Night Elves of Ardani: Book Two: Sacrifice

by Nina K. Westra

  “Where is the night elf?” she said.

  He looked like he’d been expecting her to ask. “He’s secured, don’t worry.”

  “I want to speak to him.”

  “I’m afraid the captain has forbidden anyone from seeing him. For his protection and everyone else’s.”

  “Then maybe you could accompany me?” she said, though the suggestion pained her.

  “It’s against the captain’s orders. Sorry.”

  With nothing else to do, Novikke sat at the center of camp for much of the day, silently observing. She watched the faces that came and went, took note of names and ranks, listened to conversations. Half the people there were packing things, preparing to move camp.

  She figured out which tents belonged to Theros and Vissarion, and wondered if the keys to the elves’ shackles and collars would be in either of them—or worse, on Theros or Vissarion themselves. She was no pickpocket.

  She wondered what the punishment was for stealing from a superior officer, or trying to free a prisoner, for that matter. It was something she’d never had to consider before.

  Vissarion was always wandering somewhere not far off, watching her, like he was trying to catch her in some incriminating act. But if that was the case, she didn’t know why he hadn’t just let her sneak into Aruna’s tent instead of stopping her before she could get there. She tried to ignore him.

  In the afternoon he finally left—to sleep, she assumed, since he wasn’t doing it during the night. She took the opportunity to go to the tent where she’d last seen Aruna. Another soldier stood guard in front of it. He turned her away before she could even ask to go inside.

  She was, at least, allowed into the medical tent where Neiryn was being kept. When she entered, Kadaki was already there, standing over him. Her head jerked up as Novikke entered, her eyes wide.

  Novikke paused in the doorway. “Am I interrupting?”

  Neiryn tilted his head backward to look up at her. He was still on the cot where she’d last seen him. He was still pale, but the sheen of sweat was gone from his skin and his eyes were clear and lucid.

  “No,” Kadaki said. She turned away, fiddling with something at a table full of alchemical and medical supplies.

  Novikke stood next to Neiryn. He looked up at her coolly. She couldn’t tell if he was unhappy to see her or not.

  “You look better,” she said. “I’m glad.”

  He watched her for a moment before answering, like he was still deciding whether he was willing to talk to her. “Thanks to Kadaki’s skill,” he said after a while. “She’s as good as any Ysuran healer I’ve seen. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised.”

  Novikke glanced up to see Kadaki’s response to that, but the woman was turned away with her head down, still doing something at her table.

  “Better quarters here than the Varai offered, I’ll give them that,” Neiryn muttered. “Not much better, but still.”

  Novikke knelt beside him and lowered her voice, conscious of the mage behind her. “I’m sorry about this.”

  “Is your night elf still alive?” he said, ignoring the apology. His casual tone of voice was at odds with the concern she saw in his face.

  “Yes, but I…they won’t let me see him,” she whispered. She scowled, frustration brimming over. “They won’t let me do anything. They didn’t shackle me like they did with you and him, but they might as well have.”

  “How truly awful for you,” he said, stretching languidly. “You have my sympathy.”

  Her eyes went to the iron collar around his neck. It was awful to look at, even worse than the handcuffs. Collars should be reserved for dogs and cattle, not people. Maybe they’d been designed that way intentionally, to add insult to injury. They could have easily made a bracelet or something with the same effect, couldn’t they?

  “Is it uncomfortable, wearing one of those?” she asked quietly.

  “It’s torture,” Kadaki said matter-of-factly. She had turned halfway around but still wasn’t looking at them. “To people with a natural connection to magic, like elves, or mages like myself, being forcibly disconnected from it is like being shut away from sunlight or having a limb cut off. It’s unnatural.”

  Novikke looked down at Neiryn, raising her eyebrows. He looked at the ceiling, his expression dull.

  Kadaki finally turned toward them, shrugging on her cloak. “Will you be all right here for moment? I’ll be right back.”

  Novikke nodded, and she left, the tent flap falling closed behind her. Novikke quickly turned to Neiryn. It might be her only chance to speak with him alone.

  “She’s guarding you?” she asked.

  “I believe she’s the only mage here. They seem to think that makes her the most qualified to watch me. The rest of them are afraid of me. Ardanians are very uncomfortable with magic, aren’t they?”

  “Does she have the key to your collar?”

  He gave her a look, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Novikke gave him a meaningful look in turn. He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure. She might.”

  Novikke bit her lip. “Is it possible for your fire to burn through metal?”

  “I can’t burn through my collar, Novikke. That’s the point of it.”

  “Presume the collar wasn’t a factor.” She glanced toward his cuffs.

  He hesitated, eyes wide as he considered it. “I’ve never done it, but it’s not unheard of,” he said carefully. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “If you’re trying to get us out, getting the keys off someone would be much more efficient.”

