Ellina’s answering smile was small, but quickly growing into something larger, big enough to hold Venick’s question and all its implications. “Let’s not ask Dourin.” Her voice was halting, and not just from disuse. Timid. But pleased, too. “He will tease us mercilessly, and we will never hear the end of it.”
???
The terrain grew rocky as the army continued east, winding over Heartshire Bay’s northernmost finger before angling up towards the border. As they retook the road, several elves pulled Dourin into conversation. They wanted to hear the story of how he had wooed the highland’s most powerful man into handing over as luxurious a gift as three hundred thoroughbred horses. Dourin motioned at himself, grinning devilishly. “Is it not obvious?”
Traegar was there. He and Venick rode in silence beneath an egg-blue sky. Traegar watched Dourin from the corner of his eye, his gaze drawn back and then back again, as if against his will.
Venick said, “You could summon away his horses. Might shut that mouth of his.”
Traegar shook out a smile. “Dourin would never forgive me if I made him look the fool.”
“Have you forgivenhim?”
The elf pushed a hand through his wavy hair, let the locks fall forward again. “I will never regain my status withinEvenshina,the elven Healer’s Academy. I have been blackmarked by all practicing members. It is Dourin’s fault.” Traegar sighed. “But it is mine, too. Dourin has always been forthcoming. He knows what he wants and asks for it. I am not like that. I have known him nearly all my life, yet I was never brave enough to express my feelings.”
“Dourin isn’t blind,” Venick argued. “And it’s like you said—you grew up together. He should have known how you felt.”
“Should have, but did not. Dourin is explicit. He needed me to be explicit. When I was not, he made his own assumptions, and grew hurt, and wielded his hurt like a weapon. He informed theEvenshinaabout the illegal experiments Erol and I were conducting. Erol suffered no consequences—he is human, and was therefore never a member of theEvenshina. My career, on the other hand, was ruined. And yet,” Traegar lifted one shoulder, “I ended up forging a different path. And Dourin and I understand each other better now.”
“You undid your past wrongs?”
Traegar’s brow quirked, not so much in amusement as in awareness of Venick’s true reasons for asking. “We did not undo them. We learned to accept them, to understand that they are a part of us.” Traegar tracked a bird gliding overhead. “That was half of it.”
“And the other half?”
“I said things that long needed to be said. I forgave Dourin. And most of all, I forgave myself.”
???
The next time they stopped to rest, Venick found Ellina sitting with Bournmay at the base of a lone tree. The broad leaves dappled her face, creating a collage of sun and shadow. He came to sit beside her and uncorked his canteen.
Ellina frowned. “Did you boil that water?”
“It came from the stream.”
“So you didn’t.”
“No one’s going to poison the entire stream.”
“Venick.”
“Fine,” he sighed, recorking the flask. “Let me have yours.”
She pulled out her canteen and handed it over. Venick was aware of the way she watched him flick open the cap, set his mouth to the rim. He paused. Raised his brows.
Ellina said, “Dourin has told me his concerns about the Elder.”
Venick lowered the canteen. “You think the Elder will try to intervene?”
“Truthfully, I am surprised he has not tried already. He does not have the power to stop us directly, but he could attempt to persuade his daughter to rejoin him. And yet…”
“You don’t think Harmon would.”
“No.”
“Even after she lied to us. To you.”
Ellina gripped Bournmay’s tail, gently swung it back and forth in the mime of a wag. The banehound eyed Ellina but did not pull away. “Harmon has much to answer for. I do not know why she lied to us, though I think whatever the reason, Harmon…believes in herself. She believes that whatever she chooses is the right thing. Or, let me rephrase that. She believes that winning this war is the right thing, and that any decisions she makes to that end must be good, because they are guided by those morals. She told me about her relationship with the Elder.”
