“Ellina has always drawn attention to herself,” Raffan called after him. “Not on purpose. She does not even know that she is doing it. But some elves just burn brighter. It can be hard to look away.” His face had closed over again, that classic elven stillness. “I tried to look away, and we both suffered for it. I hope you will not make that same mistake.”
Raffan’s words burrowed like an arrow into Venick’s back. The truth was that Venickhadlooked away from Ellina once, except it wasn’t the same, their situations were so clearly different, and Venick didn’t know how to explain that difference without finishing with Raffan’s face what Farah had started.
He kept walking.
???
Erol found Venick in the barn readying a horse. The stallion was a plainsland breed, built for swift travel. Through the open door, the evening sun blazed over wet streets, drawing humidity up thickly from the pavement.
Erol frowned. “The Elder will be arriving any time now. Where are you going?”
Venick didn’t reply. If he replied, he would snap.
“Ellina will be fine,” Erol said.
“She should be back by now.”
“The lace powder will work.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“You have to trust her.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“We won,” Erol said. “Our men confronted the southern caravan outside the city. The enemy surrendered almost immediately; they had little choice, given that their last and final weapon had been leaked across the countryside, and further destroyed by the rain. The conjurors have fled. Whatever Dark Army ranks remain will soon be dissolved, now that their queen is gone—”
“We don’t know that she’s gone.”
“Yes,” said a voice, “we do.”
Venick spun.
Ellina sat astride Eywen in the barn’s wide doorway, looking pale and rain-soaked, but unharmed.
Venick rushed forward. He helped pull her out of the saddle and into his arms, gripping the back of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair. It took several breaths before the frazzled energy that had claimed Venick ever since returning to Kenath finally abated, allowing him to release Ellina and study her more fully. Her eyes were rimmed in red, her jaw locked as if to prevent it from chattering. But her eyes. Those were fiercely alive.
“The poison worked?”
She nodded.
“And you—?”
“I am okay,” she said, though her voice was even hoarser than usual. Venick continued to stare. She saw how he didn’t quite believe her, so she said it again. “I am okay, Venick.”
Lin Lill appeared in the doorway. “A messenger just delivered the news. The Elder has arrived. You will need your horses,” she continued when Venick, Ellina and Erol tried to move past her out of the barn.
“Really?” Kenath was large, but not large enough to justify the use of horses. “Why?”
“Because the Elder has not returned tothiscity. Not to Kenath.” She took a moment to find her words, as if they’d been strewn around her feet and must be picked up and rearranged in the correct order. “Apparently, he has taken residence in a different city, one that is not on any map. The messenger confirmed its location on the border, a short ride to the south.”
“An unmarked city?” Ellina asked. “But how?”
“It seems,” Lin Lill said, “that Evov has reappeared.”
THIRTY-FIVE
Evov looked different when not set in the mountains, but Ellina, who had lost herself in that city, and found herself again, understood the nature of lost things that are found. She understood how the act of finding changes them. She recognized Evov immediately.
