I get straight to business. There’s no point dancing around it now that it’s decided.
“What if I told you that the four of us had the same goal as you?” I watch his eyebrows lift in suspicion. Rhydra remains stoic. “That we’ve beenworking on the very same thing. And… we’re much closer to achieving it than you are.”
He turns away from me to look at her. And then he looks around the table at my… friends.
“Why?” he asks gruffly, uncertain.
And then I tell him the same reasons I’ve been telling everyone. Raef and Daegan tell him their reasons, though no one really needs to question their motives. And then Meela, with an intimidating face simply says, “My reasons are my own.”
He seems to respect that one the most, funnily enough.
Rhydra sits quietly, her brows furrowed. Finally, she looks at me. “Why are you telling us, though? If you’ve kept the secret this tight, why tell us now? You could tell anyone who isn’t an elf, and most would probably help you. They might screw you over eventually because you’re an elf, but…”
“Maethrel,” Daegan interjects, sitting at the other end of the table with his arms crossed. “He told us we would encounter two travelers, and to trust them. We suspected it could be you when we first encountered you, but then you said something that made us really consider it…”
“And you trust Maethrel?” Rhydra asks.
“He hasn’t led us astray yet,” Daegan responds. “He was rather eager to help, as a matter of fact. It seems most people want us to succeed.”
Gaethri looks at me, his thick, bushy yellow eyebrow quirked. “The sword has something to do with this.”
“Here’s what we propose,” I say. “You don’t know if you can trust us, we still don’t know if we can fully trust you. Help us retrieve it, with all of us working together, and then we’ll tell you everything we know. And you can help us end this thing for good.”
“And how do we know you won’t leave us behind the moment you get that sword?” Rhydra asks. She keeps focusing on me with a look I can’t figure out.
Maybe because I’m an elf.
“You have my word,” I say.
“And mine,” Daegan adds.
“And mine,” Raef echoes.
“And mine,” Meela finishes.
Gaethri and Rhydra glance at each other, uncertain. Words pass between them in silence. They’re not completely sold.
I lift my shoulders. “What do you have to lose?”
Gaethri’s expression falls.
Once again, I’m reminded that most people’s stories are a lot more tragic than I realized. The world is darker than I realized.
“We know how the curse was cast, and we’ve confirmed that we need to collect the same items used to cast it in order to reverse it. The dragon sword, we think, is one of those items.”
I glance at Daegan, afraid he’ll chastise me with his eyes for spilling too much too fast, but he gives no such look.
“And Maethrel has helped you along this path?”
“Yes,” I say softly.
“That fucker saved my life,” Raef adds.
They share one last look, and then Gaethri addresses all of us. “Count us in.”
“So the brigade of three outcasts turns into six.”
I glance at Raef as the relief, excitement, and nerves for our next step wash over me, and I laugh.
