Blood Knot

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven:

Avoca, Mirabelle and Merek sat around a table. On the fourth side of the table sat a frail looking elf. His long hair was grey and his face was wrinkled. But his eyes were hard and stern.

'I am Professor Lhoris,' he said to Avoca. He voice was monotone, devoid of emotion. Avoca crossed her legs, bored already.

'To begin with, your father wishes me to update you on the relationship between Jarathia and Llaam. There have been several more attacks on coastal villages, and the village of Oakston, not twenty miles from here has been burnt to the ground by the Llaams. Your uncle the King is building up his army, and we expect war to be declared formally any time soon.'

Avoca yawned. None of this concerned her, as she didn't consider Chetwick to be her home yet. She might have been born here, but by heart she was from Erarini.

'We will move onto grammar.' He tapped a scroll on the table he had in front of him. 'You will read from this scroll in turns, whilst the other two write the translation down in Jarathian. It is Srilarian Elvish script. Avoca, have you had any experience in speaking Elvish?'

'Yep,' she said. In fluent Elvish, she said 'I really don't think I need to do this lesson because I read, write and speak both Jarathian and Elvish perfectly.' Professor Lhoris looked at her in amazement. It was rare a human had a perfect elvish accent, and Avoca knew that she had just that.

'Is there anything your friends didn't teach you?' Merek asked, amused.

'Merek!' Professor Lhoris reprimanded. Merek looked down respectfully. Avoca didn't. 'Well?' She said.

Mirabelle was smirking at her with her eyes narrowed – an expression Avoca knew well. The difference between the twins however, Avoca thought, was that Avoca was prepared to act, whereas Mirabelle would just fume if she got angry.

The professor pursed his lips, annoyed. 'Merek, read.'

Merek sighed and looked down at the scroll. In Elvish he read out loud. 'The art of tying the blood knot has been used for many centuries. It is the act of two people binding their lives together. They become bonded, resulting in if one of them dies, so does the other.'

'Yes,' Avoca said in Jarathian, 'but who would be that stupid to bind their life to someone else anyway?' She scoffed.

'For love,' Mirabelle said, a dreamy look on her face. Avoca rolled her eyes.

The Professor stood up haughtily. 'Avoca! You are disrupting this lesson, which is something I do not tolerate! You will learn to behave as your siblings do. There is lots you have to learn, and I can teach you.' He sat down again. His face had gone red with annoyance.

'Actually,' Avoca said, the smile gone from her face, 'I don't think you can.' The elf's face went such a dark shade of red Avoca would have found it comical if she wasn't in a bad mood. 'What, exactly, can you teach me that I don't already know?' Her voice was soft and deadly once again. She felt the dagger at her belt for reassurance.

'That's it!' Lhoris shouted, standing up again. 'You will stop this insolence this second or I swear your father will hear of this!' Avoca tilted her head to the side, considering him. At least he had emotion in his voice now, she thought. Anger was always the answer. She nodded to herself.

'Do you understand me child?' He said, straining his voice to try and calm down. Avoca looked up at him. 'I understand you perfectly,' she said. 'I understand there isn't anything you can teach me, so I'm going now.' She stood up and she had to prise her fingers of her dagger. Threats wouldn't work here she knew. The professor was blustering in rage, and Merek looked shocked. Mirabelle, on the other hand, looked delighted at the turn of events.