“Aren’t you concerned about what’s going to happen to him?”
Kadaki finally went to the stack of clothes, took out the key, and dropped it into her pocket. “I trust in our superiors’ ability to fairly deal with prisoners,” she said, but with a stiffness that made Novikke think she didn’t believe what she was saying. “It’s not up to us to make those decisions. We’re here to follow orders.”
“So you are worried?”
“I don’t waste energy worrying about things that are out of my control. It’s bad for your health.” She looked up at Novikke sharply. She was the most intimidating five-foot-tall, barely-old-enough-to-drink woman Novikke had ever seen.
“Are you going to turn me in?” she asked.
“No.”
She was taken aback. “Really?”
Kadaki dipped her head and looked away. “Yes. But please get your head on straight, Novikke. You won’t get infinite chances to stop being a fool. I realize you’ve been through a lot lately, but you need to remember where your loyalties should lie.”
“I do.” She didn’t. “Don’t worry.”
“Hmph.”
◆◆◆
Later that evening, when they’d all returned to the tent for the night, Novikke avoided looking in Kadaki’s direction.
Thala seemed unaware that anything had happened, for which she was grateful. She’d fully expected Kadaki to tell her what she’d done.
Kadaki made more wine. It was becoming something of a daily ritual. Novikke drank it even more eagerly than she had the previous two nights.
“Could I ask you both something?” she said when there was a lull in the conversation. She stared into her cup, swirling the liquid around in a circle.
“Ask away,” Thala said.
“Do either of you know what’s happened to the night elf?” She glanced up at Kadaki, who frowned but said nothing.
Thala shrugged evasively, suddenly less talkative. “They’ve been asking him things. About the forest.”
“Interrogating,” Novikke corrected her. “Torturing.”
Thala met her gaze evenly. “Probably.”
Novikke squinted at her. She was hiding something. “You’ve seen him, haven’t you?”
She looked at the floor again. “I might have.”
Novikke leaned forward. “Did he look—was he all right?”
“There’s nothing you can do about it. You shouldn’t torment yourself over it.”
“Tell me.”
Thala bit her lip. “They roughed him up a bit. I’m guessing he’s not being very cooperative. They’re asking things he doesn’t want to answer.”
Something inside Novikke crumpled. None of this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to protect him. She put her head in her hands.
The wine made her raw. “I did this. This is my fault,” she said.
“It’s not.” Thala rested a hand on her shoulder, pushing her a little. After a moment, Kadaki put a hand over Novikke’s, patting gently.
Novikke dropped her arms away from her face. “I need to see him,” she said, emboldened with drink, and as soon as she’d said it, she’d decided. When Kadaki opened her mouth to speak, she added, “Not to do anything else. Just to talk to him. That’s all.”
“Novikke…” Thala began.
“I’m going to see him. I’m doing it with or without your help. So you can help me, or you can stay here, but I’m doing it.”
Thala gave her a disapproving look. “What if we stop you?”
Novikke stood up and crossed her arms. “Are you going to do that?”
“It’d be for your own good.”
“Are you?” Novikke pressed.
Thala looked away, pursing her lips. “No.”
“Then help me,” she pleaded. “What’s the worst that could happen? Can they really punish us just for talking to someone?”
“Yes,” Kadaki said.
“Then I won’t tell them you were involved. If I get caught, it’ll be me getting the blame for it.”
Kadaki and Thala exchanged a look. Novikke could see them breaking.
“Please. If you knew what we’d been through… I owe him this much. Just to make sure he’s all right.”
Kadaki cleared her throat. “Aleka is guarding his tent,” she said, glancing slyly up at Thala. “Didn’t you and he…?”
“That was a long time ago,” Thala said, but a small smile grew on her lips.
“What was it you said about him? ‘As dense as he is pretty’?”
“Shh! I never said that.”
“Do you think you could distract him?” Novikke said, hopeful.
“Of course I could. If I wanted to.”
“Well do you?”
Thala took a long breath. “Kadaki?” she said, looking over at her.
Kadaki frowned at Novikke. “Just to talk?” she said.
“Yes. You have my word.”
“A lot of good that is,” she said, but she was smirking a little. Novikke suspected she was just lucky to have caught the two of them in a mischievous mood. “Fine. I’ll help. But if anything goes wrong, I’m denying everything.”
◆◆◆
Five minutes after Thala left, Kadaki peeled the tent flap open a crack, just enough for her to peer out through. Novikke could see her outline in the darkness. She glanced back at Novikke, nodding. Vissarion was still there.
