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“All melted, Lord Phel.”Jadren gave him a faux salute.“Except the one you froze.We saved it, since it seems harmless, in case you wanted it for something.”
Did he?Perhaps so.“Thanks for the save,” he told them both.
“I had air elementals carry one of Iliana’s spent arrows,” Alise informed him with a crow of delight.“Clever, huh?”
“Very clever,” Gabriel acknowledged with a bow.“And timely.What was the metal flying thing?”
“I gave a dagger wings,” Jadren said, going over to pluck it out of the hunter goo.Holding it gingerly, he shook clumps of dripping flesh and a chunk of bone off it, grimacing in disgust, before holding it up for Gabriel to see.“Clumsy and not as aerodynamic as I’d like, but it worked.”
“Also clever,” Gabriel said with a smile for Jadren’s pride.The El-Adrel wizard looked happier than Gabriel had ever seen him.
“You inspired us,” Alise confided, Jadren nodding in agreement.“Innovation on the fly!”
“Literally,” Jadren added, and they both snickered.
Both of them giddy from their first real battle, Gabriel realized.
“I’m taking Iliana to Asa.”Han stepped up beside Gabriel, Iliana in his arms.He’d improvised a bandage around her throat, but the blood bloomed on the cloth in bright red blossoms.She smiled bravely, but her complexion had the unhealthy green tinge of someone about to faint.
“Of course,” Gabriel replied, chagrined that they’d been making light of a bad situation that had nearly gone sideways in a terrible way.“Do you need help?”
“I can take care of her,” Han snapped, then winced, as if regretting his tone.“Thank you, all, for risking your lives for us.”
Gabriel bowed deeply to them.“House Phel stands together.”
An odd look crossed Han’s face, something deeply emotional, but he composed himself and nodded gravely to Gabriel.“Yes, we do, Lord Phel.Yes, we do.”
Han carried Iliana down the lane between the spring blossoming trees, and Gabriel, Jadren, and Alise watched them go.“They’re so sweet,” Jadren commented.
“And hapless,” Alise said in a rueful tone of agreement.
“Like the ill-fated lovers in a novel who are forever placing themselves in jeopardy for each other,” Jadren added, nodding.
Alise gave him an askance look.“You read those novels?”
He glared.“There’s not a lot to do at House El-Adrel, and the winters are long.We’re not in the social whirl like the pretty princesses at House Elal.”
“Why didn’t you attend Convocation Academy, then?”she retorted, clearly stung.
Jadren stiffened.“I have work to do.Call me when it’s time to go on our suicidal quest,” he said to Gabriel, and stomped off, taking his winged dagger with him.
With a mental sigh, Gabriel noted that the wizard’s sword and machete hung off his belt, still coated in gore.
“Sorry,” Alise said.“I didn’t realize it was such a sore point.”Her black eyes sparkled with mischief, reminding Gabriel of Nic at her most wicked.“Now Ireallywant to know what his story is.”
“Good luck getting it out of him,” Gabriel said, walking toward the immobilized hunter.
“Sergio Sammael dropped an interesting tidbit when they were trading insults,” Alise said, accompanying him.“Something about Lady El-Adrel dangling the promise of a familiar over Jadren’s head to enforce his compliance.”
“Hmm,” Gabriel grunted in acknowledgment.Had it been the same with denying Jadren a Convocation education and somehow suppressing his MP scores?He hadn’t expected to feel sorry for the El-Adrel wizard, but somewhere along the way, the prickly man had become something of a friend.Go figure.In that light, he added, “But maybe don’t drive him out of his mind about it until after we’ve recovered Nic?”
“Oh, sure,” Alise answered, nonchalantly enough to raise Gabriel’s suspicions.But he didn’t pursue it.
He faced the hunter, frozen in place but still snarling and gnashing its long jaws.Gabriel recalled that helpless feeling well—his limbs immobilized, though the rest of him worked well enough.
“Who sent you to recover these familiars?”he demanded of the creature.
It glared at him in impotent fury, clamping its jaws shut.
