Rachel frowned. “They think so. He came in with shoulder pains and the medics said they were quite advanced. That he should have manifested them before now, actually, but he was probably trying to will them away. One medic remarked that he must be very stubborn, but I explained that my Luke has a beautiful nature.”
Beautifully pig-headed, Elliot thought as he nodded and smiled and carefully did not agree or disagree.
“Wings,” he said easily. “So cool.”
They were. Luke did not know it yet, but he would be forced to submit to measurements.
Rachel frowned some more. “He didn’t seem—happy. He said that he didn’t want you to know. Especially, Elliot, and I know you boys are always joking around like this, but especially not you. I’d appreciate it if you could support him, but let him take his own time to tell you about this.”
Especially not you. Elliot tried to keep his face bland and pleasant. It made perfect sense to him, if not to Luke’s mother. Rachel didn’t know that Luke was not actually Elliot’s friend.
“If he doesn’t want us to know,” Serene said, “it could be a long time before he tells us about it.”
“Could be days,” Elliot agreed.
Luke was one of the world’s worst secret keepers, and painfully sincere. Elliot gave it a week, tops.
“I have given my word that I will keep this secret, and my swordsister will not be desolate or unsupported while I live,” Serene said. “You can rely on both of us.”
Rachel tucked her chin into her mass of glittering necklaces, not quite hiding a smile. “Do you know,” she said, “I suspected I could.”
Elliot returned his focus to the Trigon pitch, where Delia Winterchild had just thrown the glass ball too short. Luke flung himself off one of the crags to catch it, and a murmur ran through the crowd, as if the whole audience were a beast about to rouse.
It had almost looked like Luke was flying.
Luke’s face was extremely guilty when he came over to his mother after the game so she could pet and praise him. She gave him a lightning-fast cossetting before saying she had to leave.
“You were wonderful!” Rachel said, kissing Luke all over his face. “And I have to run now, darling. See you at Christmas!”
Her love was like sunlight, delivered in a box and wrapped with a ribbon for Luke alone, but Elliot watched Luke watch her go, and thought of how it might feel, to have sunshine put in your arms and then abruptly taken away: maybe, since Rachel was a soldier, never to return.
Especially at a time like this, when Rachel’s exuberantly loving nature had put Luke in a situation he had never anticipated.
Elliot and Serene both made sure to act entirely normal, which meant Serene expressing admiration and Elliot extreme indifference.
“Good form,” said Serene.
“Did you win?” Elliot inquired. “I may have dozed off in the stands for a minute there.”
Luke snorted in his direction, then went off to get changed. Elliot saw people watching Luke, saw the dark look Delia Winterchild had bent on him, and realized one of the medics must have talked. It was always news that was going to get out, and fast, but Elliot had been hoping for not quite this fast.
He scanned the crowd, looking for people who were whispering delicious new gossip or wearing the expressions of those who had just seen a rumor confirmed before their eyes.
Then he became distracted by another thought.
“Serene! Serene, do you realize what this news means?” Elliot demanded. Serene raised her eyebrows interrogatively. “The worst threat to peace in the Borderlands is the alliance between the trolls and the harpies, which so far has precluded any alliances between them and any other groups. Which means we’re always interacting with them as if they’re the enemy. But now we have Luke. Harpies tend to nurture and protect the males, because there are so few of them.”
“Very natural,” Serene murmured. “If you are truly dedicated to a man, you protect him from even the harsh breath of the wind and the cruel eye of the sun.”
“Nobody’s interested in being protected from air and light, but okay!” said Elliot. “My point is, culturally children, especially male children, are welcomed back to the nest and treated well. This is our chance to form an alliance, and that means that the Borderlands will become a chain of linked alliances, and not enemies. This is fantastic!” He rubbed his hands together. “Two harpies, one stone,” he added, and then saw the way Serene was looking at him. “A diplomatic stone! A diplomatic stone.”
“I do not think that we should focus on treaties at this time,” said Serene. “I think we should focus on being emotionally supportive of Luke. And you should take the lead on it, because your sweet masculine nature predisposes you to understanding and empathy.”
Elliot gazed upon Serene. She gazed back at him, her beautiful face full of faith in him and his innate manly tenderness.
“I’m being emotionally supportive the best way I know how,” Elliot said eventually. “By which I mean, I’m leaving, and I’m going to the library.”
He left, and checked out every book about harpies in the library.
Bright-Eyes the librarian gave Elliot his familiar disapproving look, because Elliot was a wanton floozy with many late fines. “You realize there is a limit on how many books you can take out of the library.”
Elliot looked around and saw his former student Cyril Leigh hiding from him behind a bookcase. “Come over here,” he commanded. “Take out half these books.”
Cyril obeyed. Elliot thought that this terrified obedience, even years later, showed that he had not been a bad teacher after all.
He stowed away the books in his own private cabin—final year was amazing—and then took one up to the top of the commander’s tower.
The sun was setting on his first day back in the Border camp, and he was never going back to his father’s house.