Kadaki whispered a soft chant, just as she’d done when she’d cast the spell on Aruna. Novikke waited to feel something, to see some spark of magic, but there was nothing. It was simpler than that. Simple, but effective. Kadaki made a motion toward Vissarion, as if throwing the spell at him, and Novikke heard the sound of a body hitting mud.
Kadaki turned to Novikke, stepping back and gesturing to the door.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she said as Novikke passed.
“Probably too late for that.”
Novikke slipped out into the night. Vissarion was slumped against the base of his tree, asleep. She’d have a few minutes before he woke again.
She hurried past him and crept across the camp, circling around the outside of the tents to avoid the light of the campfire and the soldiers that were keeping watch for the night.
According to Thala, Aruna was still being kept in the same tent she’d seen him go into when they’d first arrived. As she approached, she found it unguarded. Thala had managed to convince Aleka to go away with her for a while, then. Novikke heard her laughing in the distance, confirming that they were not nearby. She had time.
She stopped in front of the entrance, afraid of what she’d find inside. She was afraid he was hurt. More than that, she realized guiltily, she was afraid that he’d hate her for what they’d done to him, and for her inability to help him.
She nudged the flap open and stepped inside.
There was a dim mage light lantern on the floor. A dark, motionless figure sat on the floor. His head was down, black hair curtaining his face.
Metal clinked when he lifted his head. He was scowling, but when he saw her, his expression changed to blank surprise. He didn’t look overjoyed to see her. Maybe he thought she’d come to interrogate him like the others had.
His wrists and ankles were cuffed, and the chain linking his wrists looped under the one at his ankles to keep him from standing up straight. There was a bruise darkening his jaw, and another one on his cheek, and his lip and eyebrow were split. Blood stained his sleeves, presumably from wiping it from his face. It made her angry to look at.
He stared up at her, not speaking. He was waiting to see what she would do.
She crossed the tent and knelt in front of him. She had not intended to so much as touch him when she’d started toward him, but as she neared him, something inside of her unfolded, spilled over, and spun out of control, and suddenly she was leaning toward him, and then her lips were on his.
She felt him take in a surprised breath. And then she realized what she was doing. What was she thinking?
She began to pull away, and he quickly chased her, leaning forward against her mouth. A rush of heaviness swirled in her chest. She reached a hand around the back of his neck and another on his shoulder, pulling him closer.
She’d wanted to do this again ever since the ruins. All the want she’d built up since then, all the worry she’d felt for him, poured out of her in a jumbled, panicked flood.
She heard the chains moving as he tried to reach for her and couldn’t. His mouth was warm and light and searching on hers. His lips were soft and a little swollen. She wondered if she was hurting him.
She broke away, and for a second, his eyes were bright and open with a want. But then he leaned back, and he looked closed off and uncertain again. Novikke felt guilty as she saw the bruises on his face again. This wasn’t the time for this.
She began to motion for the notebook out of habit, then remembered that they’d given him something to translate the words he spoke. She glanced down at his neck, where there was an iron collar like Neiryn’s, but also a smaller circle of fabric that she’d not seen before. This must have been the item that allowed him to speak Ardanian.
“I… might be a little drunk,” she admitted.
His eyebrows inched upward. She saw the corner of his lips turn up a little.
“Are you all right?” she asked. A stupid question.
He shrugged one shoulder. “They haven’t killed me yet,” he said slowly, his voice gentle and even and beautiful. She could have listened to his voice all day. She had never fully appreciated it until she’d heard him speaking her language. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
He’d thought she’d abandoned him. It had been days. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I’m sorry. I tried to come sooner. They wouldn’t let me. They’re watching me.”
He looked over her shoulder at the door.
“Not now. I’ve bought us a few minutes.”
“I thought you were angry,” he said quietly. “About…what I did, when they ambushed us. I shouldn’t have…”
He searched her face for forgiveness. Novikke wasn’t certain she wanted to give it yet.
“I wouldn’t hurt you,” he said.
She’d known it was true, but a part of her was still relieved to hear him say it. “I know.”
Novikke realized they were still sitting very close. She leaned away. Her face burned. The kiss had been another break in self-control. A brief indulgence that would probably, as always, be their last. The moment was over. Now they’d pretend it hadn’t happened again.
“This feels strange. Talking,” she said. Aruna was speaking in clear, perfect Ardanian. She’d never have guessed he wasn’t a native speaker if she didn’t know otherwise.
“It really sounds to you like I’m speaking Ardanian?”
“Are you not?”
“Of course not. I don’t know it.”
