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"Maybe she thought you needed a friend," Blaed replied quietly "Lia’s upset It has soht need to do a bit of snarling yourself"

"Well, your reasoning’s faulty," Jared snapped And then swore

Blaed made no comment, which was all the co to do with trust," Jared said after a minute He wouldn’t let it hurt him He wouldn’t "Who else could she have sent? Randolf with his surly contempt? The children? Garth?"

"Brock," Blaed countered "Thera"

"Thera would have needed an escort"

"Thera doesn’t need anyone to watch her back"

Hearing the tightness in Blaed’s voice, Jared studied the Warlord Prince thoughtfully "No, she doesn’t," he agreed slowly "What she needs--although she’d deny it with her last breath--is a patient ht"

Blaed smiled "I could say the sahed in unison

"Come on," Jared said "My mother always said a full belly dulls a sharp temper"

"Did your mother have a sharp temper?"

"Occasionally, e’d annoyed her past her for to my father, my brothers, and me Not that any of us could compete with her temper when she was really fired up" Jared shifted in the saddle to get more comfortable He s with fourto serve, who better to practice on than his own iven strict boundaries, but an intelligent boy can get into a fair a over those lines And ent boys Every so often, when all of us had frayed her temper, she’d throw up her hands and shout at the top of her voice, ‘I’ in a house with four males?’ My father would answer meekly, ‘Because you love us?’ And she’d look at hiot sent to bed early on those nights Took ure out it wasn’t just so ouldn’t annoy her further"

Blaed’s laughter faded as they approached the village

Not a good tiht Not when the Winds ithin reach

"Do you ever think about going hoelding’s ears "I think about it" What would he do if Blaed tried to bolt? The Gray Lady was going to send the young Warlord Prince ho for, his family must know the Gray Lady intended to set him free But what if his familydidn’t know? What if the request to find him hadn’t coue His faht hide him for a few days, but after that? No chance to drea foolish, are you?"

Blaed stared straight ahead He sed hard "No, I’ foolish"

Thank the Darkness

They rode into the village

It looked too well kept to be deserted, but the streets were e the buildings on their right

Jared nodded, keeping an eye on the buildings on their left The lightest possible psychic probe had confirs Most of the time, landens realized it was suicide to attack one of the Blood, especially the Jeweled Blood, but sometimes desperation and sheer numbers could balance out power at a horrific cost

"Call in your Jewels," Jared said softly He reached into his shirt and pulled out the Red Jewel so that it was visible "Let the with the Opal and the Red If anyone has any ideas about tangling with the Blood, that should be enough to discourage the, Blaed quickly used Craft to settle his Opal pendant around his neck, then slipped the Opal ring on his finger

As they rode slowly down the empty main street, Jared added, "And stay shielded"

As if realizing a deserted street would cause suspicion, a door opened a few yards ahead of the on a cane for support

The young bucks won’t face us, so they shove an old man into the street to do what they don’t have the balls to do, Blaed said on a spear thread

Worried by the bitterness in Blaed’s voice, Jared reined in the gelding and nodded to the old man "Good day to you"

"And you, Lords" The old man clutched the cane with both hands

Jared scanned the street "I see we haven’t arrived on et supplies?"

The old man hesitated "Don’t have a market day as such, Lord But the old woman across the street keeps a store Food and such Likely you’ll find what pleases you there"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>