by Tara Grayce
Melantha dug her heels into the ground as Prince Rharreth shoved her forward. “Farrendel was right. You have no honor. You promised peace.”
“I promised that we would not invade your kingdom.” Prince Rharreth handed her off to a waiting troll. “I didn’t say anything about luring the elf king into attacking us. He and Laesornysh have held us off for years in this forest where they are strong. But now your elven army will be forced to fight in our mountains where we are strong.”
Last time Tarenhiel had been forced to invade Kostaria, Melantha’s father had been killed. Would Weylind be killed this time? Would Melantha have any family left when this was over?
ESSIE STOOD NEAR the gangplank of the elven ship as Averett gave last, hushed instructions to Edmund and Julien before departing. Weylind gripped Jalissa’s shoulders as they also spoke in lowered tones.
This parting would only be for a week at most. Not that long when it came to mobilizing armies. But far too long when each day meant Farrendel was imprisoned that much longer.
Essie wrapped her arms around her stomach. Even if Escarland’s army managed to march into Tarenhiel within a week, it could still take another week, optimistically, to assemble the joint elven-human army at the border with Kostaria.
Then it was anyone’s guess how long it would take to invade. As no one knew where in Kostaria Farrendel had been taken, everyone was assuming their goal would have to be Gror Grar, the trolls’ mountain fortress that guarded their capital city of Osmana. Even if Farrendel wasn’t being held there, they would have to conquer it to end the war they were about to start.
Jalissa stepped away from Weylind, her head held high. With a glance toward Averett, Weylind turned and stalked toward the ship’s bow. It might have looked angry, but Essie had been with the elves long enough to recognize when an elf bolted because he was done with interacting with others and needed a moment to breathe.
Essie crossed the distance to Jalissa and hugged her. Even though Jalissa wouldn’t admit it, Essie knew how hard this must be. Jalissa had begun to settle in at Aldon, but she would return there with only her guard. No Farrendel and no Essie to help smooth her way.
Instead of flinching away, Jalissa hugged her back, gripping tightly. Perhaps Jalissa was more willing to admit her emotions than Essie had assumed.
After a moment, Jalissa stepped back and gripped Essie’s shoulders. “Stay strong, isciena.”
Essie nodded. “You too. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask my family. Paige and Mother will try to smother you if you let them.”
Jalissa nodded. Hopefully she would reach out to Essie’s family rather than stay miserable by herself. They were all aching deep down right now in this strange state of missing Farrendel and grieving him, yet trying to cling to hope at the same time.
After one last squeeze to Essie’s shoulders, Jalissa stepped back and strode down the gangplank. Her silent elf guard fell into step behind her as they joined Averett’s guards waiting for him on the wharf.
“Essie.” Averett wrapped Essie in a hug. “I will join you in Tarenhiel with the army just as soon as possible.”
“I know.” Essie swallowed at the tightness in her throat. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her family just yet. She hadn’t even had the chance to give Mother, her sister-in-law Paige, and her nephews Bertie and Finn actual goodbyes.
She would still have Julien and Edmund with her in Tarenhiel. At least, when they weren’t busy scouting or planning a war.
Averett released her and gently tapped her nose. “I don’t know how that heart bond works, but if you get a chance, you tell Farrendel we’re coming for him. We’re all coming, and we’re going to get him out of there just as soon as we can.”
“I’ll do my best to let him know.” It was a bond of the heart, not the mind. So far, telepathy hadn’t been a side-effect. But, perhaps, she might be able to communicate the emotions. Even that might be a stretch. What she had experienced so far had been more like impressions.
But perhaps Farrendel felt the heart bond more than she did. She had gotten that feeling the times she and Farrendel had talked about the heart bond. And, Jalissa and Weylind had been surprised when Essie had to concentrate to feel the heart bond.
Averett tapped her nose again. “Don’t lose hope.”
It was hard to cling to hope, knowing the torture Farrendel was most likely enduring.
