“What are you so damned afraid of!” I demanded.
He looked away, face tight.
Enough of this. “If you’re not man enough to tell me what’s up, then maybe you aren’t the man I thought you were!”
I waited to see if he’d say anything.
“You’re… an elf now…” he mumbled.
An elf?
He was afraid of me because I was an elf? Sure, elves in this world were generally asshats, but he knew me better than that, didn’t he? I guessed not.
Fine. Whatever.
I shook my head, disgusted that this man had turned on me for something I couldn’t control.
Spinning on my heel, I stalked out of the room, Koar falling in behind me. I’d come here to make sure Rook was okay. He was, but as for clarifying where we stood… I was even more upset and frustrated than before.
And sad.
Rook had been a friend when no one else had. He’d been there for me, even when I’d been upset at him for betraying me, even with no bond compelling him. He’d kept my secret about my bond with Myel, he’d helped me learn the ways of this world.
So, why was he pulling away now?
What had happened?
Was it really that I was an elf?
How shallow could a man get?
By the time I returned to the compound, it was noon, and the others were sitting down for lunch. Lhorine and Olinara had helped to heal Vyns and Tala, who both looked a little sheepish for having been caught like that.
I sat, clearly grumpy. Zora broke the tense silence to tell us Myel’s conjugal visit was a succubus named Alistora. Safir took over from there, saying he’d found out who would be guarding Myel at that time. The three jailers were already being paid by Saldrea to beat Myel, so bribing them probably wouldn’t work. Also, it wasn’t out of the realm ofpossibility that they’d actually watch Myel’s conjugal visit, if they were so inclined.
Great.
“We can put them to sleep,” Lhorine said, looking at me. “It’s like a binding, but lesser, an enchantment. Elves are usually quite adept at enchantments. It shouldn’t be hard for you to learn.”
Yet another thing for me to master before tomorrow night.
Yay!
There wasn’t enough time. I couldn’t learn it all by then. I’d fail.
I didn’t say anything. I gave a tight-lipped nod, then faked a smile to reassure everyone.
But my mood only carried over into my afternoon training, which did not go as well as Lhorine hoped. By dinner I’d managed to learn how to enhance others, but I couldn’t give them much. Still, it was something.
“You’re off today,” Lhorine said as we joined the others for a meal. “We won’t train any more this evening. Get some rest, you’re tired. We’ll start bright and early tomorrow. Okay?”
I nodded, dreading our next lesson. Just learning to do what came naturally to an elf had been hard enough, but now I needed to add enchantments and transmutation. I’d had a class on transmutation earlier that week, which had only left me feeling overwhelmed and confused. Could I really learn it in a day?
I wasn’t so sure.
IZZY
After dinner,I had a shower, then slumped into bed, exhausted, but unable to rest.
