Chapter 27 #3
Boden’s words quickened. “After a particularly rough day at the academy, I came home in quite the mood. My mother told me we were having peas with dinner that night, and I hate peas more than anything.”
Pira slathered a smooth paste over Alvara’s back, and it tingled in a strangely enjoyable way. The pain started to retreat, little by little. She sighed, relaxing into the bed once more as Pira wrapped her gashes in bandages.
“What happened?” Alvara murmured into the pillow.
“Before I even knew what was happening, my mother was screaming for my father, and I was standing in my bear form in the middle of the living room. Only a cub at the time.” His soft laugh enveloped her.
“I couldn’t figure out how to shift back for an entire day, so instead, I walked around the house and scared the living moonlight out of the servants. I don’t think they ever recovered.”
“I missed so many chances to put peas in your food,” Alvara said. Food. Her stomach grumbled, and Pira spoke.
“You go get her some food. I’ll help her change.” A chair scraped, and the door clicked. “I’m going to sit you up, love.”
Just as Pira had finished dressing Alvara in soft, loose clothing and settled her into a fresh pile of pillows, someone knocked.
Pira patted her shoulder and piled the bloody aftermath into a bowl, slipping out of the room past Boden, who held a tray piled with enough bread and meat to feed twelve people, along with a blessed jug of water.
She hadn’t realized how parched she was until the first drops of liquid passed her tongue. Boden just sat and watched her quietly from his chair.
“What?” she asked. His sober expression was the only thing keeping her from digging into her food like a rabid animal.
“Why did you do it?”
“If I tell you, that gives me less time to eat.”
She had hoped for a laugh, an indication he would let the topic go, but Boden didn’t relent.
Alvara fiddled with a piece of bread, piling crumbs in her lap.
“I couldn’t watch him do that to you. Everything he’s put you through, I hadn’t seen any of it firsthand.
But seeing the whip, his enjoyment. It was too much.
Are you…upset?” Honest to gods, she couldn’t tell from the solid stone of his face, so reflective of his Nyrian magic.
“Upset? No one’s ever done anything like that for me, Alvara, and few would.
I’m grateful, despite how wildly irrational your actions were.
What you did for me…I won’t forget it as long as I live.
” His eyes traveled to her back, pushed against the cushions.
“Although I’d prefer if you don’t make it a habit. ”
“No promises.” She shoveled the first bite of meat in, and the succulent juices promptly convinced her she was going to stuff herself until she was sick.
The news Boden’s friends shared the next morning was troubling, to say the least. Neighbors and friends had been turning demi-elves over to the authorities, including people they had known about for decades and never said a word. Everyone was frightened of what King Einar would do.
“We have to warn the humans,” Alvara said. She sat in a delightfully soft chair by the crackling hearth, stroking her mother’s earrings. They had somehow survived the battle and the aftermath, though she should have been smarter and sent them with Lilja like she had her father’s dagger.
Boden sipped from his cup of black tea. How he managed to find the Elan specialty in every kingdom, she had no idea. “You need to heal.”
“Boden, I’m not sitting around while he marches on a defenseless realm. My back is clean and bandaged, and Pira used plenty of healing ointment. I’ll be fine. Unless you’re trying to tell me that you would sit around and wait for your injuries to heal completely before going to help.”
“You are impossible.” He set his mug down and leaned his head against the back of his chair. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow. If we’re able to find fresh horses, we may be able to make it to the Eskenti settlement by sundown.”
Arnik stood. “I’ll make arrangements.”
“Thank you,” Alvara said. “For everything you’ve done for me. I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”
“Help the demi-elves and humans. That’s all we ask.” He inclined his head toward Boden. “Take care of your mother for us. And be proud of your father’s blood that runs through you. He was a good man.”
The flames of the hearth flickered in Boden’s eyes. Alvara pulled the woolen blanket over her shoulders. “Tell me about him.”
He inhaled sharply. “I only know what little my mother has told me.”
“I’d still like to hear it. But only if you want to talk.” The logs of the fire snapped and popped, shifted and crumbled while she waited.
Boden wrapped his hands around his mug once again and pulled it tight against his chest. “He was a fisherman…”
His soothing voice swelled and crashed like the waves his father had endured in his countless days spent out on the sea, drowning out all of her fear and pain. A lightness nestled in her chest, a feeling of contentment she hadn’t experienced in quite some time.
And Alvara smiled.