Night Elves of Ardani: Book Two: Sacrifice

by Nina K. Westra

  Novikke frowned. He glanced up at her, caught her expression, and the discomfort on his face increased.

  “It’s what anyone would have done in your position. I would have, if I were you,” he said. “And I knew that. I knew you were in no position to choose freely, and I still… I shouldn’t have…” He shook his head, pained.

  “That’s not what happened,” she said, grabbing him before he could shrink away any farther. “That didn’t even cross my mind. I never felt pressured. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t.”

  His expression didn’t change. He let her pull him by the arms, bringing him closer again.

  “I just wanted you. Maybe I really am crazy, because gods I wanted you so much, even when you were trying to get me killed. I tried not to, but I did anyway. That’s why it happened. I don’t know if that—if anything we’ve done—was the right thing, but please don’t think that you hurt me that night.” She paused, then added tartly, “It was the things afterward that hurt.”

  Aruna stared at her, mute. She couldn’t tell what he thought of all that. Maybe she’d said too much.

  The silence that followed became heavy. Novikke, suddenly feeling uncomfortably vulnerable, looked toward their pile of discarded clothes. She sat down and pulled their cloaks over herself.

  She looked up at Aruna, still standing above her. She took advantage of the opportunity to look at him in his entirety. She didn’t think she’d ever had such a good view. She felt her cheeks heating and looked down, fluttering her hands unnecessarily over the cloaks. Aruna only moved to join her after she shivered.

  He settled under the cloaks, his bare legs resting against hers. “I never stopped wanting you,” he clarified.

  “Since when?”

  “Since we met.”

  She couldn’t suppress her smile at that.

  He put an arm around her shoulders, his movements unsure again now that the heat of lust had gone.

  “Zaiur was alive,” he said.

  The mention of his name soured her mood. “Yes. You must be relieved. You didn’t kill him after all.”

  “I don’t know if ‘relieved’ is the word I would use,” he said. “So he’s really dead now?”

  “Very.”

  Unlike last time, she saw no regret in his face.

  “What happened?”

  “We fought. He pinned me to a tree. With a knife.” She held up her left hand, showing off the healed-over line in her palm. She found herself clenching her teeth, and she forced herself to relax her muscles. “He was quite angry. At you and me both, I think. But Neiryn was there.”

  “He rescued you?” He looked almost unhappy about that.

  “He did.” She tilted her head at him and smiled a little. “You are jealous of him, aren’t you?”

  “No.” He looked away, evasive, then gave in. “You speak with each other very easily,” he admitted. “It’s not just that you speak the same language, either. You talk like you’re old friends, sometimes.”

  She shook her head. “He tries my patience constantly. And on purpose, too. It’s ridiculous. I can barely stand him. I don’t know how Kadaki can take it.”

  He looked down, picking at a corner of her cloak. “I was… a little jealous. When it was just us three. Before I had the translator.”

  She smiled. “You’ll excuse me for gloating. I don’t think anyone’s ever been jealous over me before. That’s a first.”

  “Is it? Do Ardanians not like beautiful women?”

  “They love beautiful women. They like average-looking women, too. But they don’t especially like average-looking women in army uniforms who are constantly muddy and in need of a hair combing.”

  “They have bad taste.”

  “Hmm.”

  “So, you also think there’s something going on between Neiryn and the mage? I was beginning to think I was the only one who had noticed.”

  “So was I! What’s that about?”

  “You don’t think they’re…like us?”

  “No. Well, maybe. But, no. They don’t really seem the types, do they? Neither of them. Can you imagine Kadaki being involved with anyone? She seems like the kind of person who’d consider that a waste of time when she could be studying or working instead. And Neiryn—Do you remember when we were at the river? I took all my clothes off right next to him and he didn’t look over at all, not even a peek. Like it didn’t even occur to him.”

  Aruna gave her a look. “You think the only possible explanation for him not looking at you is that he’s not interested in anyone, ever? Maybe he doesn’t like humans. Or women.”

  “But he likes Kadaki?”

  He shrugged. She let herself lean into his chest and was pleased when he looked over and wrapped his arm tighter around her in response. Her every movement seemed to draw his interest, like he was continually surprised and happy to find her still there touching him.

  It felt gloriously, weirdly mundane sitting there with him, talking about inconsequential things.

  Her lips worked around another question. She wasn’t certain she wanted to linger on an unpleasant topic, but her curiosity won out. “Zaiur said something about a brother who died.”

  Aruna nodded. “He was captured by Ardanian soldiers about a year ago, near that road where we found you. Zaiur was there. He couldn’t save him. He has—had, a lot of guilt over it.”

  “Only captured? That doesn’t mean he’s dead.” Zaiur had definitely said “murdered.”

