Chapter 20 #2
“In truth, she was lovely, but we knew on our first greeting that we were not destined to be lovers. I got to know her. We became friends. I learned that she never had a chance to explore her own talents. She discovered a skill for sewing. Through the months that followed, I helped her get work with one of my chief dressmakers.”
I’d met that maiden, Brooke, the woman who worked with Saphronia.
“Once I found a position for her, she thanked me. She told me she was being forced to wed an older wealthy human man across the sea and this was her only way out. She’d never worked with her hands, had never done anything but prepare for marriage.
Coming to the land of the elves had been liberating for her. ”
Liberating.
My cheeks flushed, and I immediately regretted the jealousy that had me in a stranglehold. Not every woman was as privileged as I to live in a loving home. I’d been free to explore my talents. But in Lila’s case, with her mother’s expectations, she would’ve done anything to escape her fate.
“I tried to fall in love because my father wished it to be. But I was young. I did not fully understand all my people, your people, would stand to lose,”—Elden cleared his throat— “So, from that year on, for each of the maidens brought through the Falls. I helped them find…purpose.”
All thoughts scattered from my mind like sugar dropped to the floor.
All I could do was lay under the veil of stars and try to catch my breath.
Elden had not been taking maidens and using them.
He’d helped them to find purpose outside our human conventions.
What had he said to Lila when she came to his castle?
“You are free to do as you please. Please take this time to discover things that you enjoy.”
Lila had felt rejected by the king, but had she really been saved from a lifetime of sorrow married to a bully of a man, Axel, she didn’t love?
Had she been given the chance at a new life with purpose?
But if so, why had Elden brought her to begin with?
He hadn’t even tried to fall for her. Hadn’t given their union a chance of working out. Something was not adding up.
“I hope you will forgive my father,” Elden said into the twittering sounds of night.
“He was under the illusion that an ancient prophecy must be fulfilled for there to be peace among our two peoples again. He believed that a king of the Elves and a maiden of the humans were to have another union, like the one his father had, in order for the curse to be lifted.”
“Where would he get an idea like that?” I knit my eyebrows together.
Elden shrugged as he lay in the grass, “He said it had been foretold, though he could not quite remember the exact wording.”
“He changed a lot of lives on the ambivalent notion.”
Elden huffed out a puff of hot air which curled in the cold night air. “He was obsessed with the idea. Utterly convinced. He believed it was the only way to stop the curse from spreading. The curse, you see, only transforms the Elf Kings.”
“Only the Elf Kings?” I squinted into the dark.
“You and anyone else infected by the blight will turn into wraiths of the night. Forever haunting the living, but I will become a creature of shadow.” Firelight caressed Elden’s rugged features. His mouth downturned. “A shade monster like my father and grandfather before me.”
“But your grandfather was married to a human.” I shook my head, my hair scraping against the hood in the grass. “None of this makes any sense.”
Elden sat up and picked up several stray sticks. I joined him, sitting up in the grass. The fire crackled and spurred, throwing our shadows out like phantoms onto the trees surrounding us.
Elden examined the small sticks in his hands with a little more attention than seemed to be warranted. “No. It does not. We need answers.”
“So that dark yeti in the mountains? The first shade monster is your—” I started.
“My grandfather, yes.”
All fell silent between the two of us. I tried not to grimace, but it was all so strange.
“And what of the maidens now? The ones your father brought to Ravensong through the years?”
A small smile crossed Elden’s sculpted face, “The maidens have all found companions. Work. Fulfillment. Even happiness here in Ravensong. I had hoped that you…”
Hoped that I, what? I waited for whatever words would follow with bated breath. But several excruciating moments of silence stretched on until the sentence was left unfinished, hanging in the air like raw noodle dough, never to be dried by the sun.
Dark clouds swirled around the edges of the brilliant stars, blotting them out one by one. Something cold and wet touched my cheek. One, then another fluff of cold. I wiped away the water and looked out into the dark of night. I could just make out drifting flurries of snow in the sliver of a moon.
“It is snowing,” Elden stated the obvious.
