Though Rolin was startled by the sudden comment, his hand still rested firmly on Kamo’s waist. Kamo bent her arms and hid her hands in the pockets of her jacket, snuggling a little closer to Rolin and his protective touch. Panchon didn’t seem to notice the movement, but Gobi eyed them both mischievously.
“I’m not entirely sure,” she said, “I need to know who is responsible for the deaths of my people, and I know the king can help me find that person if he isn’t that person himself. There’s a festival of sorts coming up, and we hope to be there.”
“Surely Pacha told you about Elesun,” Panchon replied. “He’s been the king’s advisor for years.”
“Yes, she did, and I’m very grateful,” Kamo said.
The conversation lulled, and Kamo peered into the fire. She was still vaguely aware of Rolin’s hand on her waist, but it felt comforting and warm and gave her a sense of peace.
Rolin’s peace.
Kamo reflected silently, thinking of her interactions with him. Even from the first time they met, his touch gave her a peaceful feeling unique to him. He felt like a calm refuge in the middle of a storm.
“All right, gentlemen, and my lady,” Panchon said, “I’m turning in for the night. I’ll see you bright and early.”
Gobi stood on his feet and yawned.
“Me too,” he added. “Good night, Panchon. Kamo, Rolin, good night.”
Panchon headed for his tent and disappeared into the shadows of the trees. Rolin and Kamo watched Gobi slip into the tent nearest them and shut the flap. As Gobi vanished from sight, Rolin released Kamo’s waist and stretched both arms into the air, yawning with exhaustion.
“Are you leaving as well?” Kamo asked. She didn’t realize just how warm he kept her, and the chilly air crept up quickly as he moved away to stretch.
Rolin looked amused at the comment.
“I was planning on it,” he said. “Would you prefer if I didn’t?”
“Oh, you can go,” she said hastily, “I just don’t think I’m ready to sleep quite yet.”
Just as before, he studied her face. Her nose was pink with cold, and her fur hat was pulled so tightly around her ears that Rolin could hardly see the ends of her ear lobes.
“I’ll stay with you,” he said, “you look like you should stay near the fire at least a little longer.”
He moved close to her again, and this time put his arm around her shoulders. She turned to face him and caught her breath as he smiled sweetly at her. His copper-brown eyes flickered with specks of gold, and the pink in his cheeks gave him a certain glow.
“Thank you for watching out for me,” Kamo said.
“You’re welcome, lo—” he stopped himself, “Kamo.”
His face was so near that she could once again feel his breath on her cheeks.
“You really can’t help it, can you?” she asked, returning his smile.
He took a deep breath and gazed longingly at her mouth. “Not at all.”
He leaned in close, and Kamo closed her eyes. In a moment of confusion and surprise, he softly kissed her cheek. She gasped but savored the sensation of his lips on her face. Too soon for her liking, he pulled away from her, his kiss leaving her cheek warm and tingly. She opened her eyes. He looked at her and beamed before pulling her closer to his chest, gazing at the fire in front of them.
Kamo stared at him. First at his eyes, and then at his strong jaw. She stared at his lips that had left her cheek feeling empty without them.
“Why didn’t you kiss me?” Kamo asked him suddenly. She hadn’t meant the thought to slip from her head to her voice.
He turned to her, a curious grin on his face. “I did kiss you.”
Kamo scowled. “You know what I mean.”
Rolin continued to smile at her and took her hand. “You wanted me to prove that you aren’t just another girl to me,” he said, “if you were any other girl, I would have kissed you.”
She pursed her lips and tilted her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I have often heard that if you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You nurture it and nourish it. So that’s what I’m going to do.”
“By not kissing me?”
“For now.”
He let go of her fingers and cupped her cheek in his hand. Then he gently kissed her forehead.
Kamo closed her eyes, once again enjoying the feel of his lips.
“I don’t mind if you call me ‘love,’” she whispered.
Rolin squeezed her shoulder, and she reached for his hand.
