Chapter 34 #4
“Thank you,” he said softly, still looking troubled with his brows sweetly furrowed. Krujha stepped closer and leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead.
“No need to thank me,” he said. “Let’s eat as much as we can, get some rest, then we’ll leave around midnight. I have our route mapped out.”
“Horses?” Alwyn asked hopefully. Krujha grimaced, shaking his head.
“Couldn’t figure out how to get them without attracting too much attention,” he said.
“Plus, there are only a few orc-sized horses for sale in the city that I could find. If anyone were to come looking for us, that’d probably be the first place they ask around.
I think we’ll need to go on foot first.”
Alwyn sighed, but nodded. “I thought so. It’s alright. There’s a farm village a few hours south of the city, so on foot we should get there by dawn. We can rest there.”
It was late in the night when they walked quietly down the stairs of the inn, dressed in plain, dark clothes with their rucksacks full on their backs.
“Just follow me and do as I say,” Krujha murmured, and Alwyn gave him a nod.
In the tavern, a musician was strumming a lute in the corner with a handful of elves still gathered around, drinking and socializing.
Krujha led Alwyn away from the tavern and out a back door.
It led into something like an alleyway, which connected to the side of the street where there were no other inns, making it darker and more quiet.
Krujha walked a few steps ahead of Alwyn, hands in his pockets.
When he turned a corner, his eyes darted back the way they had come, scanning for anyone following them, but the road appeared entirely empty.
They followed the path Krujha had planned: out of the row of inns, through a few residential streets, then cutting through the artisanal district. All was dark and silent. He turned his head slightly to glance over his shoulder.
“Keep going straight and you’ll hit the gate,” Krujha said, barely above a whisper. “I think we’re good, but just in case, I’m going to go a different way. I’ll meet you right outside.”
Alwyn nodded, frowning. Splitting up clearly made him nervous, but he didn’t argue as Krujha turned a corner and quickened his pace a bit. He would take a more circuitous route, but with his longer stride, he’d be passing through the gate only a minute or two behind Alwyn.
Krujha made a loop through the artisanal district just to be doubly sure that they hadn’t been followed, then hugged the city wall until he arrived at the eastern gate. A single guard was posted at the gate, who looked him up and down as he walked through, but made no move to stop him.
There was only farmland to the east. Later, they would cut through fields and wilderness to head more south, but for now they made for the farming village Alwyn had described.
Alwyn stepped out from behind a tree, about a minute from the gate.
“We’re in the clear,” Krujha said, grinning, and Alwyn managed a small smile in return.
“Maybe not yet,” he sighed, falling into step beside him. “But we’re close.”
Exactly as Alwyn predicted, they reached the farming village just as the sun was rising. They paid for a room at the single tavern in the town square and slept away the rest of the morning, tired and footsore from the journey.
In the afternoon, they could not find even a mule for sale, so they set out on foot again.
Forgoing the worn dirt path further east, they veered south in favor of rolling fields, hopefully making their trail harder to follow for anyone who came looking.
The ground beneath their feet was damp, but the snowfall from previous days hadn’t stuck here.
Alwyn seemed pensive for most of the day, but Krujha was light and cheerful. This felt right—walking through the world with Alwyn beside him.
“How are even the farms so nice to look at?” he murmured a few hours into the journey, grinning down at Alwyn as they walked.
There was an old path beneath them that was in clear disrepair, but it was made of worn stone, a decided step up from the muddy dirt paths they had been walking on earlier. “It’s so different from the wildlands.”
“It’s a shame we won’t see much of it,” Alwyn replied, sighing. Krujha reached over to rub his shoulder encouragingly.
“The world is much larger than we thought,” he said gently. “There’ll be plenty of other sights to see wherever we go.”
After a moment, Alwyn managed a smile and nod, seeming assuaged. “You’re right. There’s much more for us to see.”
Having traveled through the night, they made camp as soon as they found a suitable spot, despite having another hour of daylight left.
As they sat around the campfire with a small supper of rations, it felt like all the best parts of their journey together in the wildlands, with none of the dread or nervous anticipation between them.
Here, it was just the two of them, and the vast expanse of stars above.
It felt even more like old times as they crawled into their shared tent and curled up together in their bedrolls, bundled in layers of blankets.
Alwyn lay in his arms, looking at him as if expecting him to speak. Krujha wasn’t sure what he wanted, so he idly ran his fingers through the elf’s hair, and that seemed to soothe him a little.
“I feel... worried,” Alwyn finally said softly. “About what we’re going to do.”
“What do you mean?” Krujha asked.
“Where we’ll go. What we’ll do there. How we’ll explain ourselves,” he replied. “We don’t even have a cover story.”
Krujha chuckled. “We’re a long way from Autreth yet. We’ll think of something as we walk.”
Alwyn didn’t seem assuaged. “We’re only a few days from the border.”
“Sure, but we aren’t going to stop in some little border village, are we?” Krujha asked, raising an eyebrow. Alwyn didn’t answer. After a beat, he prompted, “Autreth is huge. Bigger than Aefraya and the wildlands combined. We could go anywhere. Do you know where you want to go?”
To his surprise, even in the dim light of their tent, he could see some color rise in Alwyn’s face.
He seemed to debate internally for a moment, then he sat up and pulled his rucksack closer.
He slid a book out from within it—one of the small books of cheap parchment, like the one Krujha had retrieved for him back in the camp.
