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In a sedate shuffle, she trailed behind Maggie. Her friend had neared the exit of the room when Cal saw it. Was that... She paused and turned her head to track the auburn strands’ movements as they left her line of vision. Her breath hitched while her mind tried to justify the unusual occurrence. It shouldn’t have been strange. She often shed hair in the name of grooming. But strange it was. The strands of hair didn’t fall to the ground. They floated teasingly before her with a will all their own, shining like a beacon.
Her eyes followed the strands’ every undulation as they danced on the air before flying away to a small shimmering mist just off to the left. Cal’s stomach clenched. She’d seen this before. He and that mist had permanently etched themselves into her mind, whether she liked it or not. But they weren’t supposed to exist. She decided that long ago.
Had anyone else noticed? She’d been standing still for a few seconds. When she looked around, her stomach dropped to her toes. Other than a few puzzled glances thrown her way, people still studied and talked, not pointing or panicking. No, apparently she was the only peculiar thing here.
She watched the strands as they hovered near the mist before passing through it. Though tempted to see what the other side contained, she had more than a few suspicions. Maybe if she confidently strode toward the mist, no one would notice what she was doing.
When Maggie turned around, her first step stopped short, though.
“Girl, what are you doing standing there? We have a test to flunk. Come on.”
As Maggie pulled her away, disappointment engulfed her. She’d been so close. Now she wouldn’t know what lurked on the other side, though a sickening burn in her chest told her she’d soon find out.
***
Relian scanned the gently rolling hills outside the capital of Eriannon with a lingering unease. The tree-dotted area revealed no enemy presence. His vanguard of warriors, along with those already assigned to patrol this part of the border, fanned out around him.
“Captain, we have found something of importance over here.”
He swore silently, wanting a few more seconds to determine the cause of this disquiet. His skin tingled. Something wasn’t right, but it was nothing he could attribute to the factors that required their presence here. No, the enemy brought about a different dissonance. This unrest was something else entirely.
Wiping all emotion from his face, he turned and strolled toward the uniformed sentinel. There’d been reports of enemy activity, and now they tracked for footprints and other signs. That had to be his first priority—his only priority.
As he glanced at the warrior, he drew in a sharp breath, now seeing the reason for his growing wariness. Behind the other elf, an iridescent mist formed to the left of a copse of trees. Relian stepped nearer to him. The sentinel seemed completely unaware of the mist-shrouded veil. Frowning, Relian gestured to it. “Is this what troubles you?” He tried to ignore the slight shakiness in his voice.
The sentinel pivoted around. After a few moments, he turned back, his brow furrowed. “I don’t see anything, Captain.”
Relian’s mind shuddered to a halt. How could the soldier not see it...sense it? Confusion swamped him, and he wanted to be alone. The sentinel’s findings could wait.
He motioned to the sentinel, and when Relian spoke, some of his strain leaked through his abrupt tone. “Go join your guard. We’ll do this section last.”
After a long glance, the warrior bowed shallowly. “Yes, Captain.” He then walked away toward the trees.
As he watched the elf retreat, a sickening sensation settled deep in Relian’s stomach. The sentinel had been completely unaware of the mist. How could that possibly be? The veil always attracted attention.
He tore his gaze away from the mist to glance about at his men. The other warriors attended to their duties without pause as if nothing untoward were happening. His mind spun, but he forced himself to crouch down to examine the ground. Any intruding glances were better avoided until he could figure out what this meant for him and his people.
With a hand that quivered far more than he liked, he picked up a leaf and pretended to examine it. All thought, however, dwelt on the matter of the veil. After the veil had removed his kind from the human world, it tended to come and go as it pleased. When the mist deigned to appear, everyone in the area saw it. All adult elves had viewed the mist at one time or another. But it never ceased to cause a ripple of excitement, because its schedule was by no means frequent or consistent. As such, his people remarked upon such an occurrence for many decades, for one might see it a handful of times over a few centuries and then go as many years without a peek of it. That was the way the veil operated.
Until now. Now it chose to reveal itself to him alone.
Relian scowled at the leaf in his hand as if it could offer him some explanation. There had to be a reason. Could his erotically disturbing dreams be related? Of late, an auburn-haired human had overtaken his nights. Images of how their bodies shuddered in passionate release, of how black hair meshed with that of the darkest auburn, flickered through his mind. These sensual scenes always left him gasping with need and wanting more when she disappeared from his arms.
He closed his eyes, hoping to wipe those visions away, along with the stirrings of arousal that gripped him. But the woman in his dreams wouldn’t be subdued so easily.
Relian never saw her clearly, or at least didn’t remember her features upon waking. Only brownish-red hair and green eyes filtered through his mind. From the beginning, he couldn’t shake some unfathomable intuition she was human. That fact never seemed important, until he woke up. Then it was unconscionable. Elf and human did not mix.
Despite the dread that caused, she filled every one of his minutes, so even his days were not his alone. He hated this fact, and her at times.
And now the veil had appeared.
He glanced up at it. Shaking off his indecision, he stood and squared his shoulders. This opportunity for insight couldn’t be overlooked. Something he couldn’t define itched continually at his skin, at his mind, seeking entrance. He’d go mad if he didn’t see what was on the other side of the veil.
But when he gazed into the swirling mass of fog and starlight, disappointment took hold. Nothing was visible. He turned to go but paused mid-stride. The veil stabilized as a rift opened up within it, and an image appeared. He held his breath, afraid any puff of air would cause the wavering picture to disappear. Seated figures that conversed together or studied from books in a large white room dominated the sight before him.
As Relian’s vision sharpened and the clarity of the scene increased, he narrowed his eyes. Two human women walked toward a door. The last one’s reddish-brown hair somehow seemed familiar. When she turned her head toward the veil for a brief second, his heart and stomach lurched together painfully, making his head swim
Her friend pulled her away. The door closed behind the women, but something moved on the breeze within the mist. He had to draw on all his long years of inscrutability not to make a scene. What exactly he would have done, he couldn’t say. As a few intertwined strands of auburn hair came to rest upon his hand, the remembrance of another such occasion sprang up. A chill of horror danced down his spine.
Memory and dream merged. Before him rose up the dreamscape of the woman’s red tresses spread across his pillow and the memory of a young girl’s hair.
A decade ago, the veil took a plait of auburn hair, allowing it to float through the rift and wrap around his hand. Even though the girl had been but an adolescent, he now arrived at a logical conclusion, one his mind rebelled at. But his assumption made sense. It was so simple, so elegant, so wrong.
He clenched his hands into fists, wanting to rip something apart. For him to even see her surely heralded something that he’d hate.
