The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4 The Blessed Curse (38 page)

The goblin trilled and gibbered at him as it
tried to worm its way past him to reach the food. Snorting back
laughter, Shade planted a hand calmly on its chest and pushed it
back once more. With an expression that reminded him of a pouting
child the goblin sulked off to the fringes of the camp and watched
him with a mournful face.

“I think you will survive for another twenty
minutes,” Shade chuckled.

“I don’t,” a woman’s voice whispered and
Shade launched to his feet at the sound. The brush behind the
goblin exploded with movement as several of the misshapen Blights
rushed the creature.

“No!” Shade bellowed as he drew his daggers
and sprinted for the goblin. One of the Blights whirled to face him
as he approached and he slammed the dagger into its head hilt first
to knock it out. He didn’t want to kill them, but he wasn’t about
to let them kill his goblin either. “Call them off, please. We
don’t want to fight. We are here to talk,” Shade yelled as he
kicked another of the Blights back from the goblin.

The small creature trilled with alarm and
scampered toward him. Its huge black eyes were wide with terror,
and it obviously had no desire to fight.

“I hate it when dinner tries to chat,” the
woman sighed with an amused tone in her voice.

“I was sent to negotiate peace with your
people. Please! I don’t want to fight you,” Shade pleaded as he
pulled the goblin toward him and kicked back another Blight. Claws
tore through the leather of his boot, shredding the flesh beneath,
but he didn’t spare time to even glance at the wound. Three more of
the creatures were already closing on him and the goblin was
attempting to scramble up his back to escape them. “Really, I know
you are scared, but this is just not helping,” Shade snarled as he
pulled the goblin from his hip and tossed it upward toward a tree
limb. “Stay up there,” he commanded as he dropped to a crouch to
face the closest Blight.

“I’ve never seen anything protect a goblin.
You are a strange one, Dinner,” the woman observed from the shadows
behind him.

“I greatly prefer to be called Shade. Dinner
just doesn’t suit me,” Shade said. The Blight in front of him
lunged as he spoke and he sidestepped gracefully then kicked it in
the butt as it passed to ensure it wouldn’t be back to attack him
for at least a few breaths. The remaining two Blights attacked
together coming at him from both sides and Shade dodged one and
grabbed the other by its spindly arm. Twisting he used the
creatures momentum to hurl it into its comrade and danced back as
they fell in a tangled heap. The one he had kicked in the butt was
closing on him again and he shook his head with frustration. “Look,
I don’t want to fight, and I am trying not to hurt these guys, but
I am running out of options quickly,” he called toward the Shadows
where the woman’s voice had originated.

“Then die and solve both of our problems.
They are hungry and you are food. It’s nothing personal, it’s
simply the food chain,” the woman replied calmly from the other
side of the clearing.

“I’ve got some lovely stew cooking. Call them
off and I’ll give everyone a bowl,” Shade offered in gasps as he
dodged the creature once more and kicked it toward its companions.
The wound in his leg was starting to burn and he glanced down at it
quickly. Blood had soaked his pant leg and the gashes didn’t look
to be healing as quickly as they should have.

The woman laughed somewhere to his right as
all three Blights charged him. “You look so dismayed. Did you
expect to be healing? I suppose it is a bit of a shock if you
regenerate, but we learned that lesson with the Shifters. They heal
too fast so we adapted. Fortunately for us we learned about Tevrae
through scanning minds. Sorry, Dinner, but you won’t be healing
today.” Her voice was mocking and Shade felt panic rise with her
words.

“Bloody hell,” Shade muttered as he dropped
to the ground to dodge the first blow and spun his leg to trip the
next Blight before it could attack. If the creatures had Tevrae on
their claws there was only so long he could continue to fight
defensively. He had known the mission would be dangerous, but with
Tevrae involved it wasn’t just dangerous it could possibly be
fatal.