“Yes,” I agreed with the obvious.
“We should turn in for the night.”
I stood and stretched. “Will we be warm enough with the snow?”
“These tents are weatherproof, remember. They were made to do more than just keep you warm. You will be safe and comfortable.” Elden hopped up and turned his face up to the growing storm clouds.
I nodded, not quite believing as the snow began to fall in earnest, but I pet my horse, making sure her rope was tied securely to the tree in the center of camp.
I made my way into the dark tent, lit only by a small glowing amethyst gemstone.
I took off my boots and jacket, then snuggled into my surprisingly soft and comfortable bedroll.
It had to be enchanted by the fluffy eyelashes of adorable snow bunnies or some other odd elvish thing because I was intensely comfortable.
I wiggled down into my bedroll as thoughts of the first queen, Elayna, rolled through my mind mixing with maidens, and last of all, Elden: Too much of Elden’s beautiful face, his rugged features, his dark stubble, and braided black hair.
But it was the true him, with his white hair like the snow falling in wild spirals outside, that filled my mind at last.
I was warm in my bedroll as the snow flurries turned into a howling storm.
The sides of my tent shook and fluttered as the wind lashed in wild bursts.
I trembled, pulling my blankets well over my head to hide from the wind that threatened to topple the tent with every rush.
Those poor horses. Elden said this tent was enchanted to do more than just keep me warm and invisible.
Could the magic work in a similar fashion as my saddlebags?
Would the tent grow to fit the horses inside? They must be freezing out there.
A howl split open the night. I jolted upright in my sleeping blankets. Fear speared through me. My heart pounded in my ears as the complete silence of the wood pressed in. A predator prowled these woods. My heart hammered in my throat and ice roared through my veins.
I didn’t have a choice. My ridiculously giant beast of a horse was as good as dead out there exposed to the wolves, or worse, that shade monster. Another howl sounded, this one louder, closer, than the last. I didn’t think; I bolted out into the night.
I can’t believe I am risking my neck for that overgrown beast.
My bare feet crunched on cold snow as I stepped out of my tent, my hot breath puffing from my mouth.
My ears pricked at the sound of footfalls not too far from where I stood.
Was it the other shadow beast? My horse was barely visible through the haze of thrashing snow.
A blast of cold air struck me with the power of a full-body slap.
I stumbled backwards. I hadn’t taken the time to put on my jacket or boots.
Another howl shrieked through the night. This one closer than all the others. Not the shade monster then, but wolves, real wolves…and they roamed in packs.
I ran toward the large dark shape in the distance and prayed it was my horse. Through the stinging snow, I realized there was only one. One horse. Where was Elden’s? Sapphire reared on her hind legs; her eyes wide with fear. She snorted puffs of hot breath into the frosty air.
“Shh.” I whispered. “Quiet, Sapphire, I’ve got you.”
But as I worked to pull the large creature towards me, she was yanked in the opposite direction.
“No!” I cried, my blue hair falling into my eyes with frozen icicles. Terror sliced through me, fearing that she was in the maw of a wolf.
“Silence, Noelle.” Elden’s voice broke through my terror as his warm hand clamped down on my forearm. “Follow me. Now.”
Elden yanked me along after him. I followed with my horse, both of us running toward the dark blob that must be Elden’s tent.
My horse pushed through the tent opening and I followed behind as the jaws of a wolf snapped and growled near my leg. I screamed as Elden pulled me into his arms behind the flap of his tent.
Silent tears streamed from my eyes as I sat, enveloped in Elden’s strong arms. I sat on his knees as he knelt on the canvas floor.
We froze, ears perked, as our tent was surrounded by sniffing wolves, all howling, and scraping claws only inches from where I perched tensely in Elden’s arms, wet snow dripping down my shoulders and back.
Somewhere in the tent, I registered our two horses, both blasting hot air from their nostrils.
Stomping not too gently. But instead of going to quiet the horses, Elden held me tighter, closer.
I could almost make out the pounding of his heart beneath his thin shirt.
An eternity passed as Elden held me in his warm arms, frozen, neither of us wishing to move an inch.
