I nodded and followed the Elf King out into the black of night.
We rode our horses through the city streets, slow and easy at first. But as I gained confidence in my ability to at least stay upright, it wasn’t long before we rode more like phantoms in the night. The curved buildings and tall peaks were all but swallowed whole in the thick wood surrounding the alabaster city. We rode through heavily wooded forests that seemed as endless and beautiful as a night sky full of stars. We rode until I could no longer feel my legs and the first light of dawn crept through the morning mists in the underbrush.
The king stopped by an enormous field of sunflowers stretching toward the sky, just when my legs were starting to prickle. I fell from my horse, legs wobbling, and stretched. My back popped, my neck and legs screaming at me.
Five days of this? I didn’t know if I had it in me. The king didn’t seem to be bothered by the long ride. On the contrary, he looked bright. His entire countenance was lighter. As if a great weight lifted from him with every clomp of the hooves away from the kingdom.
“Now that we are outside the city, we can travel at an easier pace. All of my people know the white-haired king, they will not quite know me with this disguise, especially now that we are beyond the borders of my city.”
They might not know this raven-haired, ruggedly handsome elf, but he would still stop a village of humans in their tracks. I could not think of anything to say, so I shut my mouth and nodded numbly. We ate a breakfast of green apples, cheese, and thick walnut bread as the sun began its assent into the sky, beaming rays of fuchsia and gold over the blue mountains in the distance. We sat in a field of tall yellow and auburn sunflowers, flanked by the crisp leaves of gold and brilliant crimson of the bordering forest.
The king’s eyes were on the horizon. “Sunflowers. Did you know they track the sun with their faces as it moves across the sky? And the arraignment of the seeds creates the same kind of spirals displayed in other living things in nature, like pinecones, pineapples, even certain seashells.”
I looked closer at the beautiful sunflowers facing the rising sun. The seeds were very ordered, almost mathematical. “I never noticed.”
The king cleared his throat, then glanced down at the grass he was crushing in his fingers. “I am sorry, I did not mean to bore you.”
“Bore me?” I blushed. “Of course not.”
Elden smiled a bit at that. “My tutors did not have a very agreeable reaction to my interest in botany. They much rather I showed more interest in politics.” He then squinted up at the horizon. “Do you see the tallest peak to the left of those small hills?”
My eyes fixed on a blue blur that must have been the peak. “I’m not sure. I think so.”
The king’s eyes softened toward me. “It may be hard to see, but that is the Mount of Winterthorn just there.”
“I don’t think human eyes see as well as your elvish ones do.”
“That may be.”
The early sounds of morning, the twittering of birds, and the soft hum of insects rushed in to fill the strange silence that followed. Elden searched my face, where I sat only close enough to reach the food between us. I tried my best not to make eye contact with the male, focusing instead on not chewing too loudly. I was hyperaware of every move I made, not able to make out the king’s thoughts in the least.
Then Elden said most unexpectedly, “I am sorry.”
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Yes.” The king lowered his head, black braids falling across his shoulders. His voice was as dark as night. “I am sorry that I took you away from everything you hold dear. That I threatened to take your sister. I am sorry for this plague, and most of all, I am sorry for the way I have been speaking to you.”
I blinked. This was too much. I didn’t know what to say, but a sliver of warmth touched my stone heart.
“And I will not use excuses,” Elden said firmly. “I will not blame anyone or anything but myself. I will strive to do better going forward, that I promise you.”
I lifted my gaze from the swaying grass to meet the Elf King’s brilliant gold eyes. “You promise?”
He nodded, his jaw set. Hope. That’s what I saw now as I looked into the king’s eyes.
Hope that we would find a cure.
Warmth spread from my heart out to my fingers to the tips of my toes. Bolstered by the openness of the king, I pressed, “if we do this, if we find the cure, will you promise me that I can see my family again?”
And there it was. I couldn’t believe I said the words aloud, but if he was being honest with me, that the only thing he needed me for was my magic, then once we discovered the cure—then maybe I could make it home for Christmas.
“It will be as you desire. I will not keep you if you wish to return home to your lands,” the king said with a tight grimace, then cleared his throat and stood.
He turned his back to me and adjusted the buckles on his saddle. But I sat, mouth agape, stunned at the king’s words. He said I could go home. That I could have my wish.
I closed my eyes and offered a quiet, “Thank you, Elden.”
Elden removed the saddle from his mare and mine as if he hadn’t heard me, but I was all too aware of him. Of how the muscles in his strong back strained as he worked. Of the lilting sounds of fat little bees buzzing about us, collecting nectar from the sunflowers.