A squeal of alarm rang through the clearing
and Shade caught movement in the trees above. The goblin trilled
again as the branch it clung to swayed dangerously. Shade barely
saw a glimpse of the Blight closing on the goblin before his
attention was drawn back to his own problems. Scrambling back he
dodged the third Blight’s attack and felt one of the other two slam
into his back. Claws tore through his leather vest and deep into
his flesh before he could break away. His goblin squealed again and
this time its voice was laced with pain. “Stop!” he screamed as the
Blight threw the goblin from the tree and landed on top of it,
claws raised for the death blow.

He hadn’t truly expected anything to come
from the word, but to his amazement all of the Blights in the
clearing had frozen in place. Shade blinked in confusion, looking
from Blight to Blight as he tried to determine what exactly had
just happened. He hadn’t used any magic, but the creatures had
stopped at his command. They stared at him now with wide eyes and
backed away from the fight.

“What the hell?” Shade muttered as he relaxed
his posture and watched the Blights in complete confusion.

“Morcaillo,” the woman hissed and slammed
into his back. Claws raked at him as he spun desperately trying to
dislodge her. “You think you can make us your slaves again?” the
woman snarled as she tore into him once more. He caught a glimpse
of her at last, and his breath caught in his throat. She was
beautiful with dark hair and soft green eyes, but it wasn’t the
beauty that had stolen his breath. It was the expression of pure
and utter hatred that covered her face. Never before had he
witnessed such rage in any creature.

“I don’t want a slave,” Shade gasped as he
frantically tried to break free of her attack. “I am here to make
peace with you.” He barely managed to gasp the words before her
claws found his flesh once more.

“Liar!” the Blight screamed and the word
seemed to echo through the entire forest.

Her face contorted again as she renewed her
attack with more savagery. Shade barely managed to dodge a blow to
his throat, stumbling back unbalanced. Her other hand connected
solidly with his face and his vision blurred as her claws ripped
through his right eye. Agony tore through him as he staggered back,
clutching his face.

“Please stop,” Shade gasped. In the beginning
he might have won a fight with her, but he had no hope of it now.
The smaller Blights had already wounded him by the time his round
with her started, and she had caught him completely off guard with
her attack. Between his blinded eye and the blood loss he knew the
fight was over for him, and the only prayer he had was talking some
sense into her. “Jala Merrodin sent me to make peace with you. I am
not here on behalf of the Morcaillo.” His words came out in a rush
as she faded back to camouflage again. He only had moments before
she attacked again, and he knew it would be the last attack. She
would finish him with her next blow if he didn’t do something
quick. He couldn’t even shift forms at this point. The process of
changing would take too long and she would rip him apart while he
was in the middle of the shift.

“Do not kill him,” The command came from the
edge of the forest and the newest speaker had a ring of authority
to his voice.

“He is Morcaillo!” the woman snarled as she
became visible once more. She was crouched barely a foot from him
and poised to spring. By her posture Shade knew without a doubt the
man had just saved his life.

“Thank you,” Shade gasped as he moved another
cautious step from the woman.

The man dropped his camouflage and stepped
calmly into the clearing. He was older than the woman, with dark
hair and a thin beard covering his chin. He glanced at Shade as he
approached and his expression was free of anger, but it was by no
means friendly. His dark eyes settled on the woman and he shook his
head slowly. “He is Morcaillo, which is exactly why we are taking
him to Onvalla rather than killing him. He is too important to
simply eat when we might learn useful information from him.”

“He is my prey. I should decide what is done
with him. I have been following him for a day now,” the woman
snapped as she ros e to her feet. Her back stiffened as she faced
her fellow Blight.

“He was your prey and now he is mine. It’s
nothing personal, Kella. It’s simply the food chain. You
understand, I’m sure,” the man smirked as he repeated her own words
back to her and flexed his claws as if daring her to attack
him.

Shade looked between the two of them,
silently noting the leather armor the man wore as opposed to the
linen shirt and breeches the woman had. He was larger built, too,
with a powerful frame. When you combined the physical differences
and the fact that he was older and likely better trained, the odds
were definitely in the man’s favor. Apparently, Kella had come to
the same conclusion and Shade watched as she nodded
reluctantly.

“The goblin is mine, Granger,” Kella declared
stubbornly. “No, it isn’t,” Granger corrected her with a smile.