Elden’s scent of sage and crisp pines enveloped me as his black hair tickled my cheek and shoulder.
After some time, the horses settled and the wolves finally lost interest. My feet stung numbly with exposure to the snow, and my body was wracked with cold, even in the warmth of Elden’s embrace.
“You are freezing,” Elden said in shock. “Are all humans this delicate?”
“Only the ones stupid enough to go out in the snow barefoot.” I grumbled through shivering teeth.
“Barefoot?” Elden wrapped his hands about my waist and pulled me off his lap. Cold struck me as I left the warmth of his embrace. He grabbed a hold of my frozen feet, then swore, pulling his hands back. “Your feet are like icicles!”
“D-delicate h-human, remember?” I chattered.
Still Elden rubbed his large warm hands over my feet and legs, bringing a slow heat and circulation.
“S-so,” I started through chattering teeth. “This tent does grow with more people in it.”
Elden stopped what he was doing and stared at me, glowing citrine gemstone and anger flashing in his cold eyes. “You didn’t know this, but you went out to save our horses all the same?”
“I f-figured it had some kind of m-magic.” I stammered.
“You are like ice.” Elden huffed as if it were a great personal failing of mine. “You need my body heat. Come into my bedroll with me.”
I reeled. “Go into your bedroll? R-really?”
Elden huffed, “If you do not warm up you will get hypothermia. Then you will die, and your magic will be no good for my people.”
“So, you only want me for my m-magic,” I murmured.
“I thought that was pretty obvious, Little Baker.” Elden smiled that crooked smile and despite the frozen popsicle I was, my stomach dipped and heated at that smile. At the way his eyes sparked and said, fight with me.
“Y-you’re impossible.” I grumbled.
“An impossible king who loves pastries.” Elden brought me chattering over to his bedroll. He lay behind me and wrapped his strong arms about my shoulders and waist, then covered us in the many blankets of his bedroll. I stuffed my frozen feet between his knees and he yelped.
“Sweet Evergate,” he mumbled. “Your feet will send me into shock next.”
I smiled, despite the shivers that wracked my body, but with every breath, every trembling, my heart and body calmed. The Elf King’s fierce heat leached into me like a hot oven. The only sounds were the soft breathings of the horses and the almost silent brushing of snowfall outside.
“Thank you,” I said into the falling darkness.
“Anything for you, Noelle,” Elden rumbled. His voice sent heat and chills spiraling down my back. My toes curled.
He’d said my name. I was ashamed by how the sound of that one word in his deep baritone could be enough to undo all the anger and annoyance I’d ever felt toward him. My heart kicked up, pounding through my chest as I laid in the large, strong arms of the king.
I was not only thoroughly thawed but warm.
Truly warm, from the top of my head tucked under the king’s chin to the tips of my toes currently stuck between Elden’s knees.
The hard planes of Elden’s chest and abdomen pressed against my back.
I blushed furiously, then rolled my eyes at my ridiculousness.
I needed the body heat. That was all. Calm down.
“So,” I said into the waiting silence.
With a deep chuckle that reverberated through my spine and through my back, Elden said, “Yes, Little Baker?”
“I don’t know!” I sighed. “It’s just, a bit strange being held by you.”
“Strange?” I could hear the smile in his voice.
I huffed. “Yes, strange. I’m supposed to dislike you greatly for all eternity, and here you are, keeping me alive.”
Another laugh, this one a bit heartier. “How about I tell you a story to help you sleep?”
I peeked up at the male who held me and did not see a smirk on his stoic face.
“Fine.” I grumbled, “But I will still greatly dislike you in the morning.”
“Fair enough.” Elden’s chest and throat vibrated, sending wild chills down my back. His voice was so soothing, like melted honey, and yet deep and throaty. And in this position? He may as well have been tickling me.
“Far beyond the stars on a distant moon lived an ancient elf. He worked spinning the moon moth’s silk into little men…” And so Elden began his beautiful tale.
My body relaxed to the gentle cadence of Elden’s voice. I leaned into him and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.