But as before, Raffan did not question her. He merely walked away, leaving Ellina alone with the wind.
???
At first, Ellina did not notice the whispers.
As she trekked alone though the city towards the palace, she did not notice how the elves around her became quiet, how their eyes followed her, hands lifting to cover mouths as they leaned into one another. Even when Ellina did notice, she did not, really. She was the queen’s daughter. Famed in the legion. She was used to attention, and having just returned home, almost certainly bound to draw it.
As Ellina ascended Evov’s narrow streets, however, she began to sense it: a subtle tension. She saw the way elves peered at her from under hooded eyelids, saw their interest, and it worried her.
She wondered what they were saying behind those raised hands.
Ellina quickened her pace, wending higher into the mountains, deeper into the city. The air became thin and clean. A breeze raised goosebumps on her arms. When she finally rounded a bend and the palace came into view, she felt a ripple of relief.
The royal palace could still impress her even after all these years. It hung on a silver cloud, an isolated finger reaching up from a deep moat of skyless black. There was nothing else like it, not the glittering fortress of stone, not the endless black canyon from which it rose. The castle, like the rest of the city, had been carved into mountain rock, its spires stretching high, tiny lights illuminating windows and walkways.
There was a single wide bridge arching over the void that connected the palace to the rest of the city—the only way in or out. Ellina followed that bridge over an outcrop of rock, to the palace gates and into the entrance hall.
Where her sister waited.
“Ellina.”
Farah strode forward. Ellina’s elder sister looked freshly dressed, white hair woven tightly down her back, shortsword fastened to her hip. Farah was not legion, but as was a second daughter’s duty, she had control over the city’s guard and preferred guard’s armor to the robes most highborn wore. She grasped Ellina’s forearm in greeting, her eyes slightly too appraising to be friendly. “You are looking well. I came as soon as I heard you were back. Mother will be pleased by your safe return.”
Just words, and most of them meaningless. Ellina doubted she looked well—not after a two-month-long campaign, a journey south and back across the tundra and a whipping—and the queen was rarely pleased by anything. But Ellina gave a nod and told a lie of her own. “It is good to be home.”
The entrance hall was flooded with light, the double doors flung wide open, guards stationed here and there. A few courtiers lingered as well, but otherwise, she and Farah were alone.
And so there was no reason for the way Farah dropped her voice as she said, “I am to tell you to bathe and change. We will be dining with the queen in her private chambers tonight. You will give her your report then.”
Ellina was careful to hide her surprise. She had expected the queen to summon Ellina’s troop to the stateroom to report their findings, as was custom. The queen did not host meetings in her private chambers. Ellina could count on one hand the number of times she had been summoned there. Once, when she first decided to join the legion. Once, when she and Raffan became bondmated. Once, when her mother announced that Miria would take the throne.
None of those conversations had ended well, not even the first. As a third daughter, it was Ellina’s right to choose her own life path. She could have become a scholar or a senator as most highborn third and fourth daughters did. But Ellina did not have any interest in history or politics. She chose the legion instead, despite her mother’s insistence that this was highly unusual. It was not the role of an elven princess to live a soldier’s life.
The legion will show you no mercy, her mother had said, but that only hardened Ellina’s resolve. She did not want mercy.
It is my choice to make, Mother.
“Did the queen say why?” Ellina asked her sister now.
“Does our mother ever explain herself?” But there was something about the way Farah said this that gave Ellina pause. Farah’s expression was carefully arranged, brows level, mouth relaxed. Her face betrayed nothing. In royal circles, Farah was known for this. She was often praised for her perfect mastery of stillness, some even going so far as to say her mask rivaled the queen’s. Yet Ellina knew there was true calm, and then there was the guise of it, and she could sense there was more Farah was not saying.
“That is not an answer,” Ellina replied. Her sister’s eyes wavered, and Ellina took her chance, switching to elvish as she pressed, “What are you not telling me?”
Farah glanced around, then motioned that they should move. Together, they exited the entrance hall and started in the direction of Ellina’s suite, which was located high in the south tower. “You should know,” Farah said when they were out of earshot of the courtiers and guards, “that there have been rumors.”
Ellina’s pulse quickened. She waited.
“You were seen defending a human,” Farah went on. “Fighting beside him. In Kenath.”
This time, Ellina could not quite hide her surprise. She had not anticipated this. Her focus had been on Raffan and her troopmates, what they had seen, what they might suspect. It had not even occurred to Ellina that there were other witnesses—an entirecityof them—who had also seen her and Venick together. Fighting together, like Farah said. Defending each other.
“I was in a tight situation,” Ellina explained, yet inside she was reeling. She should have realized the citizens of Kenath would spread word of that fight. Should have prepared for it. For her to have missed something so obvious…whatelsehad she overlooked? “He helped me escape.”
“So it is true, then.”
“Yes, but if not for him, I—”
“Do notdefendhim,” Farah snapped, coming to a halt. They stood in an empty corridor. Torchlight ribboned across Farah’s face. “Think, Ellina. Do you not suppose there is a reason our mother does not want to adjourn in the stateroom for your report? A reason we are dining in her private chambers tonight? She has surely heard the rumors, and she is displeased. She will want an explanation, and you would be a fool to answer her in such a way.”
