Read Chasing Bloodlines (Book 4) for Free Online Page B

with goods and books of recipes. She stood as they came in.
    “Greetings m’lady, sir. What can I do for you?” she asked in her boisterous voice, her cheeks perpetually rosy.
    “I have a servant I no longer have a use for,” Maxine replied, stripping her voice of its accent in an attempt to mimic Nolen’s. “Kilkiny is good to its servants.”
    Marya rounded the desk. “What happened to this one?”
    “Fire in the kitchen. Burning oil exploded. He should see again in time, but he needs a dark environment to heal. He knows his way around a kitchen doing prep work, but my house needs someone faster.”
    Marya stood before him as he stared at her shoes. “He’s a pretty one, what a frame.”
    “Oh, yes, he can serve more than one purpose,” Maxine said and gave him a solid slap on the behind.
    “Can you lift?”
    “Quite a lot, m’lady.” Nolen threw his voice, making it a touch deeper and laced with a backwoods accent.
    She pinched his arm in a few places, making him feel like some degraded animal. “I’ll take him. Will you want him back? I may not let you have him.”
    “He is yours.”
    Marya gave a chuckle. “I’ve got a room for you. Not much, but you won’t see for a bit, so it doesn’t matter.” She slapped his shoulder a few times. “Derise! Lovely, be a good lass and show our new friend to a room. Oh, what is your name, lad?”
    “Coltin.”
    “Right you are, Coltin. Derise, once he’s settled put him in prep, will you lass?”
    Maxine gave him one last slap on his rump as he turned to leave, and Marya chuckled with her.
    Derise, a short, plump thing looked up at him and squinted. “Are you blind?”
    “For the time being.”
    She took his arm and led him through the halls, cutting down a loud corridor and into another one slender with dozens of doors. Rapping on one, she let themselves in. It was a small room with enough space for a cot, chair and little table. It had no window, but a small iron stove with a lantern sat in one corner next to cob-webbed firewood.
    He scanned the room through his gauze, not missing the girl’s eyes locked. “It’s a right shame we don’t have any more Spirit Mages here, for your eyes and all.”
    That was news. “None at all?”
    “None that we know of.”
    “I thought the Queen’s advisor was a Mage.”
    “Oh, she is, but she is rarely seen these days. Folks say she spends most time in Castle Jaden.” Derise’s gaze slowly wound its way down him, so he dropped his satchel on the bed to divert her attention. “Oh! Ready I suppose?” She looped her arm through his and led him out the door, nattering on about how many doors he would have to count to get to his room.
    She set him up at a station, giving him an apron and a knife. She set a bowl of onions before him. “Just skin these and I’ll chop.” She continued to explain how things worked and what the massive kitchen looked like, but Nolen was already scanning the room for familiar faces. He recognized a few; mostly of girls he’d taken his pleasure with, but no one important.
    He peeled onions and potatoes like a common servant for the rest of the day, catching a bowl of stew for supper. Standing on his feet all day was hard work. Marya stopped by his station with a lavender poultice for his burns, but she really stopped to swipe his backside with her spoon.
    As he and Maxine had agreed, he sent her a summons with his ring when he locked himself safely within his room. He took off his bandages as he waited, and she arrived not long after.
    “Stars, Evony did a number on your face,” she said and took it in her hands, healing the edges. She mended his collar and hands, just enough to make it believable. “Did you learn anything today?” She deposited herself in his lap and twined her hands through his shorter hair.
    “Robyn is still absent, as is Lady Aisling, and I assume Cordis. The rumor going through the kitchens is all the Battle Mages were killed in a battle with Shalaban, but