Chapter 32 #2
Alvara raised her hand and promptly dropped it. This wasn’t the Ilmanir academy. “The humans’ weapons. I stopped by the forge today, and things could use major improvements.” A lull hovered where Boden should have translated her words. “Are you going to tell the chief?”
“I’m doing my best to find a way to phrase it that won’t be perceived as an insult,” he grumbled.
“It’s not an insult. It’s a fact that their weapons need to be improved or they won’t survive.
Maybe we can speak to the other chiefs about using their forges and blacksmiths for increased weapons production.
And Pyry and I can help the weaponsmith here.
” Some part of her wanted to cringe when she said his name, but she wasn’t sure why.
“Pyry?” Boden practically spat out the word. “I thought he wanted nothing to do with the demi-elves and humans.”
“Do you two need some privacy? Because—”
Alvara spoke over Kat. “He’s changed. Or at least changing. He helped the refugees in the Eskenti settlement, and he’s willing to help the weaponsmith.”
“Doing one good deed rarely means someone has changed,” Boden said through his teeth.
“You don’t know him, and this is all beside the point.
It wouldn’t even matter if he was a selkie who had dragged elves to the bottom of the sea.
The humans need better weapons, and he’s willing to help.
” Alvara tugged the hem of her tunic tight.
“You and I will take him tomorrow. End of discussion.”
“I would much rather deal with a selkie,” Boden muttered. He relayed her words to the chief, who grimaced but nodded.
“Great, it’s settled. I’m hungry,” Kat said, skipping away as if she wasn’t about to meet with a coven of witches.
Boden moved to follow her, but Alvara stopped him with a hand on his chest. “What was that?”
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
She stifled her desire to shove him through a small hole and breathed. “You’re acting like a youngling. What do you have against Pyry? He’s never done anything to you.”
“You’re correct.” He moved away from her touch. “He’s never done anything to me.”
“What happened between Pyry and I years ago is none of your concern. He’s lost everything, Boden. And at least he’s making an effort.”
He threw his hands into the air. “When will you stop defending him?”
Alvara took a step back. “Excuse me?”
“He treats you as if you’re worth nothing, and yet you continue to help him. I will never understand.”
“You don’t have to. My love life isn’t any of your business.” Boden raised his eyebrows at the word love, and Alvara stuttered. “Not love. We’re not—it doesn’t matter. Just leave it alone.”
She stormed out the door, her magic tingling underneath her skin. It begged to be released into the world, but she swatted it away. Gods, she wasn’t even sure why she was upset about Boden’s low opinion of Pyry, when she could hardly say she had felt much differently herself until today.
Something had thrown her off balance. She needed to right herself, and she knew just how to do it. And who she could convince to join her.
“Interested in some good old-fashioned violence?”
Ravanel looked up from the map he had been scrutinizing. “Yes.”
“You’re not even going to ask what I have planned? It could be a murder.”
“Is it a murder?” he asked as he rolled up the parchment.
“No. But I might be close.”
They walked to the nearest clearing in easy silence, the quiet between them illuminating the anger flushing her veins with heat. “Are you left or right handed?”
Don’t stare at his missing arm. Don’t stare at his missing arm.
“Right. At least I was.” The grit in his voice told her enough about how he was adjusting. She wouldn’t let it slow him down.
As soon as they stepped into the clearing and armed themselves with nearby branches, Alvara struck without warning. Ravanel blocked her, albeit slowly, and she blinked. His arm moved awkwardly and seemed unsteady, but he kept up with most of her attacks.
Each blow brought a small tug of pain to her back but also freed another thought from the clutter.
Boden didn’t know Pyry. He had no right to judge him when he himself had done terrible things.
And Pyry was at least trying to make a positive change.
She didn’t exactly want to spend buckets of time with him, but she also wasn’t about to toss him aside as he had done to her.
“You’re pretty decent for a guy with one arm,” Alvara said, tapping Ravanel in the leg when he left his defenses open.
“My father is the head of the Malvan army—that was his seat on the king’s council. He always believed in using every advantage available, including weapon training.”
“You know it will just take time, right? But you’ll continue to gain better control of your left arm.”
He thumped his branch against his thigh, his voice low. “Thank you. For not treating me differently.”
It was all Alvara had wanted when Eloisa and her mother had passed—for people to treat her normally instead of tiptoeing around her like she might collapse in on herself at any moment. “Don’t start being nice to me, Ravanel. It’s too strange, and it might ruin your terrifying reputation.”
“Rav. Just Rav. And I don’t have a terrifying reputation, I just didn’t like you back in Ilmanir.”
Alvara bit her lip to avoid smiling. “Didn’t like me? Or wanted to kill me?”
He looked genuinely confused at her question. “Is there a difference?”
“I would hope so. Well Rav,” she said, dragging out his new nickname long enough to make him roll his eyes, “I’m here whenever you need to…you know.” They were quite the combination, possibly two of the most emotionally inept elves around.
“I didn’t get an invite?”
Boden. Alvara stiffened.
Rav smirked. “Another fight with a squirrel?”
“That wasn’t a fight. It was…a slight disagreement about whose tree I was sleeping under in my bear form. And no, it wasn’t Lars this time.”
Alvara inhaled slowly through her nose to cool the fire in her gut and turned to find Boden clutching a crimson-soaked towel around his hand. “What in Dalviri’s name did you do?”
He hid his injury behind his back. “It’s not important. I needed to speak with you.”
“Let me see.” She held out her hands, and he sighed, placing his bloody mess in her grasp. Alvara unwrapped the cloth and examined the cut. Deep but clean. He would likely need a healer. “Come on, let’s go find Heila. Rav, anytime you need me, let me know.”
Rav twirled his branch in the air. “Watch out for squirrels.”
A rock thrown by Boden’s magic knocked the branch out of Rav’s hand, and a strong wind shoved Boden so hard he stumbled, cursing.
Alvara tugged on a strand of her magic and dumped a handful of snow on Rav as she walked side by side with Boden, narrowly avoiding a stick bouncing off her head. “Kitchen accident?”
“I may have gotten too aggressive with the potatoes. I doubt I’ll be allowed back.”
She slowed to tighten his makeshift bandage, tying the material in a knot to keep it in place.
Boden flexed his fingers. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you apologizing to me or the potatoes?”
“I overstepped. I don’t know Pyry well, if at all, and I had no reason to act that way. But I hate seeing how he treats you, Alvara. I’ve been treated as less than by more people than I’d like to count, and I can’t stand watching anyone do the same to you.”
“Thank you.” Alvara tapped his bandaged hand.
“Though I’m beginning to think you injured yourself for some extra pity.
” They had stopped at the door of the healer’s house.
“You were right. Pyry didn’t treat me well, but he’s making an effort.
And he’s all I have left of home. I’m the reason he’s even stuck here in the first place, and I couldn’t live with myself if I just threw him to the wolves. Or bears,” she added under her breath.
“Are you two…”
“Burn me to ashes if that ever happens. He just finally decided to apologize about three years too late, that’s all. He’s lucky I didn’t freeze his mouth shut.”
An exclamation in the human tongue rang out, and Heila bustled over to Boden, mumbling to herself as she inspected the wound. He tucked a coin into her pocket even as she tried to swat his hand away.
Boden had apologized, which was more than Pyry had ever done until recently. And it had taken him how many years?
She felt foolish for stretching out her hand to someone so many times when he had all but slapped it away. But Boden…he was different. Blindingly so at times.
Alvara liked it.