But if Farrendel could feel her emotions through the heart bond, then she did not wish to further burden him with her own despair. She wasn’t going to hide that she missed him. That she worried for him. But she wanted him to feel her determination.
He wasn’t dead. And he wasn’t going to be any time soon if she, her family, and his family had any say about it.
Averett stepped back. “I’ll arrive in Tarenhiel in a week. Hopefully less.”
“Will you be able to mobilize the army that quickly?” Essie didn’t want to get her hopes too high.
“Yes. I am king, after all. There are times when my commands do mean something.” Averett’s mouth tipped into a slight smile, though Essie could see the weary lines around his mouth and eyes.
These past couple of days had been hard on all of them. Her brothers had just started to bond with Farrendel, only to have him ripped away.
With a last smile for her, Averett turned and strode down the gangplank.
Essie stepped back as one of Weylind’s guards drew in the gangplank and the ship began to pull away from the wharf. As Essie had no wish to watch the Escarlish shore grow smaller behind them, she made her way to the bow.
There, King Weylind sagged against the rail, his shoulders more slumped than Essie had ever seen.
A part of her didn’t want to approach him. She was exhausted down to her bones after two days and a night with little sleep, an escape, and the ache of missing Farrendel. Not to mention, Weylind had not always been the kindest to Essie. His grumpiness had been out of love for Farrendel, but that didn’t make Essie all that eager to walk up to him.
But he was hurting as much as the rest of them. Once they reached Estyra, he would have his wife Rheva to lean on.
Until then, he was more alone than Essie was. She had two of her brothers with her, currently standing by the stern peering over the rail as they tried to figure out how the magical propulsion worked.
Weylind had no one. His brother was captured by trolls. His sister Jalissa was returning to Escarland to help the war effort there. His other sister Melantha had turned out to be a traitor and was currently missing. Presumably she had either gone with the trolls or she had fled. She couldn’t have returned to Tarenhiel once her treachery was known.
That left only Essie, the sister-in-law he’d never really wanted.
With a deep breath, Essie marched over and leaned against the rail next to Weylind. For once, she couldn’t find the words to say anything.
Weylind let out a long, slow breath, the strands of his black hair falling to hide his face. “Your brother is a good man.”
That was not at all what Essie had been expecting. “Yes, he is. He will keep his word. The Escarlish army will fight on your side in this war.”
Weylind straightened, staring at the Tarenhieli shore, green with its deep forest. “For the past months, I have been wary, waiting for your brother to reveal that the marriage alliance had been a trick. And yet, it turns out it was my sister, not your brother, who dealt in treason and lies.”
Even Essie could hear the pain in Weylind’s voice. She remembered Farrendel telling her once that elves didn’t lie. She hadn’t been sure at the time if that was a custom they held to or if they were truly incapable of lying.
It turned out elves could lie. At least, Melantha had maintained lies for years.
Essie wasn’t sure how to comfort Weylind. What comfort was there to be had when a sister betrayed a brother to torture and death? There wasn’t a bright side. There wasn’t even a villain to hate. There was just a double loss, a double reason to
mourn.
Instead, Essie decided to focus on her family, on the growing respect she’d heard in Weylind’s voice. “I know this might be hard to believe, given how he died fighting your people, but my father was a good man and a good king. He had great respect for elves, even as he went to war against you. While I don’t remember him much, I know Averett and Julien especially have always looked to his example.”
Weylind nodded, still staring at the shoreline of trees. “I wonder if his war might have been more justified than we elves would wish to believe. As the centuries have passed, we have lost some of the nobleness of character and mightiness in battle that made us worthy allies. There are stories of warriors of the past with magic much like Farrendel’s. It was not the rare thing back then that it is now.” Weylind turned to her. “And your brother has the making of the noble kings of old. He is young, but I believe he will be a worthy ally.”
“Would I be too human if I said I told you so?” Essie’s smile was brief and wobbly.
