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“The elves came with them?” Jael’s voice held a quiet, almost surprised tone.
Trap offered a solemn nod. “Lord Talos himself is here.”
“Well then.” Jael stood a moment longer, as if uncertain what he should do. Then he turned to look at Anrid, face void of all emotion. “I supposed we should go greet our guests.”
Anrid swallowed a lump in the back of her throat and set the stack of bowls down on a side table before wiping her hands on her apron. Trap also offloaded her laundry basket, hands on her hips.
“I’ll watch the younglings,” she declared as she roamed her eagle eye over the two rows of expectant faces. “We’re going to be good little goblins, aren’t we?”
They nodded with enthusiastic smiles. “Yes, Trap!” they chorused.
Anrid lingered in the doorway a few seconds longer, loathe to leave them when they were ill…and loathe to leave Trap without any back up. But the housekeeper waved her away and shut the kitchen door behind her, probably to keep any of her charges from escaping.
She followed a pace behind Jael, careful to keep a safe distance between them. He allowed her the awkward silence as they traversed the tunnels and wound their way through sitting rooms until they reached a wide flank of stone steps leading up to a vaulted doorway. Anrid smoothed back her hair and wished she’d been given time to freshen up before meeting their guests. This would be her first introduction to the dark elves, and she didn’t want to make a poor impression.
Jael waited at the top of the stairs, one eyebrow cocked. She flushed, grabbed fistfuls of her dress and trotted up the steps. He must think her very scatterbrained, the way she always bumbled around a step behind whatever was going on. They walked through the archway side by side. A few stone benches lined a wall cloaked in heavy tapestries to her right. A brown runner ran down the center of the room and disappeared beneath a large stone table with no chairs. It was a tall table, much too tall to sit at, and appeared to be meant for standing. She scanned the group of people off to the left. Math and Kora she recognized right away, among half a dozen men with blue-gray skin.
Eight pairs of eyes turned to watch them approach.
She curled her fingers into her dress as she followed Jael, heart thundering in her ears. Her blood pulsed through her veins. Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha—
“You must be the human girl.” The speaker stood at the front of the group, a thin and severe looking dark elf with a sour expression that could curdle milk. He raked his eyes over her, from head to foot. The way he stared at her made her feel as if she were being undressed and cataloged down to each freckle and strand of hair. A chill slid down her spine. “I’ve been searching for you. You’re a fool to think you could run from your duty.”
That chill turned to ice as she realized this dark elf knew who she was. Was it possible…was this...?
“I won’t have you speaking to her like that, Lord Talos.” Jael’s cold voice bit out.
The dark elf flicked his gaze between Jael and Anrid, as if assessing them both. “What’s it to you?” he said at last, his tone bored and cool. “Why do you care how I speak to my flame-eaten wife?”
Jael took a faltering step toward him, hands curling into fists at his sides. “Don’t.”
How could one single word hold so much? Anrid heard the warning in Jael’s tone, and the dark elf must have heard it as well. Her heart raced as she studied them each in turn and wondered who would back down first.
“I’ll speak to her as I please.” The elf also took a step forward. It sounded like a challenge somehow. “What’s it to you how I speak to a human whore?”
She gasped, stunned by the horrific insult. Why would he say such a thing?
But before she had a chance to come to her own defense, Jael launched himself between them and swung a clenched fist straight at the elf’s face.
Chapter 28
Lord Talos recoiled from the blow and staggered against one of his fellows. Jael saw only red as he moved in for a follow-up blow, but his opponent came back with a jab of his own. Jael managed to throw up his forearm to block just in time. Pain exploded in his arm, but he didn’t have time to register the shock before a second blow from the elf hurled his face sideways.
He staggered, pain speckling his vision. Instinct began to take over, his body reacting to the threat without him even thinking about it. Jael swung a fist toward the dark elf’s face, but Talos caught his wrist in an iron grip and yanked Jael off balance. With a powerful swing, one mighty enough to impress the strongest of goblins, Talos threw Jael to the ground.
“Apologize!” Jael snarled the words as he rolled back to his feet.
Talos wrinkled his lips, defiant. “Who are you to command me about how I should speak to my own wife, goblin?”
Jael lunged again. “She isn’t your wife!”
This time he caught Talos around the waist and took them both to the ground. Shouts echoed in the chamber, but Jael had eyes only for the dark elf who grappled at his tunic. Talos managed to catch a hand under Jael’s jaw and wrenched his head backward at the same time he delivered a brutal blow to Jael’s ribs. Talos pressed the advantage and rolled them so that he had the upper ground. Another blow to the face almost knocked him senseless. Something warm and wet trickled over his upper lip. He fought, his vision starred with lights and shadows. The weight of the elf pressed down on him.
That heaviness peeled away abruptly. Jael blinked to clear his sight and saw two dark elves yanking their leader backwards several paces. They whispered into his ear, as if trying to calm him or remind him to see reason. Jael rolled to his side and spat blood against the stone floor. Hands caught hold of his arms and tugged him to his feet, but Jael shook Kora and Math off, swiping a hand under his bleeding nose.
He stared at the elf who had come to take Anrid away. The scuffle had made him rumpled and irritated, with a ruddy mark high on his cheekbone where Jael had caught a lucky blow.
“Apologize,” Jael repeated as he stalked forward. “She isn’t your wife.”
