“You made allies with the elves,” Theledus said.
“Yes.”
“Thegoodelves.”
“Yes.”
“Preposterous.”
“It would be easy to prove to you,” Venick replied. “They are waiting just outside the city.”
“Waiting toattack us.”
“Theledus,” a thick-bearded councillor named Helos interjected, pinching the bridge of his nose. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It does if you’re a traitor.”
They continued to bicker, but Venick stopped listening. He was watching his mother. He’d watched her all throughout his story, looking for clues in her stony face, or in the formal fold of her hands in her lap. He’d been looking forher, too, the woman he remembered, the gentle mother who had raised him. But if that woman was still there, Lira kept her hidden.
“This Dark Army,” she began, speaking over the quarreling councillors, who fell silent. “If it is as powerful as you say, it will be difficult to stop.”
Not a denouncement. For one shining moment, all Venick could think was that his mother’s first words after hearing his story had not been to condemn him. He inhaled around that knowledge, let it settle over his skin. Lira was willing to hear him. She was listening.
“That’s true,” Venick replied, “which is why we need allies.”
“And you intend to build these alliances?”
“I do. The elven resistance has named me its commander. With the combined support of elves and lowlanders, I believe I can convince other humans to join our cause as well: the highlanders and the plainspeople.”
There was a stunned silence. It was one thing to propose allying with elves, but this, suggesting that they forge alliances with the men and women they’d been born to kill—who had been born to killthem—was another matter entirely.
Theledus gave a weak laugh. “Have you been so long in exile that you’ve forgotten all sense? The highlanders would slit our throats in our sleep, and the plainspeople are little better.”
“They won’t,” Venick insisted. “Not once they understand. Not now that we share a common enemy.”
“Theyare our enemy, as much as these dark elves are.”
“But theyshouldn’t be.”
“Enough.” Theledus’ face was carved in deep lines. He stood, drawing up to his full height. “I will not sit here and allow you to disgrace us with your traitorous ideas. Lira, he is your son. His redemption is up to you. But let it be known that if he were my son, I would have him hanged this very night, before he can infect anyone else with these insane, insulting notions.”
The room stilled. Outside, the cicadas had quieted. Even the walls seemed to hold their breath.
Lira did not immediately speak. It was as if she had become a part of the tavern, cut from the same wood, sanded by the same paper. Only her chest moved, the soft rise and fall of each breath. Again, Venick sought the mother he remembered. That woman was still there he thought, hidden around Lira’s eyes. Or maybe in her shoulders, which had softened a little…hadn’t they?
“You come seeking absolution for the murder of your father,” Lira said. “You have explained, at length, your journey through the elflands and the dangers we face. But you have made little mention of your actual crime. Tell me, why did you kill my husband?”
“What?”
“Why did you kill Atlas?”
But Lira knew why. She had been there to witness it. “It was a mistake.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Her tone had hardly changed. She spoke of her dead husband as if giving a recipe for bread. It should have alerted Venick to the danger, but his mind was suddenly on that night, on the hut at the edge of the city where he’d watched Lorana die, and whether, if he went there now, the hut would still be standing. “I killed him because he told the southern elves about Lorana.” Venick glimpsed those elves. Their sleek hair, their slender bodies, eyes so golden they seemed to glow. “About our relationship.” An ambush in the night. Lorana backed into a corner. An arrow in her chest, followed by a sword in Venick’s hand. Shining, heavy. And too late. “He’s the reason they came to kill her.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Venick knew that it was even before he saw his mother’s eyes flash, her hands closing to fists. “No.Youare the reason the elves came to kill her. You knew the law forbidding elven-human courtships, yet you pursued that elf anyway. And then you chose her life over your father’s.”