“Just maybe not in front of Gobi. He has enough ideas in his head about the two of us without you making it worse,” she quipped.
“Deal,” he laughed. “But I think he’s rooting for us if it helps.”
Kamo glanced in the direction of Gobi’s tent. “Pacha said this journey would take him to the one he loves,” she said. “I have a hard time imagining Gobi with anyone, really.”
“I’ve only ever really seen him fall head over heels once,” Rolin replied. “And that was a few years ago. He was only maybe fourteen or fifteen.”
“Who was she?”
“I never met her; he was pretty shy about the whole thing,” Rolin answered. “I just know he was crazy about her. He talked about her all the time and talked about the life they’d have. I think her name was Victoria.”
“What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. One day, Gobi was professing his love and planning his future, and the next, he acted as if he’d never met her.”
“That’s odd,” Kamo said. “Gobi’s not usually the type to let go of an idea once it’s planted in his head. Maybe I’ll ask him about it.”
“All right,” Rolin replied, “it’s been enough time. I’m sure he could talk about it now.”
The fire had burned low, and the clouds were still relentless in the sky, shielding the light of the moon from their tiny camp.
“It’s late,” he said, “We should get to bed.”
He let go of her hand and kissed her on the cheek. Then, he stood and offered to help her from the ground.
“Good night, Rolin,” she said after she stood up. She pecked him nervously on the cheek and hurried into her tent without a backward glance.
Chapter Fourteen
Kamo was one of the first ones awake and bustling the next morning. Her time spent alone with Rolin left her with too many butterflies to try to fall asleep quickly. Usually, when she couldn’t fall asleep, she argued with herself over issues and concerns, so last night’s romantic distraction presented at least a new and exciting reason for insomnia.
Panchon’s men were kind enough once again to share their supplies of fire and food. Kamo snagged an egg and a few pieces of bacon before most of the camp woke up. The clouds hadn’t relented, and the sky was gray and bland with fog. Occasionally, Kamo would see one tiny beam of sunlight struggle to break through the clouds, but it never stayed long enough to shine down on her.
Gobi emerged from the men’s tent first, and his jaw dropped when he saw Kamo packed and ready to move for the morning.
“Good morning to you too,” Kamo said as he stared at her in amazement.
“Why are you awake?” Gobi asked, bewildered. “You’re never awake this early!”
“I couldn’t fall back to sleep this morning,” she told him. “And then Panchon’s men were cooking bacon, and I figured I’d stay awake long enough to get a piece.”
Gobi nodded in understanding, rubbing his sleep-filled eyes.
“Is Rolin awake yet?” Kamo tried to ask innocently.
“No, he’s still asleep,” Gobi grinned, “he got to bed pretty late last night. That wouldn’t be because of a certain Sea elf, would it?”
The corner of Kamo’s mouth twitched up, and she nudged him on the arm as he came and sat by her.
“Maybe,” she teased. “Gobi, can I ask you something, though?”
“Sure.”
“What’s he like with women? I mea
n, does he do this sort of thing a lot? Flirt and so forth.”
Gobi raised an eyebrow. “So forth?” he wiggled it up and down with a knowing grin.
“Just answer me,” Kamo replied with another, harder nudge on the arm.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen him show any interest in a woman. I’ve seen a few approach him, and they’re always more than willing to share a tete-a-tete if you know what I mean, but he always declines. He bows graciously and sends them on their way,” Gobi said, waving his arm in mock goodbye to the invisible women in front of him.
“So he’s not the flirtatious type?”
“The first time he called you ‘love,’ I almost died of shock,” Gobi said. “I’d say he’s pretty smitten. Men don’t say ridiculous things unless there’s a woman involved. Trust me.”
She remembered her conversation with Rolin from the night before.
“That reminds me, Gobi,” she said, “Rolin told me you were head over heels in love once. A girl named Victoria?”
“Rolin told you that?” he asked, taking a piece of bacon from Kamo’s plate. “That’s so strange. I told him, I don’t remember any Victoria.”
