“You were a farmer?” I ask.
“No.” She shakes her head. “We didn’t own any land to speak of. I simply tended to the gardens used by the church and the nobility. Growing their vegetables, a few fruits, and raising their livestock.”
I admit I’m slightly baffled—first at the thought of growing vegetables to eat, second that she was growing it all for someone else. “You didn’t eat the food, then?”
“No.” She looks almost aghast. “Taking food from the nobles is the surest way to end up in the stocks or on a pike.”
I suck on a tooth, doing my best to avoid insulting her people but finding my efforts lacking. “And this is a place you wish toreturn to?”
“I want to see my mother.” She kicks her chin up the slightest bit. “I want her to know I’m all right. The rest of Raingreen can feel free to suck on a rotten toe as far as I’m concerned, and that goesdouble for everyone up on that battlement who happily watched my sacrifice. But my mother … She’s worried. There’s no way she can’t be.”
“I’m afraid you can’t return to the mortal lands once the Bar?—”
“Once the Bargain is struck. Yes, I know.” She slumps a little, then stares forward for a while before asking, “Why does Lenka call you sire?”
“It’s an old affectation of the Firefolk.” I can’t seem to stop watching her, the way her pulse flutters at her throat, the swell of her breasts beneath her shift, the way she sometimes chews on her bottom lip when she’s thinking. For being so breakable, she’s full of life.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she chides.
“No siblings?” I ask.
She nibbles her lip for a moment, then lets out a sigh. “I guess that means you don’t intend to answer my question.”
I stare at her.
She looks away, doing what I find myself completely incapable of. She’s stolen my attention, my every thought. How can a mortal have such power over me? It doesn’t make sense.
“I had a little brother, but he didn’t survive his first winter.” She goes silent then, her eyes downcast. She tries to cover her hurt, but I see it anyway. An old wound, never truly healed.
“I lost a brother and my parents,” I say softly. “They wait for me even now, all of them one with the eternal just like your father and brother.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice is a gentle caress.
“It was long ago.” I stand, needing space though reluctant to give it. Being near her seems to soothe an ache I never realized lived under my skin. “Rest.”
“I’m tired of resting,” she says to my back as I walk to the door.
“Even so, you need to recover.”
“For what?” Her question hangs in the air as I stand in the doorway. “What happens after this?”
I turn and look at her. “I keep you alive and safe from harm.”
“Why?” She sounds tired now, her cheeks slightly pink. “Why does it matter to you if I live?”
“Because you’re mine, pet,” I answer truthfully, though it isn’t well received if the scowl on her face is any indication.
“I will return later.” I step into the hallway and close the door.
“‘Because you’re mine, pet’,” she mimics in a deep voice somewhat under her breath. “Ugh. Ugh! Arrogant.Gods.”
I can’t help my smile as I head downstairs to meet with my brothers.
Chapter
Eleven
LARELLIN
