Abaddon's Call

Chapter Thirty-One

Jasor was out in a place which many believed could not be teleported in or out of when his father died. Brokering trade agreements with the border lands painted the image of a reformed man, but it bored Jasor and meant he was required to travel by foot in and out of the place because horses couldn't come near him.

Not that he would ever trust his life to such stupid creatures.

He made excuses, slipped away, and spent several days with a good friend before returning home, but not before rolling about in his clothing and dumping it into a basket unceremoniously. He gave his good friend the information he had gathered on the mage the friend had sent to Amos to retrieve an item. A young man who wielded fire magic. Unusual, but many elementals leaned toward a particular element rather than attuned to them all.

The mage was captured by Kaulu.

If he was lucky, he was having the best sex of his life and being kept as a stud. If he was unlucky... well, they'd never know either way.

He was only caught by coincidence. The Seven had decided to ramp up their presence in the city after locating a scripture spell bound in blood. There had been rumours of a guild in the underworld, said to be run by regular folk who had connections to powerful mages.

As long as the Seven were there, they weren't anywhere else, like their borders.

Life had gotten a great deal simpler.

After a pleasant visit with his friend, he saw a vanity mage who owed him a favour for a scent, put on the dirtied clothing, added the scent, and arrived at the nearest teleporter's office looking dishevelled and smelling like he hadn't washed in days.

They called him sir and took him to the family estate where he washed, ate, made himself presentable, and then took a breath and left his rooms.

What followed was a day, at least, of taking reports and being ignored by the Seven when he sent rightful queries. He knew they knew that he knew his father was dead. There wasn't even a body. That, too, was gone. If not for the things his spies told him, he might have gone up to check the master bedroom to see if his father hadn't died in his sleep, and no one noticed.

He tried to approach Naena, but she wouldn't even speak to him. When he finally found Theon, he tried to at least have Theon say it. Other mages would surely follow the war mage's lead while everything was sorted out with the Seven.

That failed even, as Theon let Naena and Graydon into his office.

Jasor made a rude sound at the closed door, turned and spotted Gray walking toward him.

"Ah, Jasor, walk with me," Gray said as he strolled past.

Jasor fell in beside Gray, fury rolling off him at being treated so. He was a lord and deserved the respect his title demanded by the treaties. Yet he was reduced to coming when called like a dog.

"I've gathered the representatives, not the lords," Gray said. "Let us speak frankly on the matter. The lords want to see you as little as possible. Every time there's a gathering for you, people start whispering. We want to avoid that."

"Traditionally, there's one, at least," Jasor growled.

"There's me," Gray said as he frowned and opened a door.

Jasor frowned back at Gray but stepped into the representative meeting room to seven full seats. Gray Pan sat at the middle of the table because Pan had to recognize Salord before any other. As Jasor stared, Luk fucking Pan stepped around him.

"Gray, if you would," Lord Pan said as he sighed his way around the table.

Cold flushed through him, a terror he had not felt since he was a boy. He knew the fear wouldn't be seen flickering across his features. He had learned at a young age to keep that sort of thing to himself, but it didn't change the issue.