Deidre’s blue eyebrow shot up.“Without permission?”
He sighed again.“Not mine.”
“Holy Gods of the Underground!How dare she!”Deidre’s tone was enough to catch the guards’ attention, English speakers or not, and they turned to look our way with hands on their blades.
“Deidre, calm yourself.”
“I’ll calm down once I shoot that tramp.”Deidre narrowed her eyes at Karim.“Did you invite her onto the moss?”
“Nai.”His negative answer in Elvish was paired with a warning look.
Deidre lowered her gaze, going silent all of a sudden, except for a single huff.
Then Karim’s gaze slid to me, the silent spectator.I’d thought they had forgotten about me, but no such luck.
“Not a word of what you heard here.Either to an elf or a human.”
“Asi,” I confirmed in Elvish, lowering my gaze like Deidre.
“She has a name, you know,” the she-elf said, voice tinged with a pouty tone.“It’s Jasmine.Like the flower.”
I could still feel his eyes on me but didn’t look up.There was so much power in his gaze it was hard to hold it for long.And, to be honest, his commanding presencewas giving me butterflies.
“Speaking of flowers,” Deidre went on with a mocking undertone, “what am I here for, Karim?Something about moving a flower, I hear?”
Clearly, Deidre stopping their arguing over Katsia andKarim’smoss–bed?–didn’t mean she was any less sour about it.
The more I listened, the more my perception of elves as otherworldly beings changed.They sounded and looked more human to me with every new conversation.
“Where is Tisvali?”Karim answered with a question.“I sent for him as well.”
Deidre rolled her eyes.“How should I know?I bet he’s with Kassium or Borella.Or maybe he has finally toughened up and dragged both of them to his moss.”
“Sabati.”Karim sounded displeased as he told her to stop.“We will go get him on our way up, then.”
“Up?So we are indeed going to the surface, and in broad daylight?I knew it!You really want to get me killed.”Strangely enough, Deidre didn’t sound worried by that prospect.More like thrilled at the possibility.“Can’t you invite me to your moss just once before leading me to my death?”she mock-whined.“At least that way I will die happy.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of Karim’s mouth before he shook his head.
It appeared that I might see a smile on this beautiful elf’s face after all.And it sounded like I might get a glimpse at something I hadn’t seen in six weeks.
Daylight.
– 4 –
So Cool
With Karim in front of me and Deidre close behind, we progressed quickly along the corridors that I had already seen.We eventually took a sharp turn to the left that led us into a grass-covered street with many doors.The few elves we met wore fancy floor-length dresses, so we were still in the neighborhood of the high-ranking locals.
“This is so cool,” Deidre exclaimed after several shocked reactions at our little procession.“We should walk through here with a human more often.I love the pompous asses’ faces.”
“Deidre.”
“What?It’s fun,” she continued, the warning in Karim’s tone completely ignored.“You know what will be even more fun?Putting Jasmine at the front.That way we’ll ensure our precious aristocratswith their fragile minds are plagued by nightmares featuring hairy legs.”
Wait.Elves werethatscared of body hair?Could I use my post-apocalyptic unshaven legs as a weapon?The idea made me giggle.To my surprise, Karim made a sound a lot like a barely contained chuckle.Was his serious face just a façade, like his poor English back in the flower garden?
“Sabati, Deidre.”
