Free The Siege by Troy Denning Page B

started across the courtyard, motioning for the others to rise.
    “Seeing the statue was only one of the reasons I asked
     
    to show you the way to the palace.” He stopped in front of Vala and took her hands in his own. “I wanted to thank you for saving my life. Rapha tells me you were really quite the trazt fiend.”
    Vala actually blushed, and Galaeron instantly resented the way her green eyes held the prince’s gaze.
    “It was nothing,” she said, leaving her hands in Escanor’s. “Your attacker was distracted.”
    Galaeron edged closer to Vala. “You turned away at the wrong time, Prince, or you could have killed it yourself while it was teleport-dazed.”
    “Yes, a pity I could not read your mind,” Escanor said, fixing his coppery gaze on Galaeron and releasing Vala’s hands. “You were right to hold the phaerimm in the cavern. It would have been dangerous to let them escape with the secret of the Splicing.”
    Leaving Galaeron to fume, Escanor turned to face Ruha. “You are the Harper pursuing Malik?”
    “I am.”
    Escanor regarded the little man as though he found this difficult to believe. “Is he really such a terrible criminal?”
    “It would not do to underestimate him, Prince,” Ruha said. “Those who do often pay for the mistake with their lives.”
    This drew a fang-filled smirk from Escanor. “Then I am glad you are here to watch him, Harper, but mark well Hadrhune’s warning—Malik has committed no crime in this city, and if he does, it will be our justice that settles the matter.”
    Ruha inclined her head. “My only desire is to see that he does no more harm than he already has.”
    “Good.” Escanor turned to Vala and gestured toward the gate. “If you and your friends care to accompany Galaeron, it would please the Most High for you to see the palace this morning.”
     
    Vala nodded and started forward. Galaeron stepped to her side, making sure to place himself between her and Escanor as the others closed around them. Whether the prince noticed the maneuver was impossible to say, but Vala’s frown was unmistakable.
    As the entourage left the gate, she leaned in close and whispered, “Your shadow is showing, Galaeron. What do you think is going to happen?”
    “Nothing I can help.”
    A twinkle came to Vala’s green eyes, and she surprised him by smiling. “So you are jealous.”
    “Elves don’t feel jealousy—and even if we did, there’s nothing to be jealous about,” he said. Though the feelings they shared for each other had grown too strong to hide over the last few months, Galaeron remained reluctant to act on them. Not only was Vala a human who would grow old before his eyes, she had promised to stay with him only until his shadow crisis ended—or she was forced to end it for him. After that, she would be returning to her son in Vaasa, and Galaeron did not think a few months of love worth the heartbreak of watching her leave—that was going to be hard enough already. “I don’t want you to forget your promise.”
    “Why would I?” Vala asked.
    Galaeron shrugged. “Because the prince is powerful and wealthy, and you humans have such a weakness for fleeting pleasures.”
    “Galaeron,” she said, shaking her head wearily, “fleeting pleasures are not weaknesses! They’re the stuff of life.”
    Vala looked away, and the entourage continued up the street. Paved in a duller version of the same black stone that lay in Villa Dusari’s courtyard, the avenue was narrow and winding, meandering through a canyon-like labyrinth of dusky buildings so tall that even Aris had to crane his neck to look up at many of the residents who
     
    called greetings and fond wishes to Escanor as the procession passed. There were not many side streets, and those that they did intersect always ran uphill to the left and downhill to the right. It slowly grew apparent to Galaeron that they were spiraling up a gentle mound, though one so encrusted in looming structures that its terrain