AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know.” Essie’s touch on his cheek brought his gaze back to hers. She spoke with certainty, not just a soothing reassurance.
“You know?” He searched her face, his muscles stiffening. How would she know? Who had told her? Did she know what she thought she knew? “That I am a…” He switched to elvish and spat the word. He did not think Essie would know it. He certainly had not taught it to her.
But he had learned it at a young age. He had had it spat at him far too often when he was growing up. Even now, the nobles whispered it when they thought Weylind would not hear.
“Your grandmother told me. On my third day here.” Essie did not wince, even at the way he had spat the derogatory term for his birth.
Of course Machasheni had told Essie. No one else would be that plain-spoken, but Machasheni Leyleira was not ruffled by such delicate topics.
He could no longer hold Essie’s gaze. He slumped, staring off over the lake. “I am sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Essie cradled his face in both of her hands, her touch soft. “It’s not your fault, Farrendel. None of the mistakes are yours. You can’t help how you were born.”
“I am still tainted.” Farrendel held up his hands. Even after all his scrubbing, blood still crusted beneath his fingernails and in the creases of his palms.
The taint of his birth clung to him just as much. And since Essie was married to him, it would cling to her too.
Essie’s voice dropped low with conviction, as if she willed him to heed her words. “You are your father’s son, no matter how it happened. He acknowledged you and raised you as one of the family, as you deserve to be. That makes you a prince of the elves. No matter your magic. No matter your birth. No matter what anyone says. You are not tainted.”
Her words were nothing new. His dacha had told him the exact same thing many times. So had Weylind and Rheva and the rest of his family.
But he had already known his family loved him, no matter what. It was different, hearing the reassurance from Essie.
He had trusted her with all of his secrets and brokenness, and she still cared. She still sat there, cradling his face with a gentle touch.
As his muscles relaxed, he took her hand. “Linshi.”
“Of course.” Essie sat back on her heels. “Your brother said to talk to him as soon as you were ready. He sounded serious. Well, more serious than usual.”
Right. Now that Farrendel could think again, it struck him how easy that fight had been. Sure, he had killed quite a few trolls. But there had been nowhere near a hundred in that attack.
And that meant seventy or more trolls were still out there. This attack was not over.
ChapterNineteen
Farrendel stretched his senses as he led the column of riders along the thin path from Lethorel back to Arorien. Somewhere out there, seventy or more trolls were lurking. Had they set up an ambush or had they headed to Estyra?
Either way, Farrendel was not sure that taking to the road and making for Arorien was the wisest decision. He would have preferred to remain at Lethorel where Essie and the other non-warriors in the group could remain safe in a fortified position. Surely the trolls would have come to them eventually. Or someone would have noticed that the king was no longer sending messages along the root system and gone to investigate. They would have soon discovered the root system had been cut, and Weylind was holed up at Lethorel.
But Weylind was worried for the rest of the kingdom. Who knew what seventy trolls could get up to if left to their own devices? The trolls might plan another, even larger offensive raid into Tarenhiel, knowing they had the king and his best warrior bottled up at Lethorel.
While staying at Lethorel would be safer for Essie, leaving was better for Tarenhiel. So Weylind made the decision to risk the road.
Farrendel resisted the urge to glance over his shoulder to search out Essie in the riders behind him. He needed to stay focused ahead and around them. He could not afford to miss the slightest sign of trouble.
She would be fine. He would make sure of it. Besides, she had claimed two guns and an armload of ammunition from the dead trolls who had attacked Lethorel. Farrendel had never seen her shoot a gun, but she had seemed confident in the way she handled the weapons.
They rode in silence. Only the soft clop of hooves on the sandy gravel of the trail, the faint creak of leather, and the occasional whuffle from one of the horses broke the quiet of the forest.
As they rounded a bend, the familiar sense of boulders deeper in the forest ahead brushed against his instincts. He never liked this part of the trail, where large boulders in the forest pressed against his magic.
Yet this time, something jangled. He held up his hand, reining in his horse and stretching his senses toward the rocks that hid just out of sight of the trail. Behind him, snorting and stamping came from the horses as the others halted.
There was something there. Something…
“Down!” Farrendel dove from his horse. Even as he urged his horse to the ground with one hand, he sent a bolt of his magic into the air. A gunshot echoed as his magic sizzled the bullet into nothing.
A howling war chant roared from the forest ahead. At least Farrendel had sensed them before he and his family had ridden between the boulders, where they would have been surrounded by the trolls.
