“Are you asking me to just accept this?” Venick asked. “I can’t. I won’t.”
“It should not matter to you.”
“Ofcourseit matters to me.” Dangerous words.
Take them back.
But he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t. Not anymore. Not now that he and Ellina had promised to be honest with each other, not after he’d won her trust, and lost it, and won it back again. Venick let out a hard breath. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It matters to me because I’m making things worse for you by being here.”
“That is not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Venick dropped his hand in time to see Ellina open her mouth, ready with another denial. He cut her off. “Thought we were done lying to each other.”
But her eyes sparked, defiant. “I am glad you came. I need you here. That is not a lie.”
Venick blinked. Her words sliced through him. They severed his anger, cut the fury right out of him. It wasgladandneed. That admission fanned a hope he hadn’t even realized he still harbored. “But Raffan…”
“Ignore Raffan.”
Venick gave her a rueful look. “You say that like it’s simple.”
“It is simple. Raffan wanted revenge for what happened in the forest. He wanted to make you angry. You gave him what he wanted. That was your mistake. To be expected, I suppose, since you are such a fool.”
“It’s not my fault that—” But he caught sight of her face then, the way her mouth twitched. “Oh. Real funny, Ellina. Like I haven’t heard that one before.”
“You looked like you needed reminding.”
He muttered a curse, which got her smiling. “It’s not funny.” But her smile only grew. “Hell.” He rubbed a loose hand down his face, but he was fighting his own smile now. “Insults. Great. Not exactly my brand of humor, but whatever works for you.”
“It works for me.”
He shook his head, aware of how she’d lightened the mood, a little awed by how she’d managed it. His hope—the one he thought he’d buried—sparked like a match. It flared to life. Venick looked at Ellina, her twisted smile, the mirth in her eyes, and his heart squeezed. “Forget Raffan. You’ll be the death of me, you know that?”
“No,” she replied. Her smile softened. “I do not think I will.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
Ellina exited the palace.
She made her feet to be silent against the stone floor. She was not trying to stay quiet, not exactly, but a kind of softness had settled into her, and she had the desire to move softly, too.
She pushed through a side door meant for servants and out into open air. There was a cobblestone path, narrow, worn smooth with time. She followed it. The path led her under the castle’s shadow, through a stone garden and to the palace bridge.
The bridge was a massive structure, wide enough to fit a dozen horses abreast. There was a railing on either side, hip-high, to prevent elves from tumbling over. Ellina stepped onto the bridge’s even surface. She gazed across its gentle arch, then peered into the ravine below.
From this height the water below looked calm. Surreal. Yet Ellina knew that if she ventured closer the water’s details would become revealed to her. She would see that the bay was not calm at all. It was choppy. Violent, even. Waves boomed against the mountain base, spraying high. If a boat were to try and dock near those crags, it would be tossed against them. Its hull would shatter. Even if a ship were to drop anchor farther out away from the hazardous rocks, swimming to shore would prove treacherous.
Not that any elves would ever attempt to swim.
Ellina had argued all of this to Venick during one of their recent lessons. He worried about stealth attacks. He worried about ships sailing from the east.A large army will move slowly, he said to her. His finger pinned down the map they had been studying. His eyes had been soft, then hard, growing harder.But that does not mean the southerners will not send smaller contingents ahead. They could come by sea. They could climb those cliffs.
Elves do not sail, Ellina had insisted.Even if they did, Evov will protect us. This city will remain hidden to our enemies.
Venick had given her a grim look.Are you sure?
There was a time when Ellina’s answer would have come easily.Yes, of course.She could have spoken that answer in elvish, how certain she was of its truth. Elves did not swim. They did not sail. Evov was hidden. These things were known.
Yet Ellina knew better now than to trust anything she had once believed. She herself had broken laws. She was learning to break more laws still. And ifshecould cut the binds that had once bound her world, she knew the southerners could, too.
