Alora: The Maladorn Scroll (Alora 3)

“Traveling, huh?” Alora grinned back at him. “I hear Serenshire is beautiful this time of year.”

“Alas,” he spoke with an exaggerated tone like he was in a high school play. “I fear the council would never invite me to join the expedition.”

“Really? Not even if the bearer, who was an integral part of the traveling group, needed you to help with her overloaded empathy?”

“What a singular idea!” He winked. “I believe the council might be persuaded to accept.”

On impulse, Alora leaped forward and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Laethan. I think you’re saving my life... again.”

He cleared his throat as he gave her an awkward pat on the back. “No gratitude is necessary, child.”

Straightening, she watched him push his furry brows into their customary gruff position on his uncustomary blushing face.

“Now, if you’ll allow me to monitor and help when necessary, I believe you can eliminate a significant amount of stored pain before Kaevin returns, demanding to contribute.”

He took the piece of wood from her fingers and returned to carving away at the poor disfigured cat.

~11~

Sweat dripped off his forehead as Charles mucked the stalls, but the exercise felt good to his stiff muscles. Two weeks in Laegenshire meant two weeks without the hard physical labor that kept his aging muscles in prime condition. At times like this, he might be slightly jealous of the folks in Laegenshire with gifting in strength that never seemed to fade with age.

No gifts for me. I have to work for it.

A muffled tune alerted him to his ringing cell phone. Charles tugged off his tough leather work gloves, tucking them under his arm as he dug in his shirt pocket. The chestnut mare eyed him from her stall warily, her ears perking at the noisome intrusion into her meal.

He didn’t recognize the caller, but answered anyway. “Hello?”

“Charles. This is Doc.”

“Hey, Doc. I’m working in the stables right now. Can I call you back?”

Doc’s reply was peppered with irritation. “That idiot reporter is hanging around the hospital again, determined to find a story. I just wanted to warn you, because he might come out to the ranch looking for Alora.”

“Well, he can’t get through the front gate without a code, so we should be safe. I certainly hope so, because I’m here with Markaeus, and I haven’t even made up a good story for him.”

“That’s one of the things I’m worried about. He’s determined to find something for his Unseen Secrets show. I watched an episode, and it’s all bogus. But all he needs is a few weird discrepancies, and he builds an entire case for how someone is hiding a crime or a mystery or an alien from outer space.”

“Surely no one takes him seriously, right? Even his name is ridiculous—Sergeant Justice.”

“It turns out that Justice nutcase has half a million crazed followers. Every time he does a show, the fanatics come out of the woodwork.”

“He has to get permission, though. And Alora’s under age. Wouldn’t that be highly illegal?”

“He’ll use images posted publicly, like ones from Facebook and yearbooks.”

“I’ve kept her off Facebook, but there are probably photos somewhere.” Charles chewed on his lip.

“Justice gets sued all the time, but that just gains him publicity, so he doesn’t give a flip.”

Charles couldn’t find a single drop of saliva to swallow. “All because we had to convince the nurse that Alora hadn’t been in the room that day we took her through the portal.”

“That nurse is in psychiatric counseling now, because no one would believe her. She swore someone had killed Alora and hidden the body, all the way up until Alora walked in here yesterday. By the way, thanks for bringing her to the hospital, or I might be the focus of a murder investigation.” Doc laughed.

“Are you in danger of losing your privileges at the hospital?” How he can he be so flippant about it? “I don’t know what excuse you made for Alora disappearing there without being discharged.”

“I can talk bull, and I did. Our saving grace was that Steven Franks is a computer genius who hacked into the computer system and retro-recorded her discharge. After that, I just defended the record.”

“Since Alora showed up at the hospital alive and well yesterday, what is Justice trying to prove? She obviously wasn’t murdered.”