“Then it sounds to you like I’m speaking Varai?”
He nodded.
Novikke gave a quirk of a smile, wondering if hearing her speak his language pleased him as much as the opposite did her. “How does it sound?”
He returned a small smile. “Good.”
There was a sound outside, and Novikke tensed. She glanced over her shoulder at the doorway, but no one appeared, and no more sounds came.
“I’m going to find a way to get you out of here,” she whispered. “Please just do what they ask of you until I can figure something out. Don’t make trouble. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet. There are always people watching. It might take some time.”
“Is Neiryn still here?”
She could see where this was going. “Yes…” she said reluctantly.
He arched an eyebrow. “Find the key to his collar.”
It would be simple. Release Neiryn and incinerate anyone who got in their way. Just like before. Except she’d have to go through Kadaki to get the key now, and Novikke already knew she wouldn’t give it up willingly.
She pictured what would happen if she released Neiryn. She pictured fire consuming tents, burning flesh. She heard screams, saw twisted, blackened bodies. She imagined Thala and Kadaki among the dead.
It was unthinkable. Impossible.
Aruna looked at her, waiting, unblinking. She could see his judgement incoming. She’d hesitated too long.
She looked away. “I don’t know if—” What could she say? That she didn’t know whether his life was worth the lives of the Ardanians? That she had expected him to betray his people for her, but she wasn’t ready to do the same? That she wasn’t brave enough for this?
Aruna blinked at her. He leaned away from her, his eyebrows up. She could feel the sense of betrayal coming off him in waves. “I see.”
“I can’t just—I’ll try to—I’ll consider it, if there’s no other way.”
“Oh, yes! Consider away. By all means. I’ll just be here in the meantime, while you think about it.”
She frowned. “This thing translates sarcasm surprisingly well.”
“It’s a good enchantment!”
“Look, it’s not the same...” she began, and cut herself off. She wished she’d had less to drink earlier. She would have preferred to be less stupid during this particular conversation.
Aruna’s eyes grew wider. He tilted his head at her in disbelief, probably amazed that she was still digging in this hole she’d made for herself. “Oh? Is it not? Because those people we killed back at the outpost were only Varai, right? It’s not as if they were real people.”
She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “Aruna, please trust me. They won’t kill you. Not yet. I’ll get you out.”
“Please just leave.”
She drew back, quieted. He wouldn’t look at her. The conversation was over. She hesitated, not wanting to part on such bad terms, but it was clear no good could come of staying.
“I’m just trying to do the right thing,” she said.
“Aren’t we all,” he muttered.
The defeated look on his face made her chest ache. She gave him one last regretful glance, then left.
Chapter 5
The following day, half of the camp set out deeper into the forest.
Novikke, Thala, and Kadaki were among those instructed to go along. She’d been surprised when she’d gotten the order. She’d assumed she would be left at camp or sent back to Valtos.
She could only have been brought along because Theros thought she would be valuable in some way, and she didn’t think that it was because he thought her a skilled fighter. More likely he thought she had more information than she said, or maybe he was just afraid to let her out of his sight before he knew exactly how much of a traitor she was.
When she emerged from her tent that morning, with a sword hanging from her belt and a pack on her back, she was surprised to see Neiryn there as well, standing next to Kadaki. He wore a traveling cloak and someone had given him an Ardanian uniform to replace his Ysuran clothes, which, on him, was too loose in the chest and waist and too short in the arm and leg. His wrists were still bound in front of him, and the collar was still snug on his neck.
“A hostage in case we run into any more Ysurans,” Thala murmured, sidling up to Novikke. “Or, in a pinch, we could force him to fight for us. I’ve fought with a sun elf on my side before. Shocking how much easier it makes a battle go.”
“Force him? How?”
“The usual way. A ‘do as I say or I’ll kill you’ situation.”
“Oh. I thought maybe there was some spell Kadaki knew, or…”
“Ah, but why bother with something so complicated when you can just put a blade to his throat, Novikke?” she said, her words laced with irony. “Threat of violence is one of the best motivators.”
“That’s standard practice? It’s not a very elegant solution.”
“It’s not about what’s elegant. It’s about what’s effective.”
There was a sudden hush at the other end of the camp, and when Novikke turned, she saw why. Aruna was being escorted across the camp. It was the first time she’d seen him outside since the day they’d arrived.
Two soldiers flanked him. They’d taken the chains off his ankles but left the ones on his wrists. No one had given him new clothes like they had for Neiryn. He squinted in the bright daylight.
Night Elves of Ardani: Book Two: Sacrifice Page 6