Chapter 5 #2
She waved them into a room lined with wooden bookshelves, volumes upon volumes stuffed in every available crevice. A few Alvara recognized from her father’s collection, but many were unfamiliar books he would have given his favorite reading chair to study.
Alvara cleared off a stack of papers from a nearby wooden chair and helped Pyry sit as gently as she could. His eyelids drooped, his face even more pale since they had left the palace.
“What is all this?” A tall, bronzed elf with light green eyes peered up at Kat and Aurilena from between mountains of parchment piled high all over his desk. “Ah. You two. Let me guess, our son?”
“He takes after you, Tam,” Sylvi said with a playful eye roll.
Tam settled himself on a stool in front of Pyry, while she slid the study doors closed.
“Any injuries other than those on his back?” he asked as he rolled up his sleeves.
“Not that I know of.” Alvara couldn’t help her hands hovering uselessly above Pyry’s wounds.
A warm green glow emanated from Tam’s fingertips as he laid his touch on the gruesome gashes, and Alvara decided she needed a distraction if she hoped to remain upright. She also needed answers.
“You said you were helping me because of my sister. Is it true? Was she really helping the humans in some kind of movement against the king?”
Kat’s eyes darted toward Tam. “He was probably talking about the Eskenti, but she wasn’t one of their members, thank Vitharen. They’re one crazy bunch.” She looked at Aurilena and cringed. “Sorry.”
“They named themselves after a weed?” Alvara’s mother fought viciously against the pesky plant each year in her own limited garden, but it always came back.
“It’s hard to kill, and so are they.” Kat shrugged. “They like to take a more…violent approach to things. It’s been a never-ending issue with the Silver Blight.”
“Kat, she has no idea what you’re talking about,” Aurilena grumbled.
“Oh, right. That’s what we call ourselves.
King Einar likes to say demi-elves are a blight on his kingdom, so we embraced it.
Silver Blight is a disease that turns plants gray, eventually killing them.
But plants that have been crossbred are more resistant to it.
” Kat flashed a smile. “Like demi-elves.” Her smile slipped, and she wrapped her arms around herself.
“Eloisa stumbled into our ranks seven years back when she was still new to the city. After seeing how humans and demi-elves were being treated, she tried to save one herself. That’s when we were lucky enough to have our paths cross. ”
The truth hammered a strong blow, leaving a dent in Alvara’s already damaged heart.
Her sister had never mentioned anything remotely close to humans in her letters, or when she visited, though those occasions had been rare.
Maybe she didn’t trust Alvara to keep her secret.
Or thought she simply wouldn’t understand.
“She didn’t really fade in an accident with a student, did she?” Alvara said quietly, though she already knew the answer.
“No, she didn’t,” Kat said. “We have no idea how the king found out, but when he did—well, she gave everything for us.”
The world slowed to a stop. It felt as if Alvara were wading through water against a strong current, just trying to keep from being swept away. King Einar had killed her sister. And because of that, her mother was gone too.
In. Out. In. Out. Alvara focused on filling her lungs as her emotions smashed relentlessly at the barrier she had built over countless years.
“He will be fine, if not a little tender.” Tam stepped away from Pyry, who now sat up on his own, blinking rapidly as if he couldn’t believe he was still alive.
Alvara almost couldn’t believe it either, but his injuries were indeed healed and had disappeared altogether, leaving his pale skin flawless.
She reached out to touch his arm but decided against it. “How do you—”
“Home. Please.” Pyry pushed to his feet with a small wobble.
Tam opened the doors. “You must leave. Immediately.”
Sylvi handed Alvara two changes of clothes and a satchel filled with food and coins. Her seluri opened his mouth, but she elbowed him in the side. “A few more minutes won’t make a difference, love. If they don’t change their clothes, this may all have been in vain.”
Alvara wasn’t even sure who these people were, but she didn’t care as long as Pyry was healed, and they could go back to their lives in Vorianta. “Thank you. For everything.”
“We do what we can. Don’t speak of this to anyone and get going before my darling Tam throws you out. He’s apparently forgotten what manners are.”
Tam shook his head, his lips fighting a grin as he came up behind Sylvi and squeezed her waist. He earned a giggle and a light slap to the arm. Was Alvara the only one here who understood this was a life or fading situation?