It felt wrong to joke and smile while Farrendel remained captured by the trolls. Yet, it would be weeks before they would be able to rescue him. If she spent those weeks in melancholy, she would break long before they got him back.
As hard as it was, she needed to figure out a way to live with this ache. To keep going, one step at a time.
Perhaps it would be easier in the morning, once she’d slept through the night on the train to Estyra.
Weylind’s shoulders slumped once again. “I am sorry, isciena. Farrendel would have good cause to tell me the same thing regarding you.”
Essie blinked at Weylind. In her exhaustion, had she heard him wrong? Surely King Weylind hadn’t just apologized to her? Again?
Sure, he had been hard on her at times, suspicious of her motives for marrying Farrendel and worried that she would break his brother’s heart. But she had never expected him to apologize.
“Thank you. It was hard there, at first, when everyone was so suspicious of me.” She shrugged. “But if all of you hadn’t been so hard on me, I’m not sure Farrendel would’ve dug in his heels as fiercely as he did out of sheer stubbornness to prove you wrong.”
“Farrendel does not pick his battles lightly.” Weylind shook his head, his black hair sliding across his shoulders.
Essie ducked her head, hot tears filling her eyes in a sudden rush. But she refused to cry here with King Weylind. They were making progress, but not enough that she wanted to break down in front of him.
But, for the first time since she had met him, she felt like she truly understood him. Weylind had always been first a king, then a brother. When the late elf queen had been killed, Weylind had been the one to take on the duties of the kingdom while his father had been grieving. When Farrendel’s illegitimate birth had been revealed and their father had all but stepped down as king to raise him, Weylind had again been asked to be king, even though his father yet lived.
Weylind had acted as the king so that their father could focus on Farrendel. It had been what was best for Farrendel, but it would have been a great burden to place on Weylind, even before his father had died young, for an elf.
From the moment Farrendel had been born, Weylind had never had the chance to relax and spend time with his brother apart from the duties of the kingdom. If he sometimes came across as a king giving commands even in his personal relationships, it perhaps could be forgiven.
The ship eased next to the wharf on the Tarenhieli shore. It took a few minutes to secure the ship to the pilings and lower the gangplank, but then they were disembarking, crossing the small stretch of ground, and boarding the elven train, a sleek silver thing that ran along rails of tree roots.
Essie sagged onto the seat in the elven train. The seating car featured two long benches on either side with banks of windows behind them and a silver domed ceiling.
Had it only been a week ago she’d taken this train with Farrendel and Jalissa? Essie hadn’t been able to stop chattering on that trip, too excited to sit still at the thought of introducing Farrendel to her family.
Now, she couldn’t work up the energy or willpower to smile. All her bones ached, her muscles shaky. She’d been abducted from Winstead Palace at just about midnight when she and Farrendel had slipped from the ball. As the train carrying her and Farrendel and their captors to the border clattered through the night, she had dozed against Farrendel’s shoulder. But it had been a light doze, and she had been in constant danger and worry since.
Edmund and Julien took seats on either side of her while Weylind sat across from them. No one spoke as the train eased into motion.
Essie propped her head on her hand and stared out the window, the trees blurring. Farrendel’s private sleeping car was probably still attached to this train. She could curl up in that bed and sleep.
But she didn’t want to be alone right now. Nor did she want to be alone in a place belonging to Farrendel. Her heart already ached too much.
Julien started a conversation with Weylind that had Weylind pulling out a folding table to set up in the aisle while Julien spread out a map.
Edmund wrapped an arm around Essie’s shoulder. “You can sleep, if you want. I can tell you’re tired.”
Essie leaned her head against his shoulder. Edmund’s shoulder was more comfortable than Farrendel’s, which was all bones and angles. Yet, Essie would’ve rather been curled up against Farrendel.
She squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears burning beneath her eyelids. “I just miss him so much.”
“I know. We’ll rescue him.” Edmund wrapped both arms around Essie.
Would they? How long would it take? What would the trolls do to Farrendel in the meantime?