The sinking sun threw orange and yellow ribbons over the whole land. Elliot looked out over unexplored oceans touched by fire, the shimmer of lakes already in shadow, the fields humans had made and the stretches of deep forest, treetops haloed with sunset, where the elves and dryads lived. Above which the harpies flew.
If they made a solid treaty with the harpies, that would give the Border guard breathing room to work out last year’s lousy arrangements between elves and humans. They were at peace with the dryads and the mermaids, and the elves and dwarves’ alliance was working better than any alliance with any people ever before. A solid treaty with the harpies, and it would be possible to approach the trolls.
Peace was possible, across the whole of the Borderlands, not peace everlasting but peace for years, peace enough so that all of the groups in this land past the Border would know what it was like to live with and work with each other. They could all learn about each other, and every piece of knowledge about each other gained would take them a step further away from being enemies. Elliot had said he wanted peace before he finished school.
He sat in the stone towertop, book in his lap, making notes while the light lasted.
Woodland and farmland, sky and sea, and peace for years. That was what this news about Luke could bring. Elliot had come back for his friends, and now almost at once this had happened. It seemed meant.
If only he could pull it off.
Later Elliot brought his harpy book and his notes to Serene’s cabin, where they sat around her fire and reveled in finally having privacy and no annoying dorm mates.
Or they should have, if the atmosphere had not been so strained. Usually Luke was the good-tempered one, who would respond to anything either of them said and would not take offence even when Elliot was being—he was man enough to admit it—extremely offensive. Now Luke was very quiet, staring into the fire, and Elliot did not know exactly how to carry a whole conversation and at the same time make urgent notes about harpies.
Serene decided that she would cheer everyone up by talking about how amazing her love life was. Apparently she and
Golden had pledged their troth, and also made out.
It did not seem to occur to Serene that it might be insulting for her ex to see how much more excited she was about kissing Golden than she ever had been about anything with Elliot. Nor did it seem to occur to Serene that hearing about her amazing new love life might be slightly upsetting for Luke, when he could not seem to get it together with Dale.
“I was sure he would find it cheering!” hissed Serene, as soon as Luke had left. “Everybody revels in the bards’ tales of love.”
“Well, yes and no,” said Elliot. “Everybody revels in the bards’ tales of love, but at the same time, everybody is bored and annoyed when forced to hear about their actual friends and their irritating love lives. It’s just one of those things.”
Serene looked crestfallen.
“Kidding,” said Elliot hastily. “I’m kidding. I’m happy for you.”
He kissed Serene on the cheek and made his way out into the night. He truly was happy for Serene, even if it stung a little. And he thought back fondly to his occasional glances up from his book at Luke, to see Luke golden by firelight and Luke’s eyes already on Elliot, mutely beseeching him for help. That had been hilarious.
It was possible that Elliot should not have found it hilarious.
It was possibly time to accept that Luke had terrible friends and would require support from another quarter.
Elliot wandered around in the dark knocking on cabin doors and receiving responses like “Schafer, I thought I was finally free of you! Go away!” until he knocked on the right door and heard Dale Wavechaser’s voice, raised in a welcome to the world, saying: “Come in!”
Elliot pushed the door open and said: “It’s Elliot.”
He felt fair warning had to be given.
“Cool,” said Dale, and did not look dismayed by this information at all. “I was hoping you’d stop by.”
Elliot did not see why that would be. He considered the matter, and considered Dale, sitting on his bed and looking rumpled, happy, and extremely handsome. He decided it did not matter.
“Dale,” Elliot said winningly. “Dale Wavechaser. Like I know another Dale.”
Dale did what Dale usually did around Elliot: smile, but look puzzled. It was a lot more goodwill than Elliot was used to.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Elliot added, coaxingly. “Considering this new information about Luke. You have heard the news about Luke?”
“Yeah.” There was a sudden flash in Dale’s eyes, like light striking a mirror. “I was thinking you might come by.”
“Oh?” said Elliot, lost again.
“I mean, I was hoping you’d—want to talk to me about this,” said Dale. “This—news about Luke changes things.”
“Yes!” said Elliot. “Yes, it does!”
Dale hesitated. “Of course I still really like Luke. But you and I have so much in common.”
“Sure, if you say so,” said Elliot. “Now, here’s the plan. Luke is a romantic, and I had several intricate schemes worked out in which you two seemed to gradually and naturally come together.” He made a gesture indicating how Luke and Dale would have slowly mutually discovered the treasure of love. Dale stared in what appeared to be horrified fascination. “However, Luke is in need of immediate cheering up and an ego boost, so I think you should get together right away. I’m going to arrange it. Follow my lead.”
He became enthused as he talked, and paced around Dale’s little cabin. There were no books in it at all, which he found unsettling, but such things did not matter to Luke.
“What?” said Dale.
“I’d really like to get this done quickly, so I may not be as subtle as I usually am.”
“Oh my God,” said Dale.
Elliot beamed, nodded, and clasped Dale’s shoulder in what he hoped was a gesture of manly agreement.