He didn’t sound angry or even sad. By all appearances, it seemed that he genuinely did not remember the woman with whom he had fallen so madly in love.
“He said it was just a few years ago when you were fourteen or fifteen.”
Gobi swallowed some bacon.
“When I was fifteen, I made my way to Brimhaul, and I stayed there ‘til you found me. Except when I was sailing with my crew, but even then, we only sailed as merchants from Brimhaul to Dirth, and I never explored much of Dirth before we headed back to Brimhaul.”
Kamo listened to him, puzzled by his account. He possessed an exquisite memory. He could recall details of every sailing journey he had ever made. He remembered minute details about her family, though they had never even met. How could he forget the first love of his life?
“Well, then I guess Rolin made a mistake,” she said, confused.
“Talking about me, were you?”
Rolin sneaked up behind them and took a seat next to Gobi.
“Did you sleep well?” Kamo asked him, offering her last piece of bacon.
“Like a log,” Rolin exclaimed with a yawn. He took the bacon, and their fingers brushed. Rolin smiled and held her fingers a moment longer than necessary. Kamo let go and nervously started to gather her hair into a tight bun.
Rolin packed his things as Panchon and his men finished gathering and packing their supplies. After everyone was ready, they made their way as stealthily as possible. If she didn’t know better, Kamo never would have guessed that there were at least thirty elves traveling in the woods around her. The Earth elves had decided to spread their party, and they lurked from tree to tree and bush to bush as Rolin, Kamo, and Gobi stayed on an ever-ascending dirt trail.
“And I thought I was quiet,” Gobi said, watching an elf ahead of them sprint in complete silence.
The terrain changed as they climbed. Giant boulders and small pebbles crowded the ground and trees with every step. The stone appeared similar to the building stones in Blosso but much less refined and reflective.
Panchon darted out of the trees and walked next to Kamo.
“These are our stones,” he said. “We used these rocks to build Blosso, but we have our own ways to polish them and shape them.”
“How did you get them down the mountain?” Kamo asked, “it doesn’t look like it would be an easy job.”
“There was a sister quarry to this one further down the mountain, nearer to the settlement. We used those stones for our construction, and these we left alone,” he said, “but they are the same stone.”
“You didn’t want to risk waking the giants, I’m sure,” said Kamo.
“Not if we didn’t have to,” Panchon replied. “Though, I think we may have just done that very thing…”
As he spoke, Kamo felt a rumble in the earth beneath her. The pebbles shook on the ground, and a boulder teetered dangerously on the small cliff above them.
“Stay here.”
Panchon ran off into the forest of trees surrounding them, giving a low whistle as he ran. Gobi and Rolin stayed with Kamo, and both drew their weapons.
Rock giants.
The ground beneath them rumbled again, this time overturning the small pebbles as they bounced into the air with the impact. Kamo readied her spear and searched for Panchon’s moving figure in the distance below them on the mountain. As she sought his vibrant, green hair, she caught a glimpse of movement on the horizon. A gray heap of something rolled loudly uphill toward them.
“Is that—” but she jumped in fear as the rolling heap gathered speed and tumbled into a pile of rocks, then a stack of rock and stone, and then a ten-foot-tall rock body with stones of different sizes making up a head, arms, torso, and legs. It charged at her, its oblong stone legs clumping along the ground at an impossibly fast rate.
Without thinking, Kamo aimed her spear at the giant and almost threw it before Gobi stopped her.
“Are you mad? That spear’s as useful as a twig against that thing!” he shouted.
Kamo heard a low grumble in the direction of the rocks, and realized in horror that the giant was laughing.
“We need to get to higher ground,” Rolin shouted. He grabbed Kamo’s hand and started dragging her up the trail to the cliff.
Gobi sprinted ahead of them. The grumbling behind them grew louder and closer. They reached the cliff, and Rolin threw his sword on the ground.
“The boulder!” he cried, “we need to push the boulder!”