  “Doesn’t it?” Aruna said dryly. “What else would they do with him?”

  “The same thing they wanted to do with you. They must have been looking for information for a while now, don’t you think? People who know the forest well? People who know about how Varai warriors fight, about their patrol routes, how to get to the Auren-Li ruins...”

  “It’s been a long time. They’d have killed him by now, after they got whatever it was they wanted out of him.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. There was little hope that he’d survived. She privately thought that if Zaiur’s brother was anything like him, then maybe that wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.

  “You seemed to know Zaiur well,” she said, feeling conflicted about that fact.

  “We were put on patrols together off and on for the past few years.”

  “So you were friends?”

  He looked uncomfortable. “Not good friends, but we knew each other well, I guess. But we never encountered any humans together before you.” He looked down at her, his expression some mix of apologetic and defensive. “He… wasn’t always like that—the way he was with you.”

  “As far as you know.”

  He tilted his head a little, considering. “I suppose.”

  She felt a small, nagging annoyance for some reason—and realized with amusement that it was because she was jealous. “You and I hardly know each other at all,” she said, and she was not sure if she was only expressing regret or if she was realizing the absurdity of her attachment to him.

  “I know enough,” Aruna said.

  “I’m not sure you do.”

  He cocked his head to look at her. “I know you’re brave. A fighter. I know you have more kindness and generosity to give than most people are entitled to. I know you probably saved my life, or my arm at the very least, after I cut myself on that bridge, even before we’d ever spoken.” He hesitated, then added, “I know that you make me laugh, and that I feel happier when I look at you.”

  Novikke raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn’t know what to say.

  He looked away self-consciously. Then looked up again, smirking. “I know you dragged an ungrateful sun elf through the forest for days instead of leaving him to die like he probably deserved.”

  “He didn’t deserve that.”

  Aruna gave a reluctant shrug, his smile fading. “Probably not. But those sun elves who have been creeping around the forest, burning things down—they think they’re just sabotaging our infrastructure, but
they’re putting our entire civilization at risk when they make fires here. One careless flame could destroy us.”

  “The forest won’t catch fire, though.”

  “It won’t catch easily,” he corrected her. Novikke wanted to ask for further explanation, but remembered what he’d said to Kadaki when she’d asked for details about Kuda Varai.

  “You could still survive without the forest,” she said, in a way that she had meant to be supportive, but quickly realized was the opposite.

  Aruna looked up at her in surprise. “You don’t understand. We don’t have the numbers that Ardani or Ysura have. Without the forest to protect us, we could not defend ourselves. And… I’m not sure we could live without it, anyway. Kuda Varai is part of us. We’re a part of it. Maybe if it died, we would just wither away and vanish along with it.”

  “But the forest would recover if it burned,” Novikke protested. “Forests burn and regrow all the time.”

  His brow pinched. “Some of the forest’s magic would probably remain. It could recover, in time, but not before someone took advantage of our vulnerability.”

  “Then why haven’t the Ysurans tried to burn it already?”

  He gave her a long look. “Why haven’t the Ardanians?” he asked. “If it isn’t the same reason the Ysurans don’t, then I don’t know what it is.”

  “Because it makes it harder for them to get to us, of course. They can’t traverse it much easier than we can. Kuda Varai is a barrier between us and them. If anything, I’d think they’d want to trample the forest into dust just to be able to get to us easier.”

  He shook his head. “They would not do that. Not intentionally.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because Kuda Varai is an axis.”

  “A what?”

  “An axis. Of magic?”

  She looked at him blankly. “Oh. Kadaki said something about that.” Now she vaguely recalled coming across the word long ago in a science encyclopedia, which she was supposed to have read in its entirety but had instead skimmed and only pretended to understand in favor playing in the woods outside her childhood home.

  “Uh…can you remind me…?” She was glad Neiryn wasn’t there to make fun of her lack of education.

  “Oh. Well,” he began, looking like he was trying to decide how basic his explanation could get without insulting her. “You know that magic energy exists naturally all over the world. In lines and pools across the landscape. It’s what mages draw from when they cast spells and make enchantments.”

  “Yes…”

  “And sometimes there are large concentrations of it, like at Auren-Li ruins. But there are even larger concentrations of it in places like Kuda Varai. Places like that are called axes. They’re like hearts that facilitate the flow of magic across the continent.”

  “Like Mount Uriethwyn in Ysura,” she said, finally understanding.

  He nodded. “They keep the ecosystem of magic flowing and in balance. Disrupting one, even temporarily, could have dire consequences across Kuda Varai, Ardani, and Ysura. Maybe even beyond.”

  Novikke was silent, considering this.

