Chapter Eleven
“Where are we even going?”
Was every start to our journey going to begin with endless questions? I had never met a more curious being. “We’re heading to the place where the realms intersect. This is where you will return home.”
It was late afternoon, and the sky would be darkening soon.
We had taken a few rests in order to prepare for the travel we would do at night on the main road.
The forest around us was filled with birdsong and excited chatter, but the silence was beginning to arrive in longer spurts as fog rolled in.
Great, more fog.
“Won’t the Realm Guard be there waiting for me?”
“No. As far as he is concerned, you’re just a stupid human wandering around in the wrong realm.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly. “I still don’t understand why I can’t just go to him and have him return me.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, his body slamming into mine. He didn’t step back, and I didn’t bother to turn around. “Please tell me you understand our current situation,” I whispered. I didn’t care if I sounded cross or eerie; I only cared that he understood right in this moment.
“I understand that you don’t wish to be engaged to such a man, and that is why we travel together now. I’m here because you’re stuck with me while you figure out how to break our binding and escape him.”
Slowly, I turned around to face him. “Then you do not understand at all.”
He was still standing too close to me, yet he leaned in even closer, likely trapped by the wary expression on my face.
“Then explain it to me. Not as though I’m some stupid human who should know everything.
” He was serious for a change, and it almost frightened me.
“Explain it in the way it should be done. Please.” His voice was soft, and I nearly wanted to curl up with him by a fire since he clearly hadn’t taken any of this seriously.
“We run because, if the Realm Guard captures you, you are no more.”
I watched it slowly dawn on him, his eyes closing while he nodded. “I didn’t want to say as much, but I suspected I wasn’t safe—it’s why I hid back at the brewery. He seemed…unfriendly.”
“The realm guards of our past were kinder, you know,” I offered. “There was once a time when they would even go so far as to offer themselves to correct the balance in the realms. But Nilsorn is not such a sable; he craves power and will stop at nothing to have it.”
“So what will happen to me if he takes me?”
I couldn’t even look at him. Dodging his eyes, I looked around where we stood.
Dewdrop was ahead somewhere, likely safe from hearing such talk, and I could see darkness come around us.
We only had a few hours before I would need to wear my cloak.
I only needed to hide for the first couple of hours of sunset, and then travel would be easier.
“He will not take you,” I whispered. “He will end you.” Aleixo’s sharp intake of breath brought me back to him as I looked up at him with a sad smile. “I am sorry.”
“When we left and you asked if I feared death, I thought you were just being dramatic. You can be a bit…”
“Intense?”
“Very,” he said gravely. “So you travel with me to save me? You could be running off on your own without me to escape both of us.”
“I could, but what kind of elf would that make me?”
He said nothing, just looked into my eyes as I watched him. He didn’t appear to be panicked, and he didn’t mind our proximity. Perhaps he was used to such a thing. I, however, was not, and I could feel the tension between us build.
He reached up and before I could do anything, he softly pressed his hand against my cheek. “A smart elf,” he said gently, as I didn’t dare breathe.
The crackling in the air was silenced, and I finally said, “We should keep moving. I’ll need to hide for the first hours of darkness, lest I be seen. We will travel after.”
“No,” he said sharply as I turned away. “We’ll stop for the night. We have traveled most of the day. If you need to remain hidden for the night, we can do so. I know you’re exhausted.”
“Aleixo, it is not safe to remain camped with me.”
“And it is not safe to travel with me,” he added. “Let us make camp tonight. Tell me stories, tell me why it is unsafe with you, and let us sleep for more than an hour.”
With a sigh, I relented. “We will need to head deeper into the woods…they are most unfriendly at night. Come with me. We will set up camp, and I will tell you tales.”