They were. But it made no sense. What was Lorana doing with Miria’s necklace? If Miria had disappeared eight years ago…
Eight years ago.
“No.”
Eight years ago was his sixteenth nameday.
“No.”
His mother had given him his first hunting knife. He remembered the day clearly. He had gone into the forest to practice. He threw the knife at a tree over and over, watching it chip the wood, carving patterns in the bark.
“No.”
He’d heard a noise behind him and dropped the knife. He remembered feeling more foolish than afraid, that at the moment he might truly need his weapon it had fallen from his hands.
Lorana stepped out of the shadows. It was the first time he’d ever laid eyes on her. He remembered the surprise, then the flush of embarrassment, because she was beautiful and he was young and it was all so unexpected. But then she gave a little smile.I am Lorana, she had said.
Venick saw the way the story went. He saw how he and Lorana met in the woods every afternoon. He practiced with his knife, and she practiced with him, and slowly they began to know each other. He saw their friendship bloom, a warm, lofty thing. He saw himself grow older, and his feelings began to shift. He was desperate to hide them. She was his friend, and she was an elf. Even then, he’d known the law. But some feelings are impossible to hide. Venick saw himself fall in love with the elf who lived among them.
Butwhydid she live among them? Why had she chosen to come to the mainlands? And who had she been before?
Venick’s mind revolted. It couldn’t be. Lorana was not Miria. She wasnot.
But, the necklace.
But, Miria’s disappearance.
Slowly, Venick’s mind shaped a different story. He imagined that Lorana lied about her name. He imagined that it wasn’t a coincidence that the same year Miria disappeared into the south was the year Lorana appeared in Irek. He imagined that Lorana, like her youngest sister, had black hair. That she could easily pass as a southerner. Could easily hide her identity.
And here, another memory. Venick saw Ellina in the forest. He saw the way she held his necklace, questioning him around the fire. This time, he made himself forget the lurch of anger at his necklace in her fist. He remembered only Ellina’s eyes, her calculation, the answers she sought.The elf who gave this to you. What was her name?He had not thought anything of his answer, yet that answer spurred Ellina to save his life. Later, he remembered Ellina’s confession.I wanted to kill you when I saw you, she had said.I wanted to kill you, and maybe I would have, if not—
If not for Miria.
This was Ellina’s reason.Thiswas why she wanted Venick to live. Dourin said that Miria mysteriously disappeared into the south, but what if she hadn’t? What if sheran away, and came to live in a little human city by the water? What if Ellina knew the truth all along?
This is elven silver.Ellina’s voice rang in his memory.It belongs to an elf. Where is she?
Gone.
Gone, or dead?
Ellina pushed Venick for answers, yet he realized now that she must have already known the truth.
Did you love her?
Ellina knew who Venick was. She knew who he and Miria had been to each other.
Venick was falling. He was standing at the edge of the cliff, and this time he did jump, and was speeding towards the earth, air screaming in his ears, his eyes. He had known Lorana. He hadlovedher. But she wasn’t who he thought she was. Miria. Lorana was the lost princess Miria. And he hadn’t even known.
His exhaustion hit him all at once. Farah was still waiting for a response, but Venick didn’t see Farah. He saw Ellina. He saw everything he had never comprehended about her, every clue uncovered. The sudden rush of understanding gutted him.
“Well?” Farah prompted, but Venick hardly heard. He had the sensation that he was underwater, that everything sounded far away. “What have you to say?”
“I told you what I came to tell you.”
“You have not told me what you are doing with my sister’s necklace.”
Venick laughed. The joyless sound of it was sharp in the small space. “Ask Ellina.”
