only one in my wing that does not actually attend the school. She stays in these rooms and, for the most part, avoids people aside from those few of us that live here. She will likely never say a word to you, but please do not take offense, she doesn’t do it to be rude,” he explained quickly, and then opened the door. “Now, as much as I’d rather not, I have to go or I’ll be late. Good luck with your studies and if Madren gives you more trouble let me know when I return.”
“Are you sure he will even still teach me?” she asked quickly before he could shut the door.
“Without a doubt, just give him a bit,” he replied before shutting the door and walking briskly toward the closest portal stone. He hoped she didn’t get the wrong idea and begin to think she was another misfit to add to his collection. He hoped the twins would reassure her that not all of his household was broken. They were not exactly pillars of society, but they were most definitely not broken. He hoped Madren wouldn’t send her screaming to her rooms to pack before he got back. Too many hopes he realized and wished again he didn’t have to go meet his father. He would much rather remain behind and make sure the day went well. He gave another sigh and resolved to return as soon as possible.
“You are late, Christian,” his father said as the door to the study closed behind him. His voice held neither anger nor concern. He simply stated fact.
Shade gave him an apologetic smile. “Trouble with my household, Father. Please forgive me.” Mythandar Morcaillo, High Lord of Morcath was as immaculate as ever. To Shade’s eyes, he wore the house colors like armor. He could pass for my brother, a sterner brother to be sure but still, Shade mused. The years did not show on his father at all. He looked perhaps twenty five at most. In truth Shade had no idea how old he truly was. His hair was deep auburn, a touch darker than his own, but in all other ways, Shade was a younger, less severe shadow of his father. The High Lord, Myth, was watching Shade from a straight backed leather chair across the room. His expression giving aw
ay nothing of his emotions. He was like that always though. If you didn’t know him very well, you could never guess what he was thinking. “Nothing too terrible I hope?” he asked, once Shade had seated himself in a nearby chair.
“No, nothing serious at all,” Shade replied, easily hoping he was being truthful and Jala wasn’t running as fast as she could from his rooms, with Madren chasing her down. He quickly pushed the mental image away and focused completely on his father. Myth could tell when his mind was straying, and it never pleased him.
Myth gave a slight nod, apparently satisfied and uninterested in further details. “The taxes were light and you did not explain why in your ledger,” he said.
As straight to the point as ever, Shade noted. In some ways, his father was quite predictable. “I wanted to speak with you about that in person, actually, so I declined noting it in the ledgers. I had planned to explain to you when I delivered the taxes but Mother was being difficult.”
Myth nodded in understanding. “As she often is, I understand. However, I would like that explanation now.”
“As you may have heard last winter was a bad one for a few of the neutral quarters,” he began, well aware that he would need to explain this quickly and word it well or his father’s mood would darken. “They had plague and starvation. I was concerned for our own people lest it spread so I took steps to prevent that. I hired healers and sent them into the most heavily afflicted areas. I sent stored provisions to them to counteract the starvation, and I hired men to remove the rats and waste that had begun to pile up in those areas. Not long after I had begun to help, the refugees from that area began to come here, so I took yet more funds and built housing for them in the form of apartments. Our own population has grown considerably from it, and I expect this fall’s taxes to be substantially higher.” He watched his father, wishing for just once he could read the man’s expressions.
The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey Page 15