War Bound

by Tara Grayce

  In Tarenhiel, this was not something done in comfortable clothes in an informal setting. But he would have to make allowances for their different customs here. He located the last package and set it on top. “An elven custom I must perform.”

  As he stood, the packages cradled against him, she nudged his arm. “You’re being rather mysterious. Usually your brother is the one who likes to be cryptic.”

  In Tarenhiel, the prospective bride was not supposed to help. Yet these were unusual circumstances, both because Essie was human and because she and Farrendel were already married. She deserved to be courted properly. Marrying with such haste was not customary for his people, and he needed to prove to her family and, perhaps, to himself that for all the haste of their marriage, he did not take it lightly.

  But Essie and her family would not know the significance of this tradition. Perhaps it would be better to enlist her help to make sure he adjusted for human traditions and did not accidentally offend them while he was trying to honor them.

  Farrendel set the packages on the bed, then sat cross-legged beside them. How did he go about explaining this? “It is customary that when an elf asks his intended’s family for their blessing for the match, he presents a gift to each of the family members.”

  Essie sat on the bed across from him and touched his arm. “You never mentioned this to me. I would’ve helped.”

  “I know.” But that was the part of the tradition that made it difficult, especially for him. “But I cannot have your help. The tradition is to show how well he knows her family, proving to her and her family that he seeks to honor them.”

  “So let me get this straight. You had to pick out gifts for my family without my help whatsoever.” Her voice held a trace of laughter.

  Farrendel stared down at the canvas-wrapped gifts. “Yes.”

  “I take it this would normally happen after a couple has been courting a while and he has presumably gotten to know her family in person very well. Making it rather tough for you, considering you only met most of my family briefly.”

  “You talk. A lot.” He had also read everything Weylind’s sources had collected on the royal family of Escarland several times. Once before that meeting to discuss a peace treaty and several times since finding himself married to Essie. As it was difficult for elven spies to infiltrate Escarland, the dossiers had not told him much beyond what Essie had revealed, except for a few suspicions about her brother Edmund’s role in Escarland’s intelligence office.

  When he lifted his gaze to Essie, her eyes were sparkling, and her mouth tilted in a grin. “How you manage to pay attention to even half the stuff I say is beyond me. I usually forget most of what I’ve said within minutes of saying it. Now I’m very curious to see what you picked out for each of them based on my ramblings alone.”

  He had gone the simple route and had not personalized the items as much as would have traditionally been the case. Nor did he plan on giving speeches behind the meaning of the gifts, a part of the tradition he was more than happy to eliminate. Courtship rituals involved an excessive amount of talking and interacting with other people.

  “I do not know how your family will react.” He could not hold her gaze. “It breaks tradition, but I believe I need your help. I do not want to offend them.”

  “You won’t. Not unless you picked out something super scandalous for some reason.”

  Unless an elf-made knife was considered scandalous here in Escarland, he did not think so. He shook his head.

  “In that case, it would still probably be awkward if you just handed out gifts by yourself since this isn’t a human custom. And tonight is probably already going to be awkward enough. So let’s not add to it.” Essie reached out and squeezed his hand. “But, it is customary for humans to give each other gifts after traveling or living somewhere new. I actually have gifts for my family as well. I wasn’t sure if I should hand them out tonight and distract them from meeting you, but if you have gifts as well, we’ll hand them out together.”

  Farrendel felt some of the tension release from his shoulders. He had been dreading going through with this tradition. Essie knew his intention, and that was all that mattered in the end.

  “If we hand out gifts together, it’ll be clear to my family that we are doing things together. The presence of two gifts, obviously one from each of us, will show them I didn’t pick out the gifts solely by myself.” Essie rested a hand on his cheek, lifting his gaze to hers. “I know it isn’t exactly your elven tradition, but the result will be the same. You’ll show my family you care, but in a way they’ll understand by our traditions.”

