“It is too politically risky. They would not.”
“Still.” He shook his head. Venick understood that elves did not fight wars like humans did. Their battles were usually political, waged with cunning and compromise over steel and blood. Regardless, war was war. It could be messy. The rules only worked if both sides chose to obey, and they wouldn’t. They weren’t. “Coming to Kenath, exposing yourself to these southern elves who hunt you. It is wrong for you to take that kind of risk.” He met her gaze. “It was wrong for you to take it. For me.”
Ellina dropped her eyes, suddenly busy at her task. There was a long stretch of silence. Venick became conscious of her hands on his skin. He noticed that her hands were not like Aza’s but like his: hard, callused.
Ellina finished the stitching, then stood. Venick stood too, aware that the air had changed between them. He flexed his foot, needing something to do. The stitches pulled but held. He looked at his chest next, feeling the cut’s edges, the nerve-dead skin. The bleeding seemed less. The cut was long but not deep.
“It will be dark soon,” Venick finally said. “I don’t think it’s safe to return to the market for supplies, but we can search these rooms for food and fresh clothing.” And weapons. Ellina had her bow, dagger and sword and he his hunting knife, but Venick was useless with a knife in a fight. Better to have a sword of his own, or an axe. A hammer, even. Something he could heft and swing. “We’ll hide out here until nightfall.”
“The southern elves will not be hindered by nightfall.”
“Then we’ll search the rooms and leave now.”
“They will be watching the gates.”
“There is more than one way out of a city.” Ask how he knew that. Ask whenhe’dever had to escape a city. Well, he had, and with more than a few elves at his back.
But that wasn’t why Ellina was hesitating. Venick knew this even before she turned away from him, even before he caught a glimpse of some quiet emotion on her face. “I have told you already,” she said. “You owe me no debts.”
But Venick smiled. “By my reckoning, I still owe you two.”
NINE
Dusk came anyway, shifting quickly to night, reducing Kenath to splotchy black shadows cut only by yellow pools of light from lanterns and windows. After a quick search of the upper rooms they’d found nothing of use, save for a row of boots, shirts, and a drawer full of jekkis. Venick eased his bandaged foot into one of the boots and traded his torn shirt for a fresh one, and Ellina stuffed the jekkis into her pocket.
“To trade,” she’d told him in response to his raised brow. “Elves do not smoke.”
There were a lot of things elves didn’t do, he’d wanted to say back, but didn’t. He nodded instead because she was right. Jekkis was illegal on both sides of the border, and that meant it was valuable. They might be able to sell it or trade it for things they really needed: weapons, shelter.
Black market thief, are you now?
Whatever got them to safety.
After, they’d returned to their room to find Aza gone, her clothing still heaped in a bundle on the floor. Venick stooped to pick up the garment. The thin fabric was liquid between his fingers. A moment later, shouts erupted downstairs. He glanced up at Ellina in alarm.
Time to move, then. Quickly.
Venick followed Ellina out through the window and back into the streets, which were empty. They would not have been, had this been any other human city. Even Irek’s people stayed out past dark, drinking or telling stories. But not here, not in a border city. It was too easy to get caught where you shouldn’t be, too easy to wind up missing or dead. People were wary, and so everyone went in at dusk, closing shutters and drawing curtains and waiting for dawn to wake again.
There was a time when Venick might have been grateful for empty streets. Might have welcomed the quiet dark, the way he could see whole spans of the city without the crowd to block his view. But not now. Not as he heard the chime of the bell tower sounding the alarm, the bay of dogs that followed.
Venick gritted his teeth. They couldn’t have been gone from the room for more than a few minutes, which meant Aza had likely woken long before, had lain in wait for the right moment to flee and call the guards. They should have tied her up while they had the chance. Should have—
“Meit lai,” Ellina hissed, tugging him sharply down an alley.This way.
They turned a corner, then another. The darkness consumed them. There was no moonlight here, no lanterns. Venick was painfully aware of his bad leg, awkward and stiff underneath him. It would be easy to trip in this dark, to become cornered with nowhere to run. Easy to imagine the dogs following their trail, closing in on them like the wanewolves in the forest.
And easy, while consumed by that vision, to forget to watch the path ahead. So Venick didn’t see the elf. Didn’t see Ellina skid to a halt or throw out her arm until he was crashing into her. But then Venick did see. A sudden figure appeared, tall and waiting at the end of the alley. Venick’s heart lurched as he pulled his hunting knife into his hand. Ellina stepped towards the elf, and of courseshedidn’t draw her weapon, hell anddamnher stupid—
“Dourin,” Ellina breathed. “I told you not to come for me.”
“I am glad I did not listen,” the elf snapped, closing the gap between them. “They have the whole kennel on the hunt. What did youdo?”
“Later,” Ellina said, then turned to Venick, who was lowering his knife, who was quickly coming to understand. He didn’t recognize this elf, not at first, not in the dark, but Venick did recognize the leather legion armor and realized this must be one of the six members of Ellina’s troop.
“You still have the human with you,” Dourin said as if noticing Venick for the first time.
“He is coming with us.”
