Really. After everything. He couldn’t believe it.
THIRTY
Ellina pressed a hand to her temple.
She did not know how long she had been sitting in her reading room practicing her elven lies. Long enough for the moon to rise and then fall again. Long enough for the candles to burn low, their sides caked in dripped wax. The pressure behind Ellina’s eyes was a distraction. So were the rugs, the windows, the entireroom,spinning dizzily. But Ellina would not quit. Not yet.
Since her mother’s leaving, Ellina had begun practicing her lies with a new, almost feverish determination. She understood now more than ever how vital it was that she master this craft. And she believed that she could. She, who had always had a gift for deception, who could unmake the truth with a simple twisting of words…surelythiswas not beyond her skill.
If it was possible at all.
Ellina had not believed that it was at first. Even as she attempted her first few lies in elvish all those many days ago, she had not believed it. But as Ellina continued to practice, pushing through the headaches and the dizziness and the blaze in her lungs, she began to feel the change. Felt, subtly, as if she was breaking through her own skin. Before, attempting a lie in elvish had been like knocking on a brick wall. Now the wall was made of wood. It was hollow. She could sense what was hidden on the other side.
It was meager progress. Still, Ellina was encouraged. She became convinced that lying in elvishwaspossible. That if she worked hard enough, practiced long enough…
A tap at the door interrupted those thoughts. Ellina blinked up, then glanced at the candle, marking the time. Late. Too late for visitors.
She answered the door to find a servant standing on the other side. “Cessena,” he said, dipping a quick bow. “A human has entered the city. He is asking for you.”
Ellina pulled back. “What?”
“A human. In the city.” She stared as the elf continued speaking—He came with a message. A southern army, he says, marching north—but Ellina was hardly listening. Her eyes went to the window. She gazed through the black night towards the bay, the mountains, the city that lay beyond. Her heart began to pound. She could feel it beating against her ribs.
No, her heart said.
Impossible, it said.
“Princess, are you listening?” the servant pressed. “Please, he is in the dungeons. You must come at once.”
???
The sight of him nearly undid her.
Ellina realized, only now, that she had not truly believed the servant or his message. When the elf had come to her suite and began explaining, it had sounded like a story. Even as Ellina had fumbled to dress and flown from her rooms, she imagined this was happening to someone else, that it could not be real, could not beherlife, because there was only one human who would ever ask for her, and he was gone.
But he was not.
Two prison guards guided Ellina down the dark tunnel to where Venick had been chained. There were no windows here. Instead torchlight gleamed, turned the prison’s murky puddles to glass. They cast shadows over Venick’s hunched figure, transforming him into a mirage of light and dark. Ellina wanted to imagine that it was a trick of the light how gaunt he appeared, how pale, lips cracked, one manacled wrist bloody and bruised. It was difficult to look at him. Difficult, too, to stay still, to resist the urge to step forward, to demand to know how he had entered their city and what he had done andwhy.
His winter eyes lifted to hers.
“Leave us,” Ellina told the guards. They hesitated.
“Cessena, it is not safe…”
“You think I cannot protect myself against a single, unarmed human?” She made her tone to bite. “Do as I say.”
Another moment’s hesitation, a pause that lasted just long enough for Ellina to sense their doubt—and their suspicion. But then they were bowing and murmuring more dutifulcessenasand leaving.
Ellina’s eyes found Venick again. Her anger took a shape she did not recognize. It squeezed her chest, dug fingers through her heart. He frightened her. What he had done frightened her. That he had managed to cross the tundra on foot, unsupplied, following the path to their hidden city on what could have only been aguess… “You have lost your mind.”
His smile had a hard edge. “You heard my message, then?”
Yes, Ellina had heard his message, and she could scarcely believe it. Or him. What he had done…what had hedone? “Dourin said—I thought…” She made herself stop. Gather her composure. Try again. “You were supposed to return to the mainlands.”
“I know. I didn’t.”
“You went south.”
