“That is all.” The Elf King waved her over to visit with the elven maid, Dahlia.
With pursed lips, Lila curtsied, then fluttered over to the maid and out of the throne room in a huff. I raised my eyebrows, glancing about the room, shocked and completely unprepared for my own assignment.
“Baker,” The Elk King’s voice echoed in the vast space.
I curtsied awkwardly, heat burning my cheeks at his piercing gaze.
“You will take over the small kitchen on the grounds by the herb garden. I expect you to serve myself and my royal household at my command.”
The Elf King nodded in an almost dismissal, then his mouth fell open as his gaze shifted to someone beyond me. His eyes narrowed, but I was rooted to the spot, too afraid to look behind me, lest I anger the king.
The king continued to speak to me, though his eyes were focused behind me. “I will send my first order tomorrow at noon. Please take the day to settle in and gather supplies. Your new servant, Rafia, will take care of any needs you may have.”
A beautiful elf female with magenta hair bowed and smiled kindly from behind the king.
“I—” I stammered.
“Please excuse me.” The Elf King stepped from his throne dais and rushed past me, green cloak flapping majestically. I turned to see the subject of the King’s fixation, a young elfling. He looked to be close in age to an eight-year-old human boy, but his elven features were long, lean, and fair. His eyes were the same brilliant gold as the Elf King, and he wore a heavily detailed cream coat and pants. Definitely a little royal elfling. The Elf King whisper sounded throughout the chamber. “I told you it would take but a few minutes. Why did you not wait?”
“You promised you’d let me see the humans!” The elfling whined.
“They have all been dismissed.” The Elf King moved to take the youngling’s arm, but the child side-stepped him.
“There’s still one.” The elfling pointed at me. “Here, see?”
Heat shot through my cheeks.
The Elf King closed his eyes, pulled in a long breath, then said the very last thing I expected. “Very well.”
My stomach dropped. What was happening? The child scrambled closer, but stopped a few feet away from where his curiosity stood. Me. He studied my face, my hair, my dress. The Elf King strode up behind him as if he had all the time in the world. Though the king stood a few paces away, he was easily a head taller than me. He seemed to swallow up the whole room as he loomed before me.
“Is that your real hair?” The child asked wrinkling his pert nose.
“Yes.” A laugh escaped me. Only the young could become instantly familiar. At least in this, elflings were similar to that of human children. “Of course it is.”
“It’s not white or pink or bright like ours.” The child said. His own hair was an identical white tinged with effervescent gold as the king’s. Could this elfling be the king’s son? “It looks like wavy mud.”
I blinked, amused by the frankness of the child’s conversation. “Thank you. I love mud.” I leaned down close to the elfling as if we shared a secret. “Very fun to squish between your toes.”
“It is?” The elfling mused and fixed me with a quizzical glare. “Are you sure? Sounds messy.”
“Quite sure.” I offered, “The messiness is half the fun.”
The elfling’s eyes brightened. “I’ll need to try that right now!”
With that, the child fled from the room, leaving myself and the Elf King standing face to face quite unexpectedly. The king towered over me so much that I had a hard time fixing him with my angry stare, still smiling as I was from my encounter with the young elf.
The Elf King cleared his throat. “That was…my younger brother, Aldaar. He gets into trouble wherever he goes. It seems he is about to start some more.”
I laughed. “He’s sweet.”
“He said your hair was like mud,” the Elf King quipped. “I do not know much of mortals, but he has offended many upon a first greeting.”
“I’m not easily offended by children,” I said, then seemed to remember who I was talking to. The Elf King. The one who’d taken me from my family, my home, only hours before. I shot out my chin and hardened my eyes. “Excuse me. I have a lot to do before I am expected toserveyou tomorrow.”
Before I could think better of it, I curtsied, then practically ran to Rafia, the maidservant the king had indicated earlier. She was a plump elf female, beautiful, with brilliant magenta hair pulled back into an intricate braid. She seemed a lot safer company than the looming dark presence of the king, where I felt my tongue loosening. My heart hammered in my chest. I wanted to yell at him, to rail against the injustice of being stolen away. Instead, I nodded to Rafia who led me toward an enormous arched hallway lit by glowing white gemstones.
“This way, miss.” Rafia pulled my large trunk along with ease.
