He lies on his back, rubbing his eyes, the corded muscles of his forearms straining his rolled sleeves. “No labyrinth this time. I haven’t recovered from my last heroic death yet.”
Elowyn bites her lip to keep from laughing.
They’ll be embarking on their own adventure in the real world come morning. They can take a break from the excitement in their heartlanding tonight.
She wanders toward him and looks down into his caramel eyes as he squints up at her.
“What do you want to do instead? Do you think the water is warm?” Without waiting for a response, she lowers herself to the edge of the deck and swings her legs over the side, letting the waves tickle her toes. “It is warm!”
“Do you ever just sit and exist?” A smile quirks Rominy’s lips, and Elowyn takes it as the good-natured teasing he hopefully meant it as.
“You sound like my pera.”
“Pera?” Rominy pushes himself into a sitting position, and Elowyn twirls her toes in the water.
“My father. It’s an Elvish endearment.”
“You must be close to your...pera.”
With a sad sort of smile, she nods. “Both my parents, but my mother was often weak and struggled to keep up with us when we were elflings. I spent more time with Pera as a child while Mother rested.”
“Because of our heartbinding?”
Elowyn nods. “But I had Grandmera, too. And Cerian and Tharios.”
“Grandmera...your grandmother?”
“Yes. She wanted to come meet you, but Mother insisted someone from the royal family needed to remain in Lostariel.”
Thoughts of Grandmera and home tug at Elowyn, but she tries not to dwell on the homesickness prickling behind her eyes.
Rominy turns to face the horizon beside her, letting his feet hang in the lapping water as the sun beats down on them and the breeze plays with their hair.
“You should invite her to visit us sometime,” Rominy says, and Elowyn turns to smile at him.
“I’d love that.”
Then he frowns. “She’s not too frail to travel, is she?”
Frail? Grandmera? Elowyn laughs at the thought. “She’s barely two hundred. She could have more elflings if she binded again.”
Rominy loses his balance and almost ends up in the water, but Elowyn steadies him with a hand to his arm.
“Did you say two hundred? How long do elves live? I should have paid more attention to Arisanna’s lessons.”
“Most elves live about five hundred years.”
Rominy’s eyes grow wide. And then his brows furrow. “You’re the same age I am...right?”
Laughter fills her at the look on his face. “I think I’m a week younger than you are.”
“But...what’s going to happen to you when I grow old and...and die?”
“I’ll die, too, of course.”
Surely he understands their lives are bound together now.
“Elowyn!”