  Now he was especially glad he had checked with Essie first. Observing her interacting with his culture did not teach him all there was to know about her culture. Nor was his study of the little that elves knew about humans turning out to be sufficient. Fighting a civilization was entirely different than marrying into it, and he had not even had the experience of fighting humans to draw from.

  Essie spent a few minutes digging out her gifts for her family and tucking them underneath the strings holding his packages together so that they formed one gift with two wrapped parcels. As both were wrapped in the standard woven canvas used by all shops in Estyra, the gifts coordinated enough to look like one gift when Essie finished.

  “Here. You can carry the gifts for my brothers, and I’ll take Mother’s and Paige’s gifts. The ones for the nephews, too. They’re young, so they might find being handed gifts by you a little intimidating. Sorry.” Essie gathered her portion of the parcels and headed for the door.

  He grabbed the remaining packages and hurried after her. She led the way down the hall to another oak door nearly identical to the one for her room. She swung it open without knocking and strode inside without missing a step.

  Did he need another reminder of how much this place was not home? And that he might not belong here with her? The pounding behind his eyes throbbed more painfully. It was dull enough he could ignore it for now, but it would only grow worse the longer he stayed in this palace.

  Bracing his shoulders, he stepped inside the room. All the chairs were already filled. Her brothers each had one of the padded chairs while her mother and Queen Paige had the settee.

  Two small human offspring were tearing about the room. At the sight of Essie, they squealed and raced toward her, the taller of the two in the lead while the smaller one toddled with his fist jammed in his mouth.

  Essie knelt in time to catch the older one in a hug. “Bertie. Finn.”

  “We missed you.” The older one leaned back, his eyes widening as he focused on Farrendel standing behind Essie.

  Farrendel shifted as the conversations in the room trailed off and all eyes swiveled toward him, the outsider in their midst.

  “This is your Uncle Farrendel. You know how your mom and dad are married? Farrendel and I are married.” Essie reached behind her and patted Farrendel’s arm, her bright smile never wavering. “Farrendel, this is my three-year-old nephew Bertie, short for Albert, and one-year-old nephew Phineas, though we call him Finn for short.”

  The human custom of nicknames was still a mindboggling one for him. Why did the humans have this need to shorten perfectly acceptable names?

  And yet, the nickname Essie fit her better than her full name of Elspeth. Bertie and Finn seemed more appropriate for the young ones. Perhaps humans used nicknames to fit personalities in a way their full names did not.

  As Essie’s nephews were still young, their human years were not that different from what their ages would have been if they were elves. While the human aging process was apparently constant, elves aged rapidly at the beginning and end of their lifespans while the middle years experienced very little aging.

  Due to the heart bond with Essie, Farrendel was no longer sure what his life span would look like. He would probably start to notice aging at a more rapid rate, as the heart bond lengthened her lifespan and shortened his. Not something he was too concerned about. Until
he met Essie, he had believed—and hoped—he would die young in battle. He had not had any reason to want to live a long life before her.

  Bertie peered at Farrendel before he pointed. “Why does he have long hair? And funny ears?”

  “He’s an elf.” Essie glanced at Farrendel, her eyes seeming to be asking something of him. What, he could not begin to guess.

  The younger of the two scurried to King Averett, scrambled onto his lap, and buried his face against his shoulder.

  Bertie turned to Essie. “He looks mean.”

  Farrendel winced. He had forgotten to smile. Essie had told him not to appear too scary with her family.

  Essie tickled Bertie’s stomach until the boy squirmed away from her. “He’s just nervous about meeting all of you. You’re scaring him.”

  Bertie crinkled his nose, still peeking at Farrendel warily.

  Farrendel understood and did not fault the child. He himself was wary of all the people who were near strangers to him in this room. The weight of all the eyes focused on him made his headache throb harder. He probably should say something, but the words stuck in his throat. Why was it so difficult to talk in front of people?

