She glanced at Evander, and he nodded, trying to encourage her.
She raised her chin. “You have not been forcefully conscripted; you have been recruited to reclaim your own homeland. And I am asking for your help.”
As she spoke, she tied off the last stitch, closing the wound.
The youthful, anxious faces stared down at her, bewildered. The trees swayed in the breeze.
Then, all at once, the line collapsed, and they lowered their weapons and turned back toward their bedrolls.
Evander waited until the air cleared, and then he darted forward and kissed Valenna’s forehead.
“You were born for this,” he said.
She smiled and let out a nervous breath.
Evander looked at Samara, who was biting down on her sleeve.
“I’m sorry,” Samara sobbed, her cheeks shining with tears. “I’m such a fool.”
“Hush now,” Evander soothed, laying his hand on Samara’s hair. “We’ll look after you. You’ll be alright.”
Gently, he lifted her in his arms, carried her to a sheltered place under the rock, and tucked her into her blankets.
Chapter forty-nine
Valenna
Evander had changed. Valenna observed it as he lay awake, starting every time Samara whimpered in her sleep. In Silvanlight, he’d been indifferent toward Samara on a good day, aggravated by her on bad ones. Now, he was like a baffled elder brother, trying to mimic a mother’s gentleness.
A crack had formed in his self-containment, and Valenna liked it. There he was at last, the Evander she knew in Largotia when their love was new.
Giving up on sleep, Valenna sat up and bound her hair into a braid. Evander tracked the movement of her fingers, and she offered him a wan smile. His expression was calm and solemn, but she read an undertone of tension in his jaw and shoulders.
“Here comes the moon,” Evander whispered. “We’ll need to rouse them.”
“And we have to return through the crag?”
“The current will be against us. We can’t take a boat, we can’t fly, and we can’t return in the daylight.”
“Do you think they’ll hold their nerve?”
Evander picked up a stone and flicked it absently against the rockface. “Oh, I think they will. But Haldir? I don’t know.”
Samara shifted in her sleep, and Evander rested his hand on her forehead.
“Is she feverish?” Valenna asked.
“No, thank the Only. It was a glancing blow.”
“You’re growing fond of her, aren’t you?”
“No,” Evander said, too quickly.
“I know you, Vander. You’re a little impressed that she had the courage to rush Haldir like that. When you were her age, you would have done the same.”
Evander cast her a sideways glance, and the corner of his mouth twitched up.“I want this war to end,” he said. “I want her to go home and be a child again. I don’t want her to end up like me.”
“Yes.” Valenna sighed. “Growing up to be brave and wise and kind is a terrible fate for any girl. I shudder to think of it.”