  She glanced at the door. “I’m trying,” she whispered, her face pinched with annoyance. She was trying, but it wasn’t going well. “But I have no power here. I can’t just ask for something and then get it. I’m nothing among these people. I’m an annoyance, that’s it. And there are people everywhere, watching everything, always.”

  “But you are not chained down,” he said, and he gave a small, encouraging smile for the first time since she’d come in. “That’s a start.”

  ◆◆◆

  She put off getting up and returning to her tent until it was dark and the last stragglers around the fire were heading to their cots. And even then, she only went reluctantly. Because turning in for the night meant that an entire day had officially passed and she was no closer to freeing Aruna and Neiryn.

  Vissarion was back, leaning against a tree not far from her tent. He smiled at her as she passed. She paused in front of him, which seemed to surprise him.

  “You should be careful,” she said. “There are things lurking out here in the dark. I’ve seen them. They’re worse than you imagine.”

  He shifted his feet, his smile fading. Everyone there feared the nights in Kuda Varai, even if they didn’t say so aloud. The nights there were just a little too dark, a little too strange, and heavy with some unidentifiable presence that couldn’t be named but always seemed to be watching.

  She glared at him, then threw open the flap to her tent and went inside.

  “Novikke!” Thala said, greeting her with a broad wave. “You’re back! Perfect. You can play kings and aces with us.” She held a cup of what looked like wine, which explained her enthusiasm and slightly pink face. Kadaki sat across from her, holding her own cup. There was a deck of playing cards spread out on the cot beside them.

  Novikke hung her cloak to dry and pulled off her jacket. It was warm enough that she was overheating with the extra clothing on. “They have alcohol here?” she asked.

  Thala gave a mischievous grin. “We do. When Kadaki magics some up for the two of us. Three of us.”

  “You know how to do that?” Novikke said, impressed.

  Kadaki was also fairly red-faced. She wore a sloppy smile. When Novikke looked in her direction, she looked away with what might have been embarrassment.

  “It’s not strictly allowed,” Thala said quietly. “You won’t mention it to the captain, will you?”

  Novikke snorted. “Do I look like a snitch?�
��

  “That’s the spirit. Here, we’ve got another cup.”

  Novikke stared at the proffered cup. She’d been so distraught the previous night that she’d hardly slept. The prospect of forgetting everything that was going on for a while, or at the very least dampening her misery, was very attractive.

  She took the cup, sat down beside Kadaki, then downed the entire thing at once.

  Thala raised her eyebrows. Novikke handed her back the cup, and Thala refilled it from a bucket of red-violet liquid.

  “If you think about it,” Thala said, “we’ve just upped our numbers by half overnight. The proportion of women at camp has hugely increased. For a long time, it was just me and Kadaki.”

  “Do you not get along with the men here?”

  She shrugged. “We get along fine. But we’re never really…a part of their groups. You know how it is. They all get together in their tents every night, we get together in ours. It’s different. They don’t look at us like we’re the same as the others. They respect us, mostly, but they don’t try to be our friends.”

  Novikke took another long sip. “You two have been working together a long time?”

  “On and off for about five years now.”

  She felt a twinge of jealousy. She could hardly think of anyone she’d known for five years. People came and went, never getting too close or staying too long. She’d never had as close a friendship as Thala and Kadaki seemed to have.

  “What happened to your arm?” Kadaki asked suddenly.

  Novikke had pushed her sleeves up in the heat of the tent. She almost reached up to lower them again, then didn’t.

  “I fell in a fire.”

  “That’s the official story,” Thala said.

  “Yes, it is. Stop asking.”

  “Was it Neiryn?” Kadaki asked. The mage’s eyebrows were drawn together in concern.

  “Kadaki,” Novikke said. She waited until the woman looked up and met her eyes, which seemed to be an effort for her. “It wasn’t him. It wasn’t either of them.”

  Kadaki studied her carefully, searching for a lie. Then she nodded, looking down into her cup again. “I didn’t think it was. But I wanted to make sure.”

  There was a heavy silence.

  “Um. How long have you been in Kuda Varai?” Novikke asked, eager to change the subject.

  “The past month or so,” Thala said. “We trekked here from Valtos. Had to kill some strange creatures on our way in. Demonic-looking animals with black fur. But that’s the only danger we’ve encountered so far.”

  Novikke recalled the strangely beautiful black deer, and even the wolf-thing that Aruna had let run away, and felt regretful, but didn’t say so. “So you know everyone here?”

  “Yeah, pretty much.”

  She lowered her voice, just in case. “Do you know Vissarion?”

  “Sure. What about him?”

  “He’s following me around. He gives me the creeps.”