More tears burned behind her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She could not break in front of everyone. She needed to be strong.
“It’s all right to cry.” Edmund held her closer.
She sniffled and allowed a few hot, silent tears to trickle down her cheeks.
When they arrived in Estyra, all of them had gotten some sleep during the night, though Essie doubted any of them had slept much. Weylind’s shoulders sagged, lines cutting into his face, as if he carried the weight of both kingdoms on his shoulders. He looked like he could use a hug, but even Essie wasn’t daring enough to try it.
As they disembarked, Julien and Edmund gazed about, wide-eyed, much as Essie had done when first arriving in Estyra. Elves strolled the meandering paths between the massive trees. The shops were tucked beneath gauzy green awnings while more shops were higher in the trees with bridges connecting them. Broad leaves shaded the forest floor, yet grass still grew lush and thick on the paths.
“This is beautiful.” Julien turned around even as he kept walking. “But I can see why the logistics of bringing the Escarlish army through Tarenhiel might be tricky if this is their biggest city.”
Edmund nodded, his gaze sweeping back and forth, taking in everything.
As they strolled through Estyra behind King Weylind, some of the elves stopped and gestured in greeting to him. A few called greetings to Essie, and she waved, though her smile felt brittle as a leaf in autumn.
But most of the elves stared at Julien and Edmund, then either shrugged or scowled. If having three humans in Estyra bothered them, they were going to panic when the rest of the Escarlish military leaders descended with Averett to plan the invasion of Kostaria.
At one of the side paths, a tall, blonde-haired female elf hurried onto the main trail. She halted in front of Essie, her deep blue eyes filled with pain.
“Illyna.” Essie wasn’t sure she could face Farrendel’s friends. Had they heard he had been captured by the trolls again? All because of human traitors who had handed him over for money.
“I heard. I am so sorry, Essie.” Illyna stepped forward and hugged Essie. A full, human-style hug. Not just the elf version of a hug of gripping each other’s shoulders. “If you need anything...”
“I’ll let you know. Thanks.” Essie gave Illyna one last
squeeze before she stepped back.
Illyna gripped one of Essie’s shoulders. Her other arm, which ended in a stump just below her elbow, dropped to her side. “Farrendel is strong, and he has you to live for. He will fight to survive this.”
Essie swallowed and nodded. The ache of too many emotions filled her chest, too much of a jumble for her to concentrate enough to feel the heart bond. All she could do was nod.
Illyna released her and took another step back.
After Essie introduced Illyna to Julien and Edmund, Illyna headed back to her shop while Essie hurried to catch up with Weylind, who had paused to wait for them.
Before them, the forest opened up to the small cleared space that surrounded Ellonahshinel, the massive tree that formed the elven palace.
Both Edmund and Julien halted in their tracks as they took in the sight of the majestic tree towering before them. Rooms were built into the tree trunks while gold gilding lined the massive branches.
“This is Ellonahshinel. The Heart of the Forest.” Essie better understood the warmth that had filled Farrendel’s voice when he’d first brought her home to Estyra and she had seen the elven palace for the first time.
Ellonahshinel wasn’t merely a place the way Winstead Palace was. It was a living tree, precious and cherished by all elves, and something that could be killed and lost if Tarenhiel was invaded.
They climbed the winding staircase grown into the roots and trunk of Ellonahshinel until they reached the entry hall. Doors branched from this room in all directions.
Unlike last time, there wasn’t a line of Farrendel’s family waiting to greet them. Not even Queen Rheva, Ryfon, or Brina were there.
Essie couldn’t help but be grateful. She didn’t want to keep up her brittle smile through stilted greetings. Right now, all she wanted to do was retreat to her rooms. She had slept some on the train, but not enough.
With a nod to Weylind, she led Julien and Edmund onto one of the broad branches that formed meandering paths between the treehouse-like rooms of the palace. Her brothers followed, silently gaping at everything around them.