  Aruna looked concerned. “Do you not know this? I know that humans are not innately connected to magic the way elves are, but surely you know not to try to destroy an axis?”

  “People smarter than me probably do. Kadaki knows.”

  “And yet she’s still here, trying to sabotage it.”

  “I don’t think they’re trying to sabotage it. They know better than that. They just want to control it.”

  “It’s the same thing,” he said. “They’re meddling with things they don’t understand.”

  “Well, they’ve been stopped, thanks to the other Varai back there. Kuda Varai is safe for now.”

  “I didn’t see your captain among the dead.”

  He was right. Thala had said she’d seen Theros fleeing. And Kadaki had said he had a device to draw magic out of the ruins.

  Theros was nothing if not determined. He could return and try to finish their mission. As long as he had Kadaki and their device, he still had a chance of accomplishing it.

  “Then maybe we should get Kadaki out of here quickly,” Novikke said. “Before he has a chance to find us again.”

  Aruna nodded. Then he gave her a sidelong glance. “Not too quickly, maybe?”

  She gave him a sly look, suddenly very aware again of the heat of his skin on hers. She dropped a hand lightly to his thigh. This was ground they’d already covered several times then, but there was still a novelty to being naked with him that sent a thrill through her. “No,” she said. “We still have some time.”

  “Good.” He looked at her for a long moment, until she felt herself flushing red under his gaze. Then he leaned over and pressed his lips lightly to her throat.

  “I guess this answers my question,” Novikke said, smirking.

  “What?”

  “I was wondering if there was something special about me in particular, or if you just got hard every time you had to restrain a prisoner.”

  His face crumpled. He put a hand over his eyes. “Please, Novikke. I thought we were going to pretend we’d forgotten that happened.”

  “Oh, I haven’t forgotten,” she said, and let a hand drift down his inner thigh and brush against his half-hard cock. He breathed deeper, his arm tightening around her shoulders.

  They should have slept. There had to be only a few hours of night left. And Novikke had almost forgotten the people she’d left back at the fire, which she should be returning to.

  There were a lot of things she should have done—but what she wanted to do was make the most of the time they had right then.

  She leaned over to kiss him again.

  Chapter 11

  Someone cleared their throat.

  Novikke opened her eyes and squinted in the bright morning light that filtered through a damp, cool fog. Birds chirped nearby. She was naked and cold under the cloaks she’d used as blankets. But there was warmth next to her.

  Aruna lay tucked beneath the cloak with her. He tried to open his eyes, then quickly squeezed them shut again. He would take longer to adjust to daylight, if he ever fully did at all. Novikke blinked at him, taking in his wild dark hair and slow, sleepy movements. He opened his eyes to slits and peered up at her. She smiled.

  The throat clearing came again, louder. They both looked up. Neiryn was standing a few feet away, arms crossed.

  “Looks like you found him,” he said, giving her a sarcastic smile.

  Novikke didn’t dignify the comment with a response.

  “The Ardanians are waking up. You should probably make yourselves presentable and come back. They’re all about to have a conniption about their Varai being gone.”

  Aruna rolled his eyes and laid his head back down.

  “I think that Aleka fellow cried himself to sleep,” he added.

  “And you weren’t worried at all, I’m sure,” Novikke said. “You could easily make it out of here on your own.”

  He shrugged. “I thought this might be what you were doing. So, no, I wasn’t particularly worried.” He turned to leave, tossing his hair over his shoulder. “Hurry up. I’m tired of being stuck in this cursed forest. The sooner we start moving, the sooner we’ll be free of it. And free of each other.”

  Novikke sat up, giving Aruna a regretful look as she did so. He seemed to share the sentiment. The moment alone had been too short.

  They regrouped with the others back at their campsite, and the Ardanians were, indeed, greatly relieved to see Aruna return—which they expressed mostly by giving him dirty looks or berating him for leaving in the first place. Aruna ignored them, disinterested, as had become his custom.

  After some careful scouting, they ventured back to the battlefield from the night before. Novikke was reluctant to get too close. All of them were, judging by the way everyone slowed as they approached. It was still littered with bodies. They all waited nearby while Thala and Vissarion picked throug
h the detritus for uncontaminated, unburnt food and water.

  “We should bury the bodies,” Thala said quietly as they ate the scraps of food they’d recovered. “It’s not right to just leave them there.” She glanced up at Aruna. “The elves, too,” she added.

  He stopped chewing and stared at her. “Ardanians bury their dead?” he said. “In the dirt?”

  “Of course,” Thala said.

  His eyebrows pinched together. “I can’t speak for the humans, but the elves—” he inclined his head toward the corpses that were now out of sight behind them, “—would prefer to be left untouched, if that’s the alternative.”