  Essie patted Bertie’s back. “Why don’t you go to your mama for a moment, all right? We have presents for everybody.”

  “Presents!” Bertie’s face lit up, and he zipped across the room to Queen Paige.

  She pulled him onto her lap. “You didn’t have to get us anything. You’ve already been sending us the elven shampoo and conditioner.”

  “That isn’t the same as giving you things in person.” Essie rested a hand on Farrendel’s arm, giving him a smile before she faced the room again. “We wanted to share a little bit of Tarenhiel with you.”

  How did Essie always say the right thing? He could not even manage a proper greeting to those in the room right now, and yet she was smiling as if in total ease, her words making it clear this was something from both of them.

  He kept his gaze focused on her, since it was easier than looking at the others. When she glanced at him, smiling, he could not help but attempt a smile in return.

  While Essie handed out the gifts to her mother and Queen Paige, Farrendel distributed the gifts to King Averett, Prince Julien, and Prince Edmund as quickly as possible, looking at the floor rather than at them.

  Essie sank onto a seat on the floor next to the end of the settee where Queen Paige sat. Farrendel eased to the floor next to her. It meant King Averett occupied the padded armchair next to him, but it was not like Farrendel had much of a choice. His stomach churned.

  Edmund inspected the package in his hands. “So, do we all just tear into our packages? Or should we be more organized about this?”

  Farrendel could not force himself to say anything else. At this point, he had fulfilled the tradition. He did not care what human tradition they had for opening gifts. It was a struggle just to sit there, head pounding, when all he wanted to do was bolt.

  ESSIE TOOK Farrendel’s hand, his fingers cold in hers. He looked about ready to throw up from nerves. What was in those gifts? She couldn’t imagine what Farrendel might have picked out for each of her family members. She squeezed his hand and whispered, “Well, I’m impressed.”

  At the very least, Farrendel had proven to her that he cared enough to follow through with this tradition, even when it was clearly painful for someone as shy as he was, even with her smoothing it over for him.

  Averett waved to Mother and Paige. “Ladies first.”

  “All right.” Paige grinned and untied the string holding Essie’s gift first, since it was the one on top. Mother was only seconds behind her.

  Both of them revealed jars filled with a thick, creamy substance.

  “It’s lotion. I picked the scents to match the shampoo and conditioner I sent earlier.” A lavender and vanilla for her mother and lilac for Paige.

  Paige opened her jar, sniffed it, then held it for Bertie to sniff when he asked, since he was still sitting in her lap. “It smells amazing. Thanks so much.”

  Then they were opening the packages from Farrendel, which had felt floppy and soft when Essie had been adding her part to the gift earlier. So it didn’t surprise her when Mother and Paige revealed several yards of elven silk.

  What did surprise Essie was how perfect the colors were for both of them.

  Paige gasped and held up sapphire blue silk that would look stunning with her hair. “This is beautiful.”

  Mother ran her fingers over a forest green silk that was still muted enough to fit the dark wardrobe she wore to still mourn Essie’s father. “Yes. Thank you, Essie. If the seamstress starts now, she may be able to finish dresses before the welcome ball.”

  Essie glanced at Farrendel, but as he had his shoulders hunched, his face mostly obscured by his hair, he didn’t seem to want to claim this part of the gift as his. “If you’d like, I can send along one of my elven dresses so the seamstress can make you similar dresses. Or you can have overdresses made from this silk.”

  It was hard to tell since they were folded, but there did not seem to be enough fabric to make a human-style dress, not with the current fashion of massive skirts. As Farrendel had only seen Essie’s wedding dress, he would not have realized that the width of that skirt was normal fashion for balls.

  “I’d love an elven-style dress.” Paige grinned as she carefully set her gifts out of range of Bertie, who was squirming and asking about his present.

  As her brothers started unwrapping their gifts, Essie nudged Farrendel’s arm, whispering, “Now I see what that early morning dress delivery was all about. My new dress was just a cover for their fabric, wasn’t it? Sneaky.”