Krujha had been surprised to see it in Alwyn’s things when the elf had asked after it, but at the time he’d figured any entertainment had to help.
This was a different book entirely. It was hard to imagine Alwyn reading anything except dense, stuffy tomes, but these were adventure novels.
The Adventures of Blythe Everwood: Secrets of the Sundered Forge was printed on the title page. This book did not look new, but well-loved, the corners softened and the cover worn.
“These all take place in Autreth. Well, mostly,” Alwyn said, embarrassment still obvious on his face. “Some of them are made up, but... some are real places. I thought it might be, well, fun. To go and see them. Kind of like an adventure.”
Krujha couldn’t stop the wide smile from stretching across his face.
This secret side of Alwyn, small as it was, was one he was sure only he had ever seen.
It was just for him. As prickly as the elf tried to be, Krujha discovered time and again how soft he truly was—he would never stop delighting in the discovery.
“I’ve had enough adventure for one lifetime, I think,” he said, affection making his voice warm. “But I’d be happy to be a tourist wherever you want to go.”
Alwyn rolled his eyes, huffing; but a smile still twitched at the corners of his lips as he placed the book carefully back into his rucksack. When he lay back down, he turned to Krujha, cupped his cheek, and pulled him closer to kiss him deeply.
Krujha sighed in bliss, sinking into the kiss. He never thought he could die happy, but this—
“I love you,” Alwyn whispered as he pulled away, and Krujha froze. The elf’s eyes were searching as he peered down at Krujha—so vulnerable, so sincere—that Krujha knew he hadn’t imagined it.
A slow grin spread across his face.
“My precious one,” he murmured. He placed his hand atop Alwyn’s, still cupping his cheek. “I never thought I’d hear you say it.”
Warm color flooded Alwyn’s face again. He said something unintelligible as he lowered his head, pressing his face into Krujha’s shoulder. Krujha laughed as he wrapped his arms around the elf’s smaller form, feeling like he might float away if he didn’t have Alwyn to anchor him.
“I love you too, of course,” he said, kissing the top of Alwyn’s head. His hair was soft against Krujha’s lips. Alwyn squeezed his arms tighter around him, and Krujha held him just as tightly.
For a long moment, they were both silent.
Finally, Alwyn moved to push himself back up into a sitting position, and Krujha released his hold.
The elf’s face was still a ruddy pink, and his mouth worked silently—the way it did whenever he was trying to say something that he didn’t know how to express.
“Thank you,” he finally said, brows furrowed, but eyes shining as he looked down at Krujha. “For... For seeing me. The real me. And the me I could become. A better version of me.”
If he smiled any wider, Krujha thought his face might fall off. But Alwyn’s voice was so serious—the words were clearly so hard for him to get out, and it only made Krujha’s heart melt more.
“You’re welcome. It helps that the real you is so very nice to look at,” he said, chuckling.
Alwyn huffed in annoyance, looking away.
The elf let out a small laugh, but he still seemed uncertain somehow.
Krujha reached down to grasp his hand, entwining their fingers.
If reassurance was what he needed, Krujha was happy to give it to him—Alwyn had been sincere with him, so he would be sincere, too.
“And... thank you, little spitfire, for pushing me to be more than I thought I could be, too. I just wanted my vengeance and had no plan after that. Now I can see a whole life ahead of me. And, well, I think it looks much brighter than the life I left behind.”
Alwyn’s eyes were glassy in the dim light as Krujha spoke.
He nodded vigorously, rubbing his face with his free hand.
Krujha gently tugged him back down into the bedroll, then pressed a softer kiss to his lips.
When they parted, the elf no longer looked on the verge of tears, but his expression was still more openly affectionate than Krujha had ever seen. How had he ever gotten so lucky?
“A whole lifetime ahead of us,” he sighed, meeting the serious little elf’s gaze. “I don’t think it would be enough. But I’ll spend whatever time I’m afforded with you, for as long as you want.”
He expected Alwyn to roll his eyes again, but his gaze only softened. “Promise me?”
Krujha’s heart squeezed at his soft voice. Had anyone ever made Alwyn a loving promise before, one that was backed with affection, instead of the threat of punishment or withholding? If this was the first, he was sure it would not be the last.
“I promise.”
They were both silent, eyes locked—it felt like their little tent was the world, and they were the sole inhabitants.
“Well,” Alwyn finally spoke, letting out a small, humorless laugh. “Let’s make it to Autreth first. Then we’ll see how it goes. I might have an Order assassin on my tail for the rest of my life.”
“I treasure the time we’ve already had together,” Krujha said, smirking. “Anything beyond that is just another gift.”
Alwyn sighed, his face flushing with annoyance, and Krujha couldn’t stop himself from laughing. The elf turned away, but pressed himself closer so his back was flush against Krujha’s chest, allowing him to wrap one arm around Alwyn’s narrow waist.
“How do you always know just what to say?” Alwyn mumbled. The annoyance in his voice was half-hearted. He might have meant just what to say to annoy him, or just what to say to make him feel better—or maybe, Krujha thought, he meant both all at once.
“Just one of my many talents,” he replied, pressing one last kiss to the top of Alwyn’s head. The air in the tent felt lighter, now, and safe. Eventually, he fell asleep to the sweet, steady rhythm of Alwyn’s soft breathing in his arms.