Chapter Two #2
His foot traced patterns in the dirt in front of him. “I do not know what to say,” he admitted. “Everyone seems to have people with them, people to help initiate the conversations or introduce them to eligible elves. I do not know where to start.”
An idea formed in my head. It was a bad idea, but if he wished to get married at the market and the only thing holding him back was fear, then I could provide a salve for that.
Of course, there were probably better salves offered at the apothecary booths.
It was said that the apothecaries of Emberleigh could solve any ailment, after all.
“I could go with you,” I suggested tentatively.
“Go with me?”
“To walk the market and meet potential suitors. The first day of market is always our busiest, and after that, Acantha is more than capable of minding the stall for a few hours.” We had done this the year before.
We’d taken time in shifts, though most of my off time was spent either in the village, sitting behind the stall, or talking to an elf I knew who also created devices specializing in pleasure.
I doubted that he would need my aid for longer than a day or two.
“Do you mean it?” he asked. His eyes lit up, or perhaps the sun parted through the clouds at just the right angle to give the impression that they did.
“Yes,” I told him simply. “I do not often say what I do not mean.” Acantha teased me for my blunt manner of speech often.
“Where are you camping?”
I had rented Acantha and I small cabins in a village to the north, so different than the campgrounds of my youth.
I had never liked sleeping under the stars with nothing more than a thin layer of canvas to protect me from the elements, and it wasn’t often that I allowed myself something extravagant.
I relayed the information to him, and his face fell.
He was staying at the campgrounds to the south, where we’d shared a kiss as boys.
The two places could not be any further apart.
“We could meet here,” I suggested. “I will need to be here at first light, anyway, to help Acantha open everything up.”
We agreed, and I searched for other topics. I was not good at speaking to people without something direct to say. I never had been, and I doubted it was a skill I’d gain with age. Some elves were just not meant for the company of others, and I was one of them.
Acantha calling my name from the stall interrupted my thoughts. I reiterated the plans to meet in the morning and watched as he walked away, ready to go back to the crowds and coin of my shop.
Hours later, Acantha and I closed the stall. We secured our wares and began our trek back to our cabins.
“So, Oleander?” they asked as we stepped onto the dusky trail.
“What about him?”
“I’ve heard that name before.”
My cheeks warmed and I was grateful for the shadow of twilight.
I’d told Acantha about the boy from market when Papa and I had gotten back to Gearwick.
We’d been laying in our beds, and the view of the stars from the window reminded me of him.
I could see a constellation he’d told me about: great lovers from an old legend according to Dun Steorra or great inventors if you asked the people of Gearwick.
He had said that he thought they were the same people, and as I replayed the kiss in my mind, I wondered if those stars were a portent of our future.
Acantha had noticed the change in my expression, even with the starlight illuminating my face, and they’d asked.
I’d told them everything, down to the way my heart fluttered in my chest at the first feel of his lips against mine.
It had been the first time I’d kissed anyone, the first time I’d wanted to kiss anyone.
Of course they would remember the name now.
I was not the only sibling in my family to be blessed with intelligence.
Acantha’s was just better balanced with heart and dreams instead of simply ambition and a desire to create.
In the present day, Acantha’s head cocked to the side. “Was he the elf you kissed by the river?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“And now he’s made a grand return to market?”
I nudged my sibling, almost knocking them from the path we walked.
They steadied themself and shoved me back.
I was not so quick to steady myself and would have crashed to the ground had they not possessed quick enough reflexes to grab my wrist to steady me.
We laughed, and I tossed a heavy arm over their shoulders.
“Do not fill your mind with romantic fantasy,” I scolded them.
They angled their head up to face me, and I could see that it was too late.
They were already dreaming of some grand romance for me.
My sibling had their share of lovers already; three regular partners they shared a home with.
They had not gone through a marriage ceremony, but I knew negotiations had been mentioned over the course of the last year.
It would only be a matter of time, and their greatest ambition seemed to be finding me a lover as well.
As if I had interest in that.
“But it is written in the stars,” they teased. “You bury yourself in work. Papa has always said this, has always said you’re too serious. Pari and Mama agreed.”
“Baba thinks I have my head on straight, focusing on my shop instead of dreaming of romance.”
“You are too much like Baba,” Acantha grumbled.
“And you are too much like Papa and Pari and Mama. Hopeless romantics, all of you. Do you not have other siblings to try to marry off or find partners for?”
“None of our other siblings are as misanthropic as you are. They will find partners. You, my dear brother, will grow old and gray surrounded by cogs and pleasure toys and the smell of the forge. Our children will question if there is something wrong with you.”
“That sounds like a good life,” I mused, if only to annoy my sibling the way they were annoying me. But at least they had allowed the topic of Oleander to drop for the time being, choosing instead to discuss my absent love life and then the events of the market.
Sounds filled the air the closer we got to the village. “Are you going to see him again?”
I should have known better than to believe they’d allow it to drop so easily.
They’d simply lulled me into a false sense of security.
It was a hopeless dream, letting myself believe that Acantha would ever allow anything to drop.
“Yes. He’ll be coming to the stall tomorrow morning.
” Acantha raised a brow at me. “I’m going to help him find a marriage. ”
I did not like the knowing look in Acantha’s eyes.