Elal would arrive any second, by the smell of it.Oddly, the road appeared to be clear as far as he could see, and he had very good longsight, the advantage of amazing healing powers.Huh.His very bad feeling got worse.
“I’m counting on you,” he told Seliah.“We can’t let Elal recapture Alise.I feel certain of that.Iwillsurvive.You know that.Get them away and get the word to Phel, if worse comes to worst.”
Reluctantly, she nodded.Then she stabbed him in the sternum with a pointed finger.
“Ow,” he complained.
“You had better survive,” she warned him with deadly intent.“Even better, you need to send him packing.”
He laid a hand over her finger, giving the empty road a worried glance.“I promise I—” He broke off.“He’s here.”
“Where?I don’t see—oh.”
As in an old story, where the supposed angel—nobody had ever seen a real angel, although demons of various varieties seemed plentiful enough—descended from the sky, Piers Elal suddenly appeared, hovering several person-heights above the ground.Mist swirled around him like clouds, obscuring whatever platform he stood on.A very young woman stood beside Lord Elal, practically plastered to his side, her dark skin grey with terror.She had the look of House Chur about her, along with the brilliant shine of Chur’s fire and sun magic.Rumors had been flying that Piers had bonded a fresh, young familiar in the wake of his previous familiar’s untimely demise.
Even Chur magic couldn’t produce this kind of power though.It was an impressive party trick.That is, the invisibility cloak and the appearance of flying were both kind of cool and made the wizard seem even more impressive.
Good thing party tricks didn’t work on Jadren.When you’re raised by a sadistic mother fond of dramatics, you learned to see through the costumes, makeup, and distorted mirrors to the truly lethal bits beneath.Distraction could be fatal.
That’s what really worried him.Piers Elal had figured out a way to fly—or appear to do so—and that required a shitload of magic.Spirits could fly because they had no physical substance.Making them have an impact on the physical world required a great deal of magic and skill.What would it take to power spirits to elevate two people through the skies?Yeah, only working with demons or djinn, which would explain the monstrosity Elal had partially summoned to threaten them at Bria’s naming ceremony.
Did Alise know?Even more important, could she fight her father using that kind of blood magic?It would be really convenient if she were conscious.Well, and completely recovered.He’d been hip deep in her magic—well, really, ankle deep, given how horribly she’d drained herself—and she wouldn’t be up to even saying hi to an elemental for quite a while.
Which meant winning this little confrontation was entirely up to him.Oh joy.Nothing like being a hero of the republic and significantly shy of what it took to do so.
“Jadren El-Adrel, if I’m not mistaken,” Piers Elal sneered.“The upstart, ungrateful child who murdered his mother, my friend, and currently sullies her august throne with his imposter ass.”
Jadren made a show of craning to look over his shoulder at said ass.“Pretty sure this is my original, genuine ass,” he replied with a grin.“And I’m sullying this here road at the moment.”
“So I observe.Why has El-Adrel dared to invade Elal lands?”
“Elal lands?”Jadren pointed down the road to where the border barrier lay in the far distance.As Piers seemed to have penetrated the barrier shifted by Alise, his minions would be soon catching up.They didn’t have a lot of time for posturing and menacing dialogue.“We seem to be well outside of Elal lands and in Convocation common territory.”
“I’ve expanded the lands claimed by Elal,” Piers replied.“The records are on file at Convocation Center.You’re trespassing.”
“Must have missed the sign,” Jadren commented.“Funny that you haven’t expanded your barrier yet.Or, you know, sent round a notice to anyone.”
“I didn’t anticipate that anyone would have the temerity to abduct my heir and obstruct my humanitarian mission to retrieve her.Much less nothing-houses like Harahel and El-Adrel.Remove yourself from my lands or I shall take action.Hand over my daughter.”
“In that order?”Jadren asked, perplexed.“I’m not sure how—”
“Silence, upstart!”Piers thundered with an air elemental-amplified shout—another cute party trick—his face reddening.“I will have my heir.And that sniveling librarian who poisoned me.Believe me, Harahel will answer for this unprovoked attack.”
Jadren said nothing.Seliah stayed very quiet and still beside him, her bright and depthless magic at the ready.Jadren took the opportunity to use his wizard senses to investigate what kept Elal and his lovely, terrified familiar aloft.Definitely a host of spirits, with that discomfiting metallic sense of old blood and rancid wine fueling them.But it seemed they stood on basically a piece of wood.That made a certain amount of sense.No point in adding more weight than necessary.Definitely a plus, though, that it was made of organic material.Normally Jadren’s peculiar—and largely still secret—talents worked best on living creatures.However, he still possessed plenty of bog-standard El-Adrel ability to manipulate artifacts.Hmm.
“Well?”Piers demanded imperiously.“Nothing to say?”
Jadren made a show of starting in surprise.“Oh, I thought you wanted silence.I’m confused now.Maybe it’s the altitude?Yours, that is.If you come down here, I might be able to hear you better.”
“I’m fine up here.”Lord Elal smirked.The fact that he had only one organic eye made the smirk more dramatic.Gabriel Phel had forcibly removed the eye, which Elal had later replaced with a mechanical version: a device no doubt made by House El-Adrel.Possibly custom designed and built by his dear old maman.Double hmm.
“Got something in your eye?”Jadren twirled his finger at the device.“Looks like you’re having some discomfort.”
“What are you blathering about, you unregistered idi—ah!”Piers clapped a hand over the mechanical eye, squealing in pain in such an undignified manner that Jadren might’ve indulged in a bit of smirking of his own.Elal’s familiar, anxious and upset, tried to assist but he pushed her aside.Not enough to lose physical contact, though.
Seliah slid him a questioning look, but said nothing.
“Malfunction?”Jadren called solicitously.“I could probably assist with that.Come on down and I’ll take a look at it.”He used his El-Adrel wizardry to heat up the metal a bit more.His own eye-orbit throbbed in sympathy.Yeah, he’d had similar instruments installed.Amazing how much the inside of your own skull could hurt.