He ran to the side opposite their oncoming foe and began to push the boulder not off the cliff but down the trail in the giant’s path.
Kamo and Gobi ran to his side and pushed the boulder in the same direction. At first, even with their combined strength, the boulder wouldn’t budge.
“We need to do one big push together! On three,” Gobi instructed, “One, two, three!”
Kamo dug her heel into the ground and pushed the boulder with all the strength in her shoulders. Rolin had both hands on it, his head between his shoulders while he, too, dug his heels into the snow. Gobi threw his right shoulder into it and planted his feet on the tree behind him.
The boulder broke free of the soil and grime that held it in place, and slowly began to roll down the trail. Before it rolled out of reach, they helped it along, pushing hard to help it gather speed. From the cliff, they could see the boulder tumbling toward the giant. It didn’t move as quickly, but it matched the giant in size. The giant threw one shoulder into the boulder as they collided on the trail, and the boulder shattered into shards and dust. The giant’s momentum barely slowed.
Kamo began to panic, looking around for any weapon that might hurt an enemy that couldn’t bleed. She only saw the pebbles at her feet and the branches above her. Suddenly, an idea formed in her head.
“Climb!” she commanded forcefully, and she launched herself onto the tree that Gobi had used as leverage. The sticky, rough bark bit at her skin, but she dug her fingers into the trunk with a solid grip. She reached the first branch and hoisted herself onto its uneven surface. When she got her feet underneath her, she reached for the next highest branch and continued her climb. Gobi joined her quickly, his spider-like limbs crawling up the branches as if he had climbed all his life. Rolin trailed behind them.
“Higher!” Kamo shouted.
Gobi passed her up as she paused to pull Rolin to a sturdier branch. She looked down at the rock giant, only feet from the tree now.
“Gobi, careful not to let the branches cut you!” she cried from below him.
As soon as the rock giant reached the base of the tree, he tried to climb. Kamo watched as he tried grabbing at the lowest branch with his rock arm, but he couldn’t quite get hold. He would jump about a foot up the trunk and then go sliding down the side, bark peeling under his stone grip. With every attempt, he peeled the bark, a
nd the surface became smoother and smoother until the tree looked polished with oil. He bellowed a sinister rumble, and Kamo felt the tree vibrate as the ground shook again. She looked into the distance- more rock giants were on their way. They were popping out of the snow[3], rolling toward their kinsman, their rock limbs popping into sight with each roll. Soon, there were three rock giants at the tree's base, then four, then five. They each tried climbing the tree, and each slipped down faster than the one before. It took several minutes of these futile attempts before the rock giants took a different approach.
Kamo, Rolin, and Gobi made it about halfway up the large fir tree and decided to linger there on the last of the branches that could easily hold their weight.
“They’re not too bright, are they,” Gobi shouted, out of breath from the climb.
One of the giants roared at Gobi with a gravelly growl. He took hold of the trunk just under the newly shaved and polished part and began to shake the tree vigorously. At first, its roots held the trunk firmly in place, but as each giant crowded in to add his strength to the motion, they managed to shake the roots loose.
Kamo wrapped her arms around an upper branch and firmly planted her feet between two notches. Gobi did the same, but Rolin slipped, and he had only one foot on the tree. The other dangled limply over the branch. The tree shook again, and Rolin lost his other foot. He hung by both hands from the tree branch he had wrapped his arms around. Kamo waited until another round of shaking had passed and shimmied her way closer to Rolin’s hands. With one hand still wrapped around the branch, she crouched and grabbed Rolin’s right leg at his knee. She hoisted his foot and leg onto the branch and planted it between two notches. Rolin put his weight on his now firm foot and hoisted the other foot to the branch.
“Thanks,” he panted.
“It’s not over yet.”
The giants rocked the tree more violently and more frequently. Every rock back and forth brought the roots further out of the ground, and the branches swayed from side to side, causing Kamo, Rolin, and Gobi to be nearly horizontal from one side to the other.
The Last of the Sea Elves Page 12
