“May I?” said a voice at her elbow.
Ellina startled, sloshing her drink.
Erol was there, motioning at the open space of wall beside her as if it was a seat. Ellina wiped her chin with the back of her hand, stifling a cough.
The healer set his shoulders against the wall. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Branton, have you? He took my water flask. You may have noticed, but the plainspeople don’t serve water. You either bring your own, or you drink wine.”
Ellina was not sure if this was a rebuke, and if it was, who he was rebuking? Her,for the way she had just downed nearly an entire glass, or the plainspeople, for making it possible?
She dropped her hand, sticky with spilled wine, and looked away.
“Ah, well.” Erol shrugged. “I had not planned on staying long, anyway. Not that I mind a good celebration. The noise, though, I could do without. It reminds me too much of the parties your mother used to drag me to.”
That brought Ellina’s attention back.
“Queen Rishiana loved big occasions,” Erol said, seeing her surprise. “She liked making connections, and attending galas was the quickest way to do that.”
Ellina had known this. She knew, too, that Erol had spent time in the elflands. He was a friend and work partner of the elf Traegar, who had once trained alongside Ellina and Dourin in the legion. It was no secret that Erol and Ellina’s mother were acquainted; Traegar’s connection with the queen would have ensured that. But Erol’s words seemed to hint at a deeper familiarity.
“Rishiana didn’t drink much, as you must know. I think she liked to leave that part to me.” Erol gave a self-deprecating laugh, the kind the old often have for their younger selves. “That was all before you were born, of course. Once Rishi became a mother, things changed.”
She drew the border, he meant, which separated the mainlands from the elflands. Erol would have been banned from the east, along with all other humans. It was said that Queen Rishiana invoked these measures to protect their race, and for years, Ellina had believed that. Elves were dying out. Elven fledglings were rare to begin with, a problem made worse by the fact that elves had begun choosing human partners over elven ones. But elves and humans cannot bear children, and their population suffered as a result. In an attempt to change their fate, Queen Rishiana had stepped in, creating new laws that prohibited elves from associating with humans, among other things. Her measures were extreme and controversial. They implicated Ellina, who had been forcefully bondmated to her once-friend and fellow legionnaire, Raffan. But they had worked. In the years since, their elven numbers had greatly recovered.
Ellina ran a finger along the top of her wine glass. She could hear her own thoughts. She could hear how they echoed with empty spaces, gaps in a story that had never quite made sense.
“Venick has been asking me to check on your shoulder,” Erol said.
Ellina’s finger flinched against the glass.
“He’s been a bit of a pest about it, actually.” Erol’s smile was tinged with knowing. “I told him that your shoulder is healed, and there’s nothing more I can do for you. I mostly said it to get him out of my hair. But if you ever doneed a healer, I want you to know that you can always come to me.”
Ellina looked into Erol’s face. He had fine bones, grey hair but thick white eyebrows, a delicate build. It occurred to Ellina that she had misread him earlier, when she believed he was admonishing her for the wine. Erol was not one to rebuke. There was an openness about him, a soft sort of countenance.
Kind, Ellina thought. This man was kind.
“Ah.” Erol’s eyes alighted across the room. “I’ve just spotted Branton.” He pushed off the wall, switching to elvish. “Ram aulin.” That was an old elven phrase, one that had mostly gone out of style. It meant,until next time,though the literal translation was,keep well.
No sooner had Erol departed that the crowd split, making way for another figure.
Venick moved towards her. His shoulders were hunched, his mouth drawn in. He looked worried. Hurt, too, which made no sense. It made no sense thatheshould be the one looking hurt, after everything. This thought was so frustrating that Ellina nearly walked away again, yet she thought about how she had misread Erol. She thought about how she was allowing her feelings to dictate her actions when she had never been one to be ruled by emotion.
She stayed where she was.
Venick stopped a few paces away, abruptly, as if he’d reached the end of a lead. “Can we talk?” A poor choice of words. He sighed, pushed a hand through his hair. He had been doing that a lot lately. His hair bore permanent indents, like rows of crops. “Please.”
“Why’d you need to talk toher?”
The voice came from somewhere within the crowd. Venick’s head whipped around, but the speaker, whoever she was, had already vanished into the throng.
Ellina’s cheeks burned. She hated that. She hated that she was so easily shamed, that she felt despised and powerless, and that Venick had to see it. She was preoccupied by this, and so—when someone moved up behind Venick—she nearly missed it.
She should have missed it anyway. The shift was subtle, and Ellina was distracted, and the party was loud and her head was buzzing, and there were so many people, an entire ballroom full of them. What was one more? Yet there was something about the way this particular figure moved, an unusual quality to his gait that had Ellina’s hair standing up before she understood why.
Her eyes focused. She saw what she should have overlooked.
An elf lifted a blowgun to his mouth, aiming at Venick.
Ellina tackled Venick to the ground just as the dart whirred overhead. She heard the projectile land harmlessly behind her—or rather, she heard the absence of any party guests thudding to the floor. It should have been a relief. But the weapon was slight, and the room was overflowing, and for a moment, no one understood what had happened. All they saw was Ellina tackling their Commander. They saw her dark hair and remembered that they did not trust this northern conjuror. They had suspected her all along, and now their suspicions were confirmed.
