Chapter 29
The place we call “town” is just a carriage ride down the dirt hill from the castle grounds and around the corner.
Not far at all. Here, there’s housing for thousands, and on the main street is where you’ll find lively taverns, shops, and places that provide various services.
Things you can’t find at the castle. Most elves live in the town, which we simply call Ellyar Proper, but there are others scattered throughout the region.
Some are wealthy and have private residences just outside of town, with their own tall walls surrounding it.
Others work at places like the inns or the animal sanctuary.
Outside of that, there are a few small border villages scattered around Ellyar.
Meela and I used to love coming here when we were young.
I glance at her now across the jostling carriage that we’re sharing with Daegan and Raef. Rhydra and Gaethri are due to meet us soon.
Daegan, who was not outside my door this morning, pulled me aside before the ride and told me he informed Raef of everything, which means this carriage ride is the perfect place to talk to her alone, just the four of us.
I want to fill her in before Rhydra and Gaethri.
It seems right that way. Meela sits across from me with Raef next to her, leaving Daegan’s knee incredibly too close to mine, his long thighs seeming to take up half the space in here.
“Meela…”
Her gaze whips to mine. She already senses something simply from the way I say her name. Am I that easy to read?
“Yes…?”
I glance at Daegan and Raef one last time, and they both give me reassuring nods.
“I’m going to tell you something and you have to promise not to be mad at me.”
Her eyes dance between all of us. “What the fuck is going on?”
I hesitate.
“We’re breaking the curse,” Raef spits out.
I shoot him a look. Poor Meela looks very, very confused. She’s actually speechless.
Silence falls over the carriage.
“What?” she finally mutters.
“The three of us have been working together secretly to break the curse,” I say.
She stares at us, dumbfounded, and for a moment, I think she’s going to burst out in laughter, but after a strange, strangled chortle, her face turns serious as she asks, “How?”
“A few years back, I found a passage in an old book that detailed how the curse was cast. I started to feel this strange calling, like it was meant to find me. Like it was finally time for this unnatural curse on our land to be broken once and for all. It was stupid and ridiculous of me. I was only a child. But I researched more. I became obsessed. For years, I looked for a clue on how to break it. I had an idea, but it wasn’t until very recently that I found something that confirmed my suspicions. ”
“And then you trusted these idiots, out of everyone? Two dragon shifters you just met?”
She doesn’t doubt us, like I thought she might. She’s simply confused about my ally situation.
“It’s kind of a long story…” I say. “It all just sort of… happened. Like everything lined up perfectly for all of us to find each other at the right time.”
Her eyes dance between us again, and silence falls over the carriage.
“I want in.”
“You do?”
“Yes,” she says, looking straight at me. It’s not hurt in her eyes, exactly, but something else.
“You’re not mad that I didn’t tell you? For years?”
“You’re not the only one who kept secrets. I’m starting to realize… we probably could have been a little more open with each other. Things might have been a lot different…” she trails off, her voice going softer, her eyes growing distant.
I nod in agreement.
“Well, welcome to the group,” Raef says, wrapping his arm around her in an awkward side hug.
She shrugs out of it. “Tell me everything.”
So we fill her in on everything that’s happened since the day Daegan threatened me.
I tell most of it, but they fill in pieces here and there, parts of our adventure in the forest I left out, or the parts about their homeland slowly dying.
The shock on her face is evident as we go into detail about the day that we went to Wraithmere Forest, not just the inn.
By the time we’ve finished, we’re arriving in town, and Meela’s eyes are full of more determination and emotions than I’ve seen from her in a long time.
“So… are you still in? You don’t have to help us, but…if you could keep this a secret…” I trail off.
“I’m in,” she says. “Fully in.”
“Okay,” I say, smiling with relief. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, but selfishly, I’m happy to have a friend in this at last. It feels like so much weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
“And now to get Gaethri and Rhydra on board,” Daegan adds.
“Imagine. Two dragon shifters, two elves, a Dothronite, and a Skeldaryn. An unlikely bunch of allies. We’re becoming a real…” Raef stops, tilting his chin up as he thinks. “A real tribe of misfits? No. A troop of unlikely allies?”
We all make similar faces at him. “What? I’m onto something. I’ll come up with the perfect name. Just wait. Fuckers.” He rises and exits the carriage first.
I laugh as Meela follows. Daegan makes what sounds suspiciously like a fake cough, then gestures for me to go before him. I pass him, being extra careful not to brush against his knees. I sense him watching me the entire time.
We head to the tavern we told Rhydra and Gaethri to meet us at and find them already at a table in a corner waiting. Only Gaethri has a large tankard of ale in front of him.
“Thanks for meeting us,” I say as we approach, taking the lead. We all take seats around the table, which perfectly seats six. I sit on Rhydra and Gaehtri’s side, right next to him.
It’s packed enough in here that the noise should drown out our conversation to anyone who isn’t sitting directly next to us. But still, I keep my voice as low as possible, just loud enough that everyone at the table can hear me.
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 been working 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.
Thinking this is cause for celebration, I rise from the table without explanation and head to the bar to retrieve four more tankards to celebrate with.
I order from the barkeep, who is an elf, and then glance around while I wait. It’s almost all elves in here, with a few travelers mixed in, looking like they don’t have a care in the world. I don’t know how to feel about it all anymore.
“No one seems to know who you are down here.”
I turn and find Daegan beside me. He leans back against the wooden bar with his arms crossed, glancing around the room. He’s in a short-sleeved black tunic today with minimal armor over it, his biceps and veined forearms on full display as usual.
“My father will make an appearance down here on rare occasions with his crown, flanked by a few guards, but I haven’t traveled with him in ages. Whenever I visit, it’s usually just Meela and me, and I try to blend in.”
“You can try…” he mutters.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he says, glancing at me but not meeting my eyes.