Aella's Song by Jade Buchanan Read Free Book Online Page A

his daughter. No, the only way she could protect herself was by forging ahead and getting this all over with.
    Her heart clenched in her chest. Linos would pay for what he did to her seals, but she couldn’t afford to dwell on them now. Later, when she was past this threat, she’d probably fall apart. She would miss them terribly. They’d been her constant companions in the last decade. The seals were her responsibility. They’d become her children and she wanted to rip the spleen out of the man who murdered them.
    Aella shook her head, she wasn’t the type of person who normally condoned bloodshed of any sort, she was more apt to believe in the innocence of every creature until proven guilty, but that was before her babies had been harmed.
    Phocas and the other two seals were hidden in her private pool at the moment. They hadn’t been happy about being taken out of the sea, but she had no choice. The small colony near Foca had been relatively tiny compared to the colonies established elsewhere around the Mediterranean and West Africa. There had been about twenty of them in this area but she still couldn’t believe there were only three survivors. This was almost as bad as when so many seals had died off North West Africa. Within a month, almost half of the seals in the area had passed away because of an algae bloom in their territory.
    “My seals are extremely sensitive to disturbances in the environment. It’s bad enough they continually get caught in fishermen’s nets. They end up shooting them despite their protected status. It isn’t right. I don’t need some madman coming after them and killing even more.” Aella wrung her hands, imploring them to listen to her.
    “I see her point, Pyth. If we can lure him to a particular spot, we can even the odds a bit and try to ensure we come out the victors here. I don’t trust Linos, he’s always had something up his sleeve.”
    Pythias paced in front of them, scowling. You risk her life by doing this!
    We risk her life by doing nothing , Damon didn’t hesitate to return.
    Aella ignored them, or at least she tried to. They may care about her in some way but it still didn’t change the fact that they were beholden to her father. Poseidon wasn’t one to let go of his possessions easily. And that’s exactly how he’d see the two men. They had served him for millennia, doing his bidding. Oh, she knew all about the things her father demanded of his warriors. They were all immortals, some of them were even her siblings. They did a number of duties ranging from spying for him, to killing for him.
    Some merely protected his sanctuaries, but she had a feeling her father wouldn’t have sent untrained men to watch over her. He was a little too protective of her for that. No, he’d send men that he knew would be able to meet any threat. It made her respect the two men even more. For Poseidon to trust them with such a task meant he valued them highly. She knew exactly how hard it was to impress her father.
    “Fine. I understand the need to do something now. I’m not exactly happy about the idea of waiting to see what his next move is either.” Pythias rotated his shoulders, stopping to look at Damon.
    She turned to the other man as well. This might have been her plan but she had no idea how to execute it.
    “We have to get him into one of the temples. It’s the only place I can think of where we might have the advantage. Even if Zeus tries to help him in any way, we’ll still have the advantage of home ground. Poseidon would know the instant we stepped into one of his temples.”
    “So it wouldn’t matter if Zeus is trying to block us from communicating. Even he can’t block another god from hearing what goes on inside his own temple. He doesn’t have the power to do that.” Pythias grinned. “We may just be able to pull this off after all.”
    Turning to Aella, Pythias lifted her off her feet, causing her to squeal. He planted a smacking kiss on her mouth,