I flash a quick smile at him over my shoulder. “If there’s to be a ball tonight, then I think I’ll go prepare.”
Brom’s face lights up. “I suppose I will just have to do the ball tonight then; any excuse to see you in a gown.”
I laugh as I let myself out of the house. However, my smile doesn’t stay in place as I cross the threshold. I grip my skirts as I try to imagine a whole life with Brom, pretending to be one thing within the walls of his house and then becoming something else entirely as soon as I step foot outside.
I sigh heavily, pressing the back of my head against the wooden door, but my musings are quickly interrupted by a new voice piercing through the silence of the foggy afternoon air.
“My, my, what’s a pretty girl like you doing looking so sad?”
I straighten, opening my eyes to find myself staring into the startling blue gaze of none other than Evengi Ichabod.
Chapter Three
Natasya
“What are you doing here?” I blurt out before I can remember my manners and that this town knows me as something other than the crime lord’s daughter who demands a certain amount of obedience from others.
Evengi pushes off from where he was leaning against the fence and skips over a small stream that runs through Brom’s front yard. He drops into a half bow, a smirk written across his angular face. “A good day to you as well.”
I clear my throat, taking a moment to compose myself. I reach up, running a hand through my hair and then trail it down my skirts. “Forgive my outburst,” I say, dropping honey in my tonejust as I have always done with Brom. It works to get him to do exactly what I want, maybe it will do the same with this Evengi. “It is only that you startled me.”
Evengi clicks his tongue. “What would you have to be afraid of in such a…quainttown like this?”
He says quaint like it’s an insult. When I first arrived here, I would have been inclined to agree. Sunder Hollow does not offer much in the form of recreation, but I have discovered that it offers me a lot in something that I have discovered to be quite invaluable. Seclusion.
I ignore his question and instead hold out my hand to him. “I don’t believe we have been officially introduced. My name is Natasya Valadottir.”
“Evengi Ichabod at your service, my lady.” Evengi clasps my hand as he says this. His palm is smooth and his fingers uncalloused. So, he is not a craftsman or a warrior. Nor does he seem to have a writing bump or ink stains a scholar would carry.
Perhaps he is a minor lord, which would explain why Brom recognizes him. I don’t know of any higher born lords of the name Ichabod, and I tend to make it a business to know things about people in power, but there are many lowborn lords who own small plots of ancestral land who are beneath my notice.
Or he could be a Magicker as his robes would suggest such, but just because he wears blue doesn’t mean that he attended the Academy or studied the magical arts. I’ve come to learn that most Magickers are physically incapable of not blurting out that they are the Magicker the moment any conversation with them begins.
Evengi doesn’t release my hand, instead he keeps it held up between us, his thumb moving absently as it traces a circle across my palm. I stifle a shudder that races unbidden up my spine.
“Your surname, it is Highlander?” he asks after a long moment.
“Yes, indeed,” I reply, taking some comfort in being able to ease into the familiar conversation topic even though Evengi and his sudden appearance in Sunder Hollow has me feeling on edge and out of sorts. “My mother is a Highlander and my father a Lower Elf. My sisters and I were adopted by them, and I decided on taking a surname. I think that Valadottir has a bit more of a graceful ring to it than my father’s name of The Eel.”
As I speak, I find myself studying Evengi. He is taller than me and quite lean; his face is extremely angular with a jutting jaw and long straight nose. A white streak stands out in sharp contrast to his dirty golden hair, betraying some elven heritage. His eyes have a sort of ethereal glow to them, also speaking to Higher Elf blood flowing in his veins.
I am not quite sure just what it is about him, but I find his appearance almost spellbinding. Perhaps, it is the intelligence that flashes in those pale blue eyes, or the charm to his smirk as he says. “I have heard that each Lower Elf takes on his surname as a sort of title for what he has done. Pray, what did your father do to earn the surnameThe Eel?”
I blink taken slightly aback by his line of questioning. Many people just accept names for what they are, not seeking the deeper meaning within. Even Brom who is a Lower Elf did not ask me about my father’s name.
“Why because he is a merchant,” I manage to say as I recover from my surprise. “He was so slippery in getting away with the best bargain that he took on the name Eel.”
At my words, a smile breaks across Evengi’s face. He ducks his head as a slight chuckle escapes.
“You find this amusing?”
He drops my hand and raises his own to run through his hair. It rustles against the collar of his shirt as he looks me over.“No, no, I quite enjoy learning people’s stories. Your father just happens to carry one of the more unique names I have ever heard. And to think that he willingly chose it for himself.”
I fold my arms across my chest and arch my brow. “Says the man named Ichabod.” His name claims he is without honor, but he would insult Eel?
His smile is back, but it is more forced. “I’m afraid I wasn’t given the luxury of choosing my own surname.”
He reaches up rubbing the back of his neck as he says this, and his eyes dart to the side so that they are no longer holding mine. I have picked up on many talents growing up in a den of thieves and assassins.