“And if you woo Luke fast, you can definitely come on our trip to make an alliance with the harpies,” he promised. “You should try to come. It will be a historic occasion.”
“That’s true,” Dale said. “It would look pretty impressive to commanders, to have been on the harpies expedition.”
Dale had no appreciation for history in the making, but Elliot decided to forgive him for that.
“Absolutely,”
“Oh, but, Elliot, I don’t know about this—you being unsubtle business, or—”
“You wound me with your lack of faith. Trust me! Trust me. Good night. Good talk,” Elliot said. “I’m so pleased you’re seeing things my way, Dale.”
Elliot did not confine himself to bothering Dale. He also dedicated himself to bothering Commander Woodsinger, who had written to Celaeno, the leader of the nest that Rachel said Luke’s biological father had belonged to.
“Good morning, good to see you, just here to show normal military-style respect for you as a cadet to his commander,” said Elliot every morning, poking his head around the door. “Did you hear back yet? I like your haircut, by the way.”
Commander Woodsinger had cropped her wiry black curls very close. It was extremely military, but it suited her.
“Please do not comment on my appearance or inquire as to my private correspondence, Cadet.”
“You’re right,” Elliot said. “I shouldn’t. Only it was reported to me—”
“By one of your spies?” the commander asked.
“No, no,” said Elliot. “Not spies. People I have terrorized into doing my bidding and watching other people and places for me. You pay spies. Anyway, a little bird told me—”
Commander Woodsinger sighed. “Celaeno has professed herself eager to meet Luke, and willing to allow a troop from the Border guard to accompany him, and discuss the possibility of an alliance that might be drawn up between our people.”
“Ohhhh,” said Elliot, deeply pleased. “Sounds like you could use someone from the council course along.”
“That would not be standard.”
“But you don’t live by the man’s rules!”
“I live by the law of the land,” said Commander Woodsinger.
“Well, this wouldn’t be against the law,” said Elliot. “Obviously. I have the greatest respect for the law, or whatever. This would just be you, in the wisdom of your command, making an exception to standard practises. For the good of the treaty and your cadets.”
Commander Woodsinger sighed again, this time more pointedly. Elliot could almost feel his curls blow back. “I do realize how vital this treaty could be, Cadet,” she said. “I intend to lead this mission myself.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone else to lead our mission, Commander.”
“And I have not said you are permitted to come!”
“I understand that, you’re thinking about it,” said Elliot. “I have faith you will consider the matter from every angle and arrive to the right decision. Which is, to be clear, that you should let me go with you.”
He looked around the tower room. It had not changed much since he was thirteen. Commander Woodsinger did not have an eye for home decoration. There were the same stone walls, and the same large desk, only with less paper on it, and no candle too close to the parchment.
And there was a commander behind the desk he respected. He had not really understood what command meant, four years ago.
“Cadet Schafer, since you mentioned my personal appearance, do you know why I got this haircut?” Commander Woodsinger inquired. “It was so that, when faced with your rank insubordination, I would be able to resist the urge to tear my hair out in handfuls.”
“Aw, Commander!” said Elliot. “You were thinking of me over the summer. I’m touched.”
“Get out of my office,” the commander told him. “Get out.”
“So you’re saying you’ll think about letting me come along?” Elliot inquired. “So I’ll leave you to think about it.”
“Out!”
Elliot paused, trying to find the absolute right thing to say to her. This was so difficult, because it was not just about peace
treaties. Because it was about Luke. Elliot could not say I have to come because he needs me, because that would be absurd. It was obvious to anyone that Luke did not.
“Even if the treaty was not vital,” he said at last. “I have to go.”
The commander was silent. He saluted her and went out the door and down the steps of the tower to collect his latest harpy book. He was learning a lot about harpies, but he wished he had started years earlier. Now he only had days, and he had to make a perfect compendium on harpy culture for Luke, so that Luke would understand, and he would not mess the treaty up, and he would not be angry and afraid anymore.
The Border camp was not taking the news about Luke all that well. It might almost have been better if it had been someone who was not Luke, their chosen hero: the cadets acted almost as if they had been betrayed, as if they had been lied to, when Luke had not known himself.
There were too many off-color jokes, remarks in class and whispering outside of class. It reminded Elliot of the way people had acted when he and Serene were going out: little pushes, to make what they did not want to see go away. Except Luke could not make what he was go away.
It was terrible, but these people were terrible and their opinions were terrible. Luke should not let it get to him so much.
This was, obviously, the first time public opinion had not been entirely in Luke’s favor. Elliot felt sympathetic about that sometimes, and other times he thought to himself: Wasn’t Luke lucky to have lived a charmed life for so long? This little taste of what everybody else got might be good for him.
Elliot tried not to think like that. Sadly, he was most inclined to think like that in Luke’s presence, and be sympathetic when Luke was far away. Luke had no idea how concerned Elliot was about him, in classes they did not share or during Trigon games or last thing at night.
And then there was the irritation that came with looking at Luke’s stupid sulky face.
In Other Lands Page 40
