Youvan shifted in her periphery. He, too, waited to hear what she would say.
She would lie this final time. She would lie hard enough that the lie erased her truths. She would do this, because she knew what would happen if she did not. She gathered the words first in her mind, then in her mouth. “You doubt me.”
Venick made a breathless noise. “Yes, I doubt you.”
“Why?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Because I know you. Say what you want about me. Say that you don’t care and never did. Fine. But I knowyou. And I know that you’ve always been loyal to your country.”
“Thisismy country.”
Venick wavered. He had no good answer for that.
“Farah is my sister,” Ellina continued, swallowing the words whole. Trying not to taste them. “She is family. We have had our disagreements, certainly, but we have put them behind us. As for her aspirations…we share a vision.”
“Which is?”
“Prosperity for elvenkind. The expansion of our lands and race. Honestly, Venick. Is that really so difficult to understand? Farah will be queen of all the known world one day. She is the most powerful ruler of our era, and I have an opportunity to stand by her side.”
“You shouldn’twantto stand by her side.”
“Why? Because she has blood on her hands? You said it yourself. I do, too. As for how much I care about humans…” Ellina gave a shrug. “Well. You and I have misunderstood each other on that point before. But I thought I made my feelings clear. On that last day.”
Youvan would think Ellina was talking about Venick’s trial, but Ellina knew that Venick understood her true meaning. In the everpool, he had kissed her, and she pulled away. He admitted his feelings for her, and she gave him nothing back.
Color bled into Venick’s cheeks. “I see.”
“Do you? It seems to me that you have been confused.”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “Maybe I have been.”
“It is my fault for not being clear enough, then. Perhaps it is time that I spoke plainly.” This lie did not come easily. It seemed to burn on the way out. But Ellina spoke the words clearly, deliberately, in elvish. “I am loyal to Farah, and I am here to enforce her will. If you do not leave now, I will kill you myself.”
It was as if a spell had been cast, or broken. Venick’s expression changed as a sky does, in shades and shadows, and Ellina saw it: the moment he believed her.
He did not speak again. He did not even look back as he disappeared through the balcony door. Gone.
EIGHT
Venick cursed.
He’d been going too fast, he hadn’t been watching his footing. In his haste to put as much distance between himself and Evov as he could he’d stumbled over an obvious rock and slipped, catching his weight with one arm. Pain spiked up his wrist. He slid a few feet down the mountain before coming to a shaky stop.
Dourin light-footed to his side, brows lifted.
“Don’t say it,” Venick grumbled, pushing back to his feet.
“Do not say what?”
“Whatever you’re about to say.”
It seemed that for once the elf would listen. Dourin studied Venick in silence as Venick rolled his wrist, testing the joint. He couldn’t afford a sprain. Couldn’t believe he had evenriskeda sprain, and in such a stupid way. A fall. Going too fast, letting his head get in the way of his feet. Venick flexed his fingers, working feeling back into the hand and doing his best to ignore Dourin, who was looking like he’d decided to say something after all. The elf pursed his lips. “I do not think we should tell the others about Ellina.”
Venick blinked up. That wasn’t what he’d expected Dourin to say. “They deserve to know.”
“Morale among our troops is low enough as it is. Our numbers are pitiful, and our soldiers know it.”
“Which is why we’re going to gather more soldiers.”
