Read Blood Price (Noble of Blood Book 1) for Free Online Page A

ordered her food to be brought to their room.  Her appetite was beginning to increase and he made sure she had all she desired.  Which very recently included wild game.  The Nobles in the palace lived off of the raw meats of domesticated animals like goats, sheep and cows.  The fact that she now craved deer and rabbit was very strange, since the Nobles who had never stayed outside of the palace had never had the chance to acquire the taste for those animals.
    Just one more thing in the list of things that had him continually confused about their strange situation.
    He stopped in front of the Library door and inhaled.  He smelled nothing of what was beyond the door, which he already knew he wouldn't.  He knew the room was spelled to contain all smells and words and sounds within it, but that didn't change the automatic habit of checking a room before entering.
    He nodded towards his father's personal guard and opened the door.
    Leaning on his hands over his desk, he found his father reading a scroll that looked like it was barely legible.  He hated to interrupt, so he just shut the door behind him and crossed to the front of the desk to peer at the scroll.
    His father recognized his presence with a grunt and continued to scan the contents of the scroll.  Dartein did not recognize anything written on it.  Sure sign that it was incredibly old.
    Sighing and standing up straight, the Patriarch ran his hands through his hair straightening it back after it had fallen forward during his reading.
    "I hear you had quite an adventure last night outside of the village.  Bandits?  I take it you handled them readily enough.  How many were there?  5 or 6?"
    "Ah well, there were a dozen of them."
    "A dozen!  Well maybe I should have let you join the ranged military when you had asked so many years ago."
    "Father I did not kill them.  And they were not bandits.  They were not even human." Dartein watched as his father's feature clouded over with irritation, which quickly changed to confusion.
    "Dartein, if they were not human then what pray tell did you make them out to be?"
    "I have never seen the like of them, Father.  They were short but solid and incredibly tough.  They came up behind me and caught me by surprise.  When I turned to fight them I did not get to look very close at them, for they burned very quickly."
    "Burned? Was there a fire nearby, did you have torches?"
    "No..."  He was not sure how to explain it since he really was not clear on the situation himself.  "Father, Josaleene was able to track them to their hideout.  Straight there just by their smell.  I've never seen anything like it outside of the military."
    "Wait son, your Chosen tracked them?  She found them?  And found what exactly, please describe them!"  His father was nervous now, and Dartein assumed it was about his Josee's new found abilities.
    "From what I already told you they were short and tough.  And smelled of mulch, or maybe compost."  He watched as a fear flashed in his father's eyes and was again confused about his reaction.  "Father, what is going on?  Do you know these creatures?  I thought you were worried about Josee's new found abilities, but now I wonder if there is something else..."
    "Abilities?  Is there something beyond her keen perception of odors that I should know of?"
    "Um, well... I believe she... burned the creatures."
    "She burned the creatures?"  His father asked incredulously.
    "Yes.  I did not see it happen, but I know that is what happened by her confession and her hands... they were... smoking after..."  He was still confused as to how his love had this magic, but he knew that she had burned those creatures.
    "I see."  Mortul sat down in his chair and laced his hands in front of him.  "Well son, it seems that we have a serious issue."
    ---
    Mortul was not prepared to tell his son that he could not, would not, save Josaleene.  He knew he couldn't save her after his visit to the Slumber Chamber.