  Thala took a breath, then blew out her cheeks as she exhaled. “Because Theros thinks you’ve been compromised. He’s having him watch you.”

  “Compromised?”

  “Brainwashed or blackmailed or something. He thinks you could be working with the elves.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  Thala exchanged a look with Kadaki, but said nothing.

  “Do you really believe that?” Novikke said.

  Thala shrugged.

  “Come on. I’m not working with any elves. Just… just these two elves, in particular.”

  Thala pursed her lips. Novikke looked at her, and then at Kadaki, searching for someone who would take her side.

  “I told you. They helped me. We were all trying to get out of the forest together. That’s it.”

  “I believe you,” Kadaki said.

  Novikke looked over at her, surprised. “Thank you.”

  “I do, too,” Thala said. “But no one else is going to.”

  Novikke couldn’t argue with that. She took another drink, draining her cup again.

  “Enough serious talk for today, all right?” Thala said, sensing the low mood. She smiled. “Let’s play kings and aces. Youngest draws first, Kadaki.”

  Chapter 4

  Another two days passed by in exactly the same way as the first. Novikke hadn’t seen Aruna in all that time. She could only imagine what they were doing to him.

  She grew desperate. She kept glancing in the direction of Theros’s tent. She was tempted to risk sneaking into it and searching for the keys to unlock Aruna and Neiryn.

  The only thing that kept her from trying it was the knowledge that if she failed—which was likely—she wouldn’t get a second chance. If they caught her, she’d be arrested, and then there’d be no hope of Aruna escaping. She was the only one who could help him. She couldn’t act rashly. She had to wait for a better opportunity.

  Except that no better opportunity seemed to be coming.

  At midday, when Kadaki and Thala were both out, Novikke returned to their tent, ignoring Vissarion’s eyes on her back. There was nothing suspicious about going into her own tent. She kept telling herself that.

  She rifled through the things at Kadaki’s corner of the tent, searching under her cot and in the pockets of her pack and even in her canteen. She was surprised at how like a lowly criminal it made her feel to dig through someone else’s belongings, even if it was the right thing to do.

  It was not her proudest moment. It didn’t help that she was beginning to genuinely like Kadaki and Thala.

  She slid her hand between folded clothes, and her fingers touched something small and metal. She froze.

  She carefully lifted the fabric to look beneath it, and there was a key, just like the one Aruna had handed her back at the Varai outpost. Just one. It must have been Neiryn’s. Which was unfortunate, because Aruna was likely wearing a collar too, and his shadow spell would have been very useful for helping them escape.

  “Can I assist you with something?” came a sharp voice.

  Novikke jumped. She turned to find Kadaki standing at the entrance of the tent.

  There was a long silence. Novikke withdrew her hand from the pile of clothes, leaving the key where it was.

  “I…” she began, then didn’t know how to finish. “I was…”

  The silence stretched. Kadaki raised her eyebrows. Novikke straightened, and Kadaki’s fingers twitched at her side. A twinge of fear bit at Novikke’s core.

  Mages weren’t common in Ardani. Few humans were born with the ability to control magic, and those who were were feared and respected for good reason. Novikke had met very few of them before, and she’d never gotten on one’s bad side before. She preferred to keep it that way.

  “I’m…sorry,” she said, because she figured it couldn’t hurt.

  Kadaki glared.

  “I’m just worried for them,” Novikke said.

  “You’re so worried about them that you’ll betray the rest of us to help them?” She’d kept her voice low enough to keep anyone outside from hearing, to Novikke’s relief. “Did you plan to get Neiryn to burn through all of us to get to that night elf?”

  “No! No. Of course not. I just—” She didn’t know what she’d thought. She might have been able to distract the soldiers guarding Neiryn and Aruna long enough to release them, but they’d never get out of the camp unnoticed. There were too many people around. Even in the middle of the night there were guard patrols.

  And if stealth was not an option, that only left violence.

  Some of the Ardanians at the camp were people she knew. People she’d talked to, laughed with, eaten and camped with. No single one of them was solely responsible for keeping Aruna and Neiryn there. They were not innocent, but they were no more guilty than she was. It was war. It was impersonal.

  The more she thought about it, the more she was forced to acknowledge that if she did get Neiryn’s collar off, people would inevitably get hurt.

  “No,” she said again, because Kadaki w
as still looking at her judgementally. “I wouldn’t do that.” She stepped closer to Kadaki, lowering her voice. “But that’s why you should help me free them. Quietly. No one has to be hurt. No harm done.”

  Kadaki’s glare deepened into something tired and disbelieving.

  “You’ve been talking to Neiryn, haven’t you?” Novikke said.

  She frowned, looking caught off-guard, but said nothing.