Which was exactly Venick’s point. It sometimes seemed like Ellina was determined to throw her own life away merely so that she could feel more like the elf she’d once been. But Venick didn’t care if Ellina was different than she’d been. He only cared that she was safe.
Venick voiced his deepest fear. “She’s going to get herself killed.”
A shadow touched Venick’s boots. He looked up to see Ellina stepping out of his tent, her chin lifted, eyes pooling dark with defiance. She wasn’t asleep after all—she’d heard their conversation.
Venick came to his feet. “Ellina—”
“There she is,” a voice interrupted. Lin Lill sauntered into sight, her hair pulled back tightly, her golden eyes reflecting the afternoon light. Venick tensed. He felt an absurd impulse to throw himself in front of Ellina, protect her from whatever venom Lin planned on spitting. Lin Lill had never been one to hold back her scorn, and this time, Ellina might even deserve it.
Except, the ranger didn’t look ready to start hurling insults. She was studying Ellina as you might study an unusual piece of artwork, trying to decide if it’d fit in your home. “The rumor is that you swam all the way from Igor.”
Ellina didn’t break the ranger’s gaze. She nodded once, which elicited a mumbled reaction from the onlookers, who were no longer pretending not to listen.
She swam here?
Is that even possible?
Did you know that the princess could swim?
Lin Lill was still looking at Ellina in that way. There was a pause, an audible breath, and then: “Will you teach me?”
Ellina’s brows went up.
Venick’s did, too. And yet, he felt it again: the urge to step in. To explain that Ellina needed time, that she was drained from her journey, and grieving, and not up for swimming lessons. But Erol caught Venick’s eye and gave a slight shake of his head.Let her handle this.
Ellina looked the ranger over. Lin Lill—larger than most elves, and not used to being sized up by anyone—allowed herself to be scrutinized. She held herself elven-still, awaiting Ellina’s verdict. The entire camp, it seemed, waited along with her.
Some of the clouds cleared from Ellina’s eyes. She did not smile, but there was something gentler about her mouth, an easing of her posture as she gave a single nod.Yes.
EIGHTEEN
Venick found Ellina a horse, taken from an unwilling soldier who wondered—peevishly, loud enough for those standing nearby to hear—why the princess couldn’t just use her own two feet. There was a time when Venick would have dealt with the man’s insolence with diplomatic composure, but Venick found that he was fresh out of diplomacy. He asked the soldier—
What did you say to me?
—if there was a problem, and when the man tried to backtrack, Venick reminded him—
No, really, say it again.
—that insubordination would not be tolerated. There was a tense moment when the soldier seemed to weigh his next words, rolling them around like candy on his tongue. In the end, though, he simply handed over the reins.
The army set out again the following morning, and by midday, they were within sight of Heartshire Bay. Twice, Ellina tried riding up beside Venick. It didn’t go well. Every time he looked at her, he couldn’t help but think of the way she’d been when he pulled her from the river, her skin tinted grey, her eyes like glass marbles. His mind would take the vision further: Ellina on the battlefield, lying dead in the dirt. Ellina in the bay, floating lifelessly on its surface. He’d chosen the strongest warhorse for her that he could find, thinking that it might give her an edge in battle, but even this seemed to have been a mistake. She looked vulnerable atop the animal’s high back. Exposed. Venick realized that while he’d been disappointed to learn that Ellina had chosen to stay behind with Traegar, a greater part of him had been relieved. At least with Traegar, she would be safe.
She wasn’t safe anymore, and there was nothing Venick could do to fix it. Each time she tried riding towards him, Venick would see the gentle sway of her body in the saddle, the little snow flurries hitting her cheeks, and fear would grip his throat. The lull of travel was at an end. Battle was upon them. Soldiers would die in the coming days, and Ellina would surely be one of them.
His fear was only made worse in that no one seemed to share his concerns. The elves reacted to Ellina’s reappearance as Branton had, with a kind of bewildered approval. The humans, too, seemed a bit taken by the whole ordeal. Her voicelessness, which had once been a source of suspicion, now seemed to lend her an otherworldliness. It was as if people believed Ellina had undergone a transformation, like she’d entered the Taro an elf but had emerged a different creature entirely. This was particularly true for the plainspeople, who’d begun to whisper that the gods must have used their sacred river to deliver her back into their arms. It was a sign, the plainspeople said, a divine message. The princess had been marked and should be treated accordingly.
Venick wanted to shake them. He wanted to make them see what he saw. He remembered Miria’s death, his father’s murder, banishment. He remembered standing at the edge of a windy cliff, contemplating the value of his own life. Ellina looked exactly like he’d felt then: as if he didn’t care whether he lived or died.
Yet what were his options? Venick couldn’t ask Ellina to turn back, and he couldn’t shield her from what was coming, so he avoided her. Whenever he saw her moving towards him through the ranks, he would spin away, find an excuse to look busy. He felt like a coward, but he wasn’t handling this well and couldn’t think of what else to do.
???
She continued to shine in his periphery as they moved east, making their way through a meandering line of trees and out onto Heartshire Bay’s wide, sandy beach. The water was a vast stretch of blue under the afternoon sky. Beyond the horizon, not visible, was the Golden Valley and the rest of the lowlands. Venick might have marveled at the bay’s size, large enough to be mistaken for an ocean. He might have contemplated his homeland on the opposite shore, a journey that would take weeks on horseback, but by ship, mere days.
But he was distracted.
Ellina’s lean frame slid across his vision as she and Lin Lill headed to the water. While the rest of the army made camp, the pair stripped down to their underthings, leaving their weapons in a neat row along the shore before moving into the tide. Lin Lill showed no hesitation as she followed Ellina’s lead, tackling her swimming lessons with the same ferocity as she tackled everything. Soon, Lin Lill had progressed to floating on her back, and soon after that, she was treading water. It was the first time Venick had ever seen the ranger’s genuine smile.
