He kissed her, doing his best to be gentle, though the urge to deepen the kiss was there. He wanted to crush his mouth to hers, pull her in tight, yet he worried if he did, it would be the same as revealing the depth of his fear.
She murmured into his mouth. “You do not always have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Hold back.”
So he didn’t. He let go, angling her head where he wanted it, pulling her body flush against his. He didn’t let himself think about why he needed this, didn’t consider the possibility that this kiss might also be a goodbye. He kissed her, and kissed her, and then he let her go.
???
Branton and Lin Lill rode with Ellina. They had discussed sending a larger contingent along, but Ellina did not want to waste the resources. “They will be useless at Revalti,” she had told Venick, watching him worry his lip between his teeth. “You need a strong force to defend the city against the coming invasion. The soldiers should stay with you.”
As they rode through the countryside, storm winds ripping through the grass, Ellina tried to quell the angst in her belly. She had no reason to doubt herself. After all, what could Farah do that she could not? Was Ellina not the one who had joined the legion, who honed her skills as a spy, who knew the art of fighting with blade and mind? Farah was hungry, but she was blinded by her own convictions. This was the difference between them, as simple as it was vital: Farah did not see things clearly, and Ellina did.
???
The ground was dry and hard. Dust kicked up around Venick’s boots as he helped load a supply wagon. It brought to mind thoughts of the black powder the Dark Army was currently carting towards Kenath, which brought to mind thoughts of the powder in a pouch currently strapped to Ellina’s waist. Venick had worried that pouch might tear, that its contents would leak. It was an unreasonable fear, the kind his mind impulsively offered up as a way to cope with his anxiety. Yet he had checked the bag twice, just to be sure.
Is a leak really such a bad thing?
Venick paused halfway through lifting a coil of rope into the wagon.
He considered his enemy. According to their scouts, the southerners were moving towards Kenath with a half dozen horse-drawn carts packed with explosives. Though this was only a fraction of Farah’s reported supply—there’d been speculation that the rest of her explosives could be sent to an array of other mainland cities—it was still a worrying quantity. That much black powder in one location would be enough to reshape the region. But what could Venick do? If he met the enemy on the road, they would detonate their black powder and kill them all. If he did not meet them, they would reach Kenath and detonate their supply anyway.
His father’s voice spoke again.Well, Venick? Is it?
???
They crouched in the twiggy, overgrown gardens surrounding the manor. Tiny green leaves clung to everything. The scene was dazzling, interwoven, yet unfinished: a world on the cusp of blooming.
Though Ellina had seen Revalti Manor many times before, only now did she appreciate the uniqueness of its design. The windowless exterior, though devised for safety, looked like a prison; the stone façade was smooth and unbroken, save for a short series of black grates running down the manor’s center. The grates, each no larger than a hand, were part of the ventilation system that had been installed within the walls to help counteract the lack of natural airflow.
“A moat.” Lin Lill clicked her teeth. “How quaint.”
Ellina dropped her eyes from the grates to the manor’s base. Revalti was indeed surrounded by a moat, which was scarcely half as wide as the Taro. Lin Lill’s tone—part humor, part distain—summed up Ellina’s own feelings well. For all the elves’ abilities, it was ridiculous that they had ever been stopped by something as harmless as this.
Branton nodded towards a small dock where a rowboat had been secured. “That must be for you.”
“I should swim,” Ellina mused, “to set the tone.”
“Better not,” Lin Lill replied lightly.
“You have until sunset,” Branton went on, peering up at the midday clouds. “If you are not back by then, we are coming for you.”
Ellina fingered the small pouch at her waist. She began to move out of the brush.
A soft hand on her arm. Ellina turned to see Lin Lill’s lightheartedness had bled into something darker, more earnest.
“I know you have faced your sister before,” Lin Lill said, “and that things did not go as you had planned. But you must trust yourself, Ellina. You are your own best weapon.”
Ellina looked into Lin Lill’s face. Their golden eyes met briefly before Ellina’s gaze shifted to the scar on the ranger’s cheek.My mother dropped a plate on my head when I was a fledgling,Lin Lill had once offered in explanation, though Ellina suspected this was a lie. She sensed it as one senses a breeze, a gentle breath on the skin. It was a feeling Ellina knew well.
An inborn trait. A learned one.
An instinct for deceit. Liars and lies. Her mind, studded with metal teeth like the jaws of a bear trap.
Once, Ellina had looked at Lin Lill and felt only the breadth of their differences. Now she looked at the ranger—sleek in her power, purposeful—and saw someone who was like her.