The affectionate exchange tweaked something uncomfortable in her, so she found a corner far from them to change as quickly as her tired limbs would allow.
Aurilena’s stern voice frayed what little resolve remained. “We’ll gather supplies from the safe house to last us until we’re able to find a town on the Valonian border.”
That couldn’t be right. Valo was in the complete opposite direction of Dalvi.
Alvara assisted an ever-silent Pyry out the back door of the manor, though his strides grew stronger with each step they took.
“Why would we head in that direction? We need to go through Nyr to get home.” She tugged her new hood over her cursed hair and swore to herself that she would consider it a life well lived if she never set foot in this dreaded kingdom ever again.
Kat whipped her head toward Alvara. “You actually want to go home? You have to come with us! Both of you. The king will hunt you down now that he knows who you are, and besides, you’ve seen what’s happening in Ela. We need all the help we can get to stop it.”
All Alvara wanted was to go back to a boring life that didn’t involve imprisonment and daily torture. “He won’t risk breaching Dalvi’s borders. As long as we can get home, we’ll be fine.”
Aurilena stopped in her tracks. “You’re aware of what your sister was involved in, and you won’t even consider helping? You want to return to your comfortable life and forget all of it?”
Any remaining restraint Alvara held over her turbulent emotions burnt to a crisp.
“Comfortable life? You think losing my sister and my mother to your damn cause made my life comfortable? And your precious humans, why are they my concern? If they’re choosing to breach Ela’s lands, that’s their own choice. ”
Aurilena looked to Pyry. He shook his head, and she stretched her arms down at her sides, letting loose a flurry of sparks from her fingertips.
“Let’s not set the forest on fire again.” Kat patted her friend’s shoulder, who stiffened.
“It happened one time!”
Aurilena stomped ahead, and Kat turned to Alvara with an apologetic smile.
“We’ll do what we can to distract the guards so you can leave.
She does warm up eventually, I promise. It just takes a few years.
” She skipped after Aurilena. “Wait for us! Whatever-his-name-is did just recover from a major injury. The least you could do is slow down.”
Vitharen help me. Alvara needed the peace and quiet of Dalvi as soon as possible if she hoped to keep the few crumbs of sanity she had left.
As they neared the stables, invisible insects crawled up Alvara’s skin at every sound. Without so much as a nod, Aurilena transformed into a perfect imitation of her and marched in the direction of the guards at the city gates.
“Eloisa really was something special,” Kat said quietly. “Good luck, Alvara.” With a brief wave, she shifted and pecked at the guards’ faces while they attempted to chase Aurilena and tossed green tendrils in her direction.
“Let’s go,” Alvara said, and they rushed toward the stable, Pyry now thankfully able to move on his own.
They could try to snatch the first horses they found, but she had borrowed Jalomir’s and couldn’t bring herself to leave him in this miserable place.
The stable elf disappeared into one of the stalls, allowing Alvara and Pyry just enough time to steal their steeds and hope that the beasts had rested enough for the journey back.
Tam had clearly done good work, because Pyry climbed on his horse with only a small wince.
Before Alvara could let her nerves win the raging battle within her body, she shortened the reins and squeezed her legs into her horse’s sides.
They galloped through the now unguarded gates as voices hollered after them.
Soon, but not nearly soon enough, Tasírath retreated into the distance, and the steady rhythm of hooves relaxed the tightness in Alvara’s chest.
Eloisa had faded at the hands of King Einar. Everything had been a lie. Her time in Ela, her passing. Had her sister even become a teacher? And on top of it all, Alvara had almost lost Pyry to this unbelievable madness.
“I’m sorry,” she said over the howling wind. She slowed her horse’s gait just a fraction so the beast wouldn’t burn out before they found a city to stop in for the night.
Pyry didn’t look at her. “For what?”
“They hurt you. It was my fault you were even there. I didn’t know if you were going to make it.”
“You had nothing to do with your sister’s choices.” His words were monotone, lifeless.
“What you were saying in the dungeon—”
“Not now. I just want to get home.”
Right. Because the only time Pyry was willing to talk about his emotions was under threat of torture. And even then, not so impressive.
Alvara stroked the mane of her horse to soothe the frustration building in her veins.
What good was love when it only produced secrets and pain?