“You expect me to go hungry tonight?” Kella
snarled, her anger rising once more.

“No,” Granger said with a shake of his head
and waved a hand toward the campfire. “There is a pot of stew right
there, Kella, ” he informed her as he turned back to Shade. The
smile faded from his lips as he regarded his captive with distaste.
“Follow or I leave you to her mercy,” he ordered as he turned to
stalk off toward the woods.

“Is Onvalla a place or a person?” Shade asked
quickly as he grabbed his pack and followed after the man. The
goblin scampered after him, trilling with alarm as it clutched his
pant leg. “It will be OK,” he whispered to it, although he was sure
the goblin realized he was feeding it false hope. It was pretty
obvious that things were not likely to be OK anytime soon.

“She is our leader and she will most likely
be your executioner. Don’t misunderstand your situation Morcaillo.
I didn’t save your life. I postponed your death,” Granger said
coldly. “If you try to run, I promise you a very painful death. I’m
already in a bad enough mood just from your presence here.”

“I have no intention of running, but if it’s
a long walk you may end up dragging me the rest of the way. You
might not have noticed, but I wasn’t exactly winning the fight back
there,” Shade informed him dryly. “So if you want me to reach your
leader in order to be questioned you may have to let me rest so
that I can heal once the Tevrae has worn off.”

Granger snorted with amusement and shook his
head slowly. “So it was sheer stupidity that led you here. I
thought perhaps you might have actually known where you were going
considering.”

“Considering what?” Shade grumbled.

“Considering you camped less than half a mile
from our hive,” Granger replied with a smirk. “I think you will
survive that far and I see no point in allowing you to heal before
Onvalla kills you. You might actually get away if you weren’t so
wounded. I’ve hunted your kind before, and I know how difficult you
can be.”

“Why not just question me yourself and kill
me now, then, if you are so sure she is going to kill me anyway? It
would save me the walk which I’m not looking forward to at all
anyway,” Shade snapped. Things were not going in a good direction
at all and his wounds had pushed him well past irritable. The eye
was the worst of it. He could ignore the wounds on his back and
legs, but the eye was impossible to ignore. With each beat of his
pulse it throbbed with pain and his remaining eye was blurring with
tears making him nearly blind.

“Because she will have her own questions for
you, Morcaillo, and a quick death would be too good for your kind.
If not for your people, we might have found a place in this world.
Instead you used us against your enemies and forced us to perform
atrocities. We will be hunted down for our crimes, but we will kill
as many Changelings as we can before they kill us off,” Granger
replied without a hint of mercy in his voice.

“I didn’t even know my kind controlled the
Blights,” Shade muttered as he followed along. “I thought it was
just my father that had control over your people, and I would have
gladly helped you kill him,” he added with a sigh.

“Save your lies for Onvalla,” Granger
snarled.

“I think I’ll try the truth instead. I’m a
lousy liar,” Shade mumbled and rubbed his good eye in a vain
attempt to regain some of his vision. It would be nice to be able
to see who was going to kill him when the time came. “I fucking
hate Tevrae,” he grumbled to the goblin that was still clinging to
him. It gibbered to him sympathetically and Shade smiled faintly.
“Well, at least I won’t die alone. I’ll have one friend with me,
even if I can’t understand a single bloody word you are
saying.”

The Darklands

“Try the next one,” Seth’s voice was calm as
he flicked another mage stone toward her. Zoelyn eyed it with
irritation and dropped the one she was holding. When Neph or Jala
made the stones for her they were colored depending on what magic
they held. Seth’s were all dark grey with no indication of what
kind of magic was held inside. “Try the next one,” Seth repeated in
a firmer voice.

“I’ve already tried three and it’s no use. I
can’t sense anything from them,” Zoelyn objected as she leaned
heavily back in her chair. “I’m sick of failure,” she added in a
softer voice and turned her attention from Seth and the stone
covered table. The throne room was empty aside from the two of them
and Legacy who was playing in the floor beside his father’s vacant
throne. She had no idea where Finn was. It was the first time she
had been in the throne room when he wasn’t present.