darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,38
Hand friend?”
I responded just as quietly. “You saw through that, huh?”
“Aral, we were engaged through several possible but never realized wedding dates. I can spot your stalling face from a mile away on a dark night with a patch over one eye.”
Ouch.
Hush, Triss. Aloud, I said, “Point.”
“Well?” asked Jax.
I looked around the large room. The group that had met in the council chamber was alone, the majority of the castle’s inhabitants having eaten their lunches at a more reasonable hour. There was no reason not to continue the discussion here.
“I think it’s time we brought them in,” I said. “Siri, will you go collect Kelos and Chomarr for me?”
She rose instantly from her chair. “Of course. I presume you would like me to bring them in as quietly as possible.”
I nodded. “Not that it’s going to do any good. I know exactly what young Blades are like. There’s not a chance in the world that the whole school isn’t going to know they’re here within five minutes of the drawbridge going down to let you all in. Still, I’d like to keep the fuss to a minimum for as long as possible. We’ll meet you in the council chamber.”
The school likely already knows, Triss sent as Siri faded out of sight.
Oh? I asked as we rose and headed out in the other direction.
Maryam is not happy with how things are going. She fell to the back of the group on our walk here, and Vrass fell back farther still. I expect that she passed word along to those she thought would support her.
Lovely. Do you think I will need to do something about Maryam?
Perhaps. It would certainly pay to be ready for that.
I don’t want to fracture the remainder of the order any worse than it already is, I sent.
I hope that it doesn’t come to that.
But you don’t believe it.
No, not really.
8
“Hello, Jax.” That was all that Kelos said. A simple hello as he stepped through the door into the room. It was also, quite clearly, too much for Jax.
The council table was a long slab of some dark wood that could easily have seated twenty. I was at the end on the right as you entered the room with Faran and Siri flanking me on the sides. The journeymen were ranged around the far end, with Jax at the seat across from the door, bridging the divide between us.
When Kelos spoke, Jax made a little choking noise and then moved as I had not seen her move since our temple days. In one long fluid motion she launched herself up and out of her seat and landed in a crouch on the table, all in perfect silence. A flick of her wrist dropped a knife into her good hand as she made a backhanded cut at Kelos’s throat. It was blindingly fast, and it would have killed most men. But Kelos was not most men.
He caught her hand almost casually, not even interrupting the flow of her spin, just a brief squeeze and twist as it approached his face. The knife fell to the stone floor with a harsh ting while Jax continued her rotation, turning past Kelos. But Jax was very good, too, and she brought her right foot up as she pivoted on the ball of her left when her hands touched the table, lashing a heel at Kelos’s face.
It was a powerful kick, with the whole weight of her body behind it. Kelos caught Jax’s ankle with the same hand that he’d used to disarm her, and she just . . . stopped—like she’d hit a stone pillar. Before she could do anything else, Kelos pushed, throwing his weight behind the move. Jax skidded toward the far edge of the table.
She lifted her free foot and stomp-kicked at the hand holding her ankle. Kelos caught that foot as well, and now he pulled and twisted so that Jax ended up dangling upside down by her ankles facing away from Kelos. She wasn’t completely helpless that way, but nothing she could do was going to put someone like Kelos at serious risk.
That’s when Maryam struck. Sometime during the action, she had drawn her right-hand sword. Now she thrust in sharply at Kelos’s ribs from the side. Malthiss appeared then, batting the sword away even as Kelos turned and interposed the dangling Jax between himself and Maryam as a shield. That put his right side toward the table and his back to Siri.