She grinned. “I could tell.”
I flushed but laughed too. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually drink beer.”
“Well, we all have to let our hair down sometimes,” she said and then looked at mine. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
I nodded, and the three of us spoke a little longer about our travels. I almost wished we were going the same way as Celeradona—Elowin remembered her name, even when I couldn’t, and dropped it into the conversation—although she was certainly not the sort of traveling companion who would have met with my parents’ approval. They probably also wouldn’t have approved of the fact that by the time our conversation was done, the three of us were shirtless. Both Elowin and Celeradona had seemed unbothered by thesudden introduction of her breasts into the proceedings, and so I decided that perhaps I ought to be unbothered too. Perhaps the rules were different at taverns or perhaps—and I was beginning to think that this might have been the case—the rules my parents had taught me were not as universal as they’d believed.
“She’s fun,” Elowin said with a laugh as we headed upstairs to get our packs. “Shame she’s not headed to the market. Think of all the songs you could have learned!”
Think of all the breasts I could have seen,I thought.
Well, only the same two, I supposed, but repeatedly.
“Yes,” I said, suspecting I was not as unbothered as I’d intended, given I was still thinking about them. “Um, is it usual for strangers to get unclothed together to wash?”
Elowin laughed again. “Well, it’s notunusual in Celeradona’s circles, I expect.”
When my parents talked about social circles, it was usually accompanied by a strong tone of disapproval, not a warm laugh. There was nothing in Elowin’s voice to suggest that he thought either of us too good to be part of Celeradona’s circles. In fact, his tone seemed to imply her company would be a delightful place to find ourselves.
“Itisa shame she’s going the other way from us,” I said, and meant it. “I liked learning the song about the cuckoo.”
“And you sang it beautifully too,” Elowin said, though by the way he was still laughing, that might not have been entirely true.
We took our packs—I carried Elowin’s and he carried mine—and I waited while he paid the tavern owner, and then we set out westward again.
It was another lovely day. The sun was warm, though not too warm, and the breeze was pleasant. Birds sang in the trees, and I untangled the different melodies as I walked so that I could identify which song belonged to which bird.
I’d never walked this far in my life. My shoulders ached from the unaccustomed weight of the rucksack and my thigh muscles complained as we made our way along the narrow path. Yet when I glanced over and found Elowin walking alongside me with a soft smile on his handsome face, I found that I really didn’t regret the lack of a royal carriage at all.
CHAPTER 4
ELOWIN
When I’d chosen the nickname Sparrow for Birdoswyn, it had mainly been because of his soft brown hair, but it was apparent that the name fit him in more ways than one. He was bright-eyed and curious, and although he was still flagging slightly from the aftereffects of last night’s beer, that didn’t stop him from flitting off the path to look at a plant or an oddly shaped rock or anything else that caught his eye.
His enthusiasm was adorable.Sparrowwas adorable. He hummed the song he’d learned last night under his breath, and I smiled to myself. He was so hopelessly naive that he really did think it was about cuckoos, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him otherwise. Then again, maybe it would be worth it just to make him blush. Watching his pale cheeks bloom pink under his freckles was a sight I wouldn’t mind seeing again.
My thoughts returned to what he’d said last night. It had been after I’d carried him up the stairs and deposited him in the bed. He was three sheets to the wind, loose limbed and happy. I’d been pulling his boots off when he’d proppedhimself up on his elbows and stared at me, his eyes as wide as a doe’s, and said, “You’re the most handsome elf I’ve ever seen.” Then he’d let out a wistful sigh before collapsing on the mattress and passing out.
I was certain he didn’t remember, but I did. And I was flattered that he found me attractive, even if it had only been the ramblings of a happy drunk. But the way he’d kept casting glances at me this morning when I’d been shirtless, it felt like his attraction didn’t only reside at the bottom of a pint glass.
Not that it mattered, because it was clear he had his heart set on marrying Aldian.
We walked for a couple of hours at an easy pace, and I grew used to Sparrow trailing behind, disappearing into the trees to follow whatever had caught his eye. He was more like a puppy than a sparrow, I decided—easily distracted by new sights and sounds. But after a few minutes, he’d always end up walking alongside me again, chattering about what he’d seen. I couldn’t wait to see what his reaction to the chaos and magic of Everend Market would be.
Suddenly he froze and then slowly lifted one hand and pointed. “There!” he whispered. I followed his gaze just in time to spot a mother deer and her fawn disappearing into the woods. His eyes were bright and his cheeks were flushed with excitement as he moved quietly off the path and followed the doe.
I fought the urge to call him back. Sparrow was a full-grown elf and capable of making his own decisions. Besides, what harm could possibly come from a little deer watching? I slipped off the heavy rucksack and settled myself against the trunk of a tree, stretching my legs out in front of me while I waited. The somnolent buzz of insects, the breeze whispering through the leaves, and the rustle of grass played as soothing background music, and I found my eyesslipping closed as I soaked up the sounds. The day had gotten warmer and I’d barely slept on the hard wooden floor last night, so it wasn’t long before I’d slipped into a place that wasn’t quite sleep but was close enough to be its cousin.
The peace lasted right until I heard a cry tinged with panic.
“Elowin! Help!”
Sparrow!
I was on my feet before my eyes were properly open, and I ran toward the sound of his voice, my heart in my throat. What if the deer had charged him? What if there was a stag in the woods, and Sparrow was impaled on an antler?
I forced myself to take a breath. Sparrow hadn’tsoundedlike an impaled elf. Not that I’d everheardan impaled elf, but I was making an educated guess that if there was an antler in someone’s insides, they’d be yelling a lot louder than Sparrow was. No, he’d sounded more annoyed than injured, so surely whatever the problem was, it couldn’t be too bad.