  Farrendel didn’t manage a smile, but some of the green cast to his face faded.

  “This is great.” Averett held up Essie’s gift. She’d gotten all of her brothers wooden fountain pens made of a dark wood and lacquered to a bright shine. He inspected the nib. “I suppose I’ll have to use this next time I sign a treaty with the elves.”

  “Exactly.” Essie hoped there would be a lot of need for treaties and trade agreements and such things in the future. “There’s even a tiny secret compartment for extra ink or anything else small enough to fit.” She glanced at Edmund.

  Grinning, Edmund inspected his for a moment before he twisted the top, clicked a section, and revealed the hidden compartment. “This is going to come in handy.”

  She wasn’t going to ask what spy-related items Edmund was already planning to smuggle.

  Farrendel had straightened at her gift, inspecting Averett’s pen from over the arm of the chair. “Is this Fingol’s handiwork?”

  “Yes. After Illyna’s hair products have caught on so well, I’m hoping to introduce his work to Escarland next.” Illyna was one of Farrendel’s friends and had become Essie’s first friend among the elves.

  “So even our gifts are politically motivated.” Averett shook both his head and his new pen at her. “Bad form, Essie. That’s the kind of stunt only kings and Parliament members should pull.”

  Farrendel leaned back, as if he was decidedly uncomfortable sitting between her and Averett, even when they were only teasing each other. Essie grinned back at Averett, doing her best to put on her most innocent expression. “I’m a princess. I know how to play the game just as well as kings and Parliament members.”

  She said it as a joke, but it was either joke about it privately with her family or drown in the burden of it. Seriously, if she sneezed, the maker of her handkerchief would suddenly find themselves swamped with orders.

  Across the room from Essie, Julien had gone ahead and opened Farrendel’s part of the gift, revealing a flat, wooden box. He opened it and let out a low whistle that caught the attention of the others in the room. Glancing around, he picked something out of the box and held it up, revealing a gleaming, eight-inch-long dagger with an elegant, simple hilt. “This is going to go great with my historical weapons collection.”

  “What?” Edm
und tore at the wrappings, opened the box, and revealed a matching dagger. “Whoa.”

  Essie nudged Farrendel. “You seriously gave my brothers daggers when you weren’t even sure yet if they’d like you? Did you really think arming them was a good idea?”

  Farrendel shrugged, his shoulders tense as he glanced between her three brothers. “Daggers do not pose a threat to me.”

  “Very true.” Essie patted his shoulder. “Well done on the gifts.”

  Averett held his dagger out of reach of Finn on his lap. “Thank you, Essie.” A pause. “Farrendel.”

  It was strange hearing her brother address Farrendel in such a casual, family setting. Essie knew and loved both of them, but they were still strangers to each other, for all she’d written letter after letter over the past three months.

  Bertie finally squirmed out of Paige’s grasp and off her lap. “My present?”

  “Yes, it’s time for presents for you and Finn.” Essie set the two gifts on her lap and patted the space in front of her.

  Averett set Finn on the ground, and both nephews hurried closer, though they halted just out of arm’s reach, staring at Farrendel. He was a stranger to them, and they were wary of strangers. Especially one with long, flowing hair and pointed ears. At least he wasn’t wearing his swords. That would just make him even more intimidating.

  Essie gave them both a smile, trying to put them at ease. “It’s all right. The presents are from both me and Uncle Farrendel.”

  Farrendel was sitting still, doing an admirable job of not looking too scary. If anything, his eyes had a soft, longing look to them. Did he perhaps like children? She’d never asked him. How much would he put up with? “His hair is very soft. And his ears feel just like our ears.”

  Farrendel glanced at her, his mouth tilted in a hint of his smile, and leaned forward, sweeping his hair behind his ear.

  Essie held a hand out to Bertie. “Do you want to feel his ears and hair? He doesn’t bite.”