The Warrior Elf

by Morgan, Mackenzie

  “Any idea what we’re going to do when this job runs out?” Mikos asked for the hundredth time.

  “Maybe we can set up some runs from Bridgeport south to the coast.”

  Mikos sighed. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be seen around there, especially not on a regular basis.”

  “Why? It’s not like you’ll run into that guy. He works for Myron, in Milhaven.”

  “But he has family in Bridgeport.”

  “What makes you think he’d recognize you anyway?” Devron asked. “From the way you described the whole thing, he couldn’t have gotten a good look at you, and it was a long time ago.”

  “Two months is not all that long. It feels longer because of everything that’s happened to us in between.”

  “It’s been over two months now. And it’ll be at least another six weeks or so before we’re back in that area. You’ve got a beard now, your hair’s longer, and you’ve got more muscle on you. You don’t look anything like you did back at the mines. And the townspeople can vouch for us. Remember the blacksmith? From what he said, he’s friends with the sorcerer. If he told that sorcerer he’d seen us around before, hauling things up and down the river, the sorcerer would figure you just resemble the man he wrestled with.”

  “I don’t know,” Mikos said. “It seems risky to me. Maybe we should leave this area all together.”

  Devron frowned. “If we do that, we’ll have to take this boat out to sea and head down the coast. I’m not sure we could handle it in open water.”

  “Maybe we could trade the boat for a wagon and a couple of horses and do overland hauling.”

  Devron paused. “That’s a possibility, but not during the winter, at least not around here.”

  “Well, with horses and a wagon we could head south where the winters aren’t so bad and we could work all year long.”

  Devron nodded. “We’ve got time to think about it. Let’s see how we feel in six weeks. In the meantime, I’ll ask around and see if anyone’s interested in owning a boat. We might be able to set up a trade.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Trendon

  Tuesday morning Rolan was at his desk earlier than usual. Monday night he’d tossed and turned wondering why he hadn’t heard anything from any of the men he’d sent out looking for Landis. Not one word had come from North Amden or Milhaven. He needed to find that girl before she learned how to throw an energy bolt, and that was an easy skill to master.

  Rolan drummed his fingertips on his desk. He had no idea where else to search. He didn’t think Myron would be stupid enough to let Landis show her face in Milhaven again, and he wasn’t at all sure she was in North Amden, but those were the only two leads he had. He couldn’t send men out with orders to search all of Terah, although it was a tempting idea.

  After a bit, Rolan got up and walked around his office, fingering different objects, picking some up, putting them down somewhere else, picking up something else, and so on, not paying any attention to what he was doing. He had to find a new clue, some new information, a new place to look, something. He couldn’t just sit around and wait until she was trained. She’d come for him. He knew that as well as he knew his own name, and he wasn’t at all sure he could defeat her in a fair fight, and if Myron was around, it would have to be a fair fight. Rolan shook his head. He had no choice. He had to get rid of her before she was trained, before she could come after him. But how could he do it if he couldn’t find her?

  Rolan slammed the object in his hand down on his desk without noticing it was a full cup of cold tea.

  “Page!” he roared through his closed office door.

  The door cracked opened and a timid young man stood in the doorway. “Sir?” he squeaked as Rolan stormed towards him.

  “I’m going to Cpt. Yardner’s office. Get this mess cleaned up, and get me a fresh cup of tea!” Rolan growled as he shoved the page out of the way.

  When he got to Cpt. Yardner’s office he threw the door open so hard it slammed against the wall and bounced back, nearly smacking him in the face.

  Cpt. Yardner swallowed a burst of laughter as Rolan dodged the door. “Can I help you?” he asked as he stood up.

  “I want to know what the men in North Amden are doing, where they’ve been, who they’ve talked to, and what they’ve discovered. I didn’t send them there for a holiday. They’re supposed to be working and I want to know what they’ve done!”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll get messages out to them right away. Anything else?”

  “Send a message to Milhaven. We haven’t heard anything from them lately and I want to know why. I want a full report by the end of the week!”

  “I’ll tell them to rush it. Anything else?”

  “That’s all. You’re dismissed.”

  “Sir, you’re in my office,” Cpt. Yardner said quietly.

  Rolan glared at him, opened his mouth as if to say something, then turned and stalked out the door.

  Cpt. Yardner gently closed his door and allowed himself a quick chuckle before he sat down to write the letters.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Wildcat Mountain

  Rhianna hadn’t wanted to talk Monday night, so it was a good thing Landis was already asleep when she got to Ashni’s, and the giants didn’t ask any questions. Ashni just offered her some refreshments and left her alone. But once she was in her room, the jumble of anger, embarrassment, and disappointment flooded over her. Her tears were a mix of sorrow and anger and she’d have been hard pressed to say which was worse.

  Tuesday morning, after Landis left for Willow Canyon, Rhianna got up, dressed, and went in search of tea. When she got to the kitchen, an older human lady was sitting at the table chatting with Ashni.

  “Rhianna, this is Torrey, Warren’s wife. They will be staying in Rainbow Valley for a while.”

  Rhianna held her hand out to Torrey. “It’s nice to meet you.” After they shook hands, Rhianna got a cup out of the cabinet. “Isn’t Warren the sorcerer who’s working with Landis?”

  Torrey nodded. “She sees Glendymere in the mornings and Warren in the afternoons. Makes a full day for her.”

  “She’s used to it.” Rhianna poured herself a cup of tea.

  “Come. Sit with us,” Ashni said, patting the place beside her. “I was not expecting you to return so soon.”

  Rhianna shrugged. “It was time.”

  Torrey and Ashni exchanged looks and then Torrey said, “Ashni’s too polite to say anything, but I’m not. Only man trouble can cause a woman to look like you look this morning. What’s that boy done now?”

  Rhianna shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes you do, and you can tell me it’s none of my business if you want to, but don’t pretend nothing happened. You look like you didn’t sleep a wink last night, and your eyes are all puffy and red. I’d bet my boots a man’s at the bottom of it.”

  Rhianna sighed and told the two women about the lovely day she’d had, how relaxed she’d been after her walk, and about Kevin’s reaction when he didn’t know where she was. “I’ve never been so insulted in my life. He acts like I need his permission to leave the castle, like I don’t have enough sense to take care of myself.”

  Torrey bit her lips in an effort to restrain the grin that was trying to break loose. “He only acts like that because he cares about you.”

  “That’s what Chris said, but if he can’t respect me, I don’t want him to care. I’m not a baby. No one needs to look after me. If he wants to take care of someone, he can go find Katrin.”

  Torrey frowned and looked at Ashni, who shrugged and shook her head.

  “You caught him off guard, Rhianna,” Torrey said softly. “I bet the two of you spend some time together before heading off to bed, don’t you?”

  Rhianna frowned. “Most nights we take Nikki for a walk, but what’s that got to do with it?”

  “While you’re walking, you talk about how your days went.”

  Again Rhianna n
odded, but her frown deepened. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”

  “You’ve led him to expect to see you in the evening. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s how he found out you weren’t there. He wanted to see you, to talk to you, before heading off to bed, but you weren’t there.”

  Rhianna’s mouth opened, closed, and opened again, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Men are so predictable. They need anchors in their day. For Warren, it’s that first cup of coffee with me in the morning and that last cup of tea with me in the evening. He can handle anything in between as long as he has a few minutes of quiet with me in the morning and again at night. How about you, Ashni?”

  Ashni laughed and nodded. “We have a small balcony outside our bedroom. We have our first cup of tea out on the balcony every morning. No matter how cold it is, we greet the day together. And, like you, we have our final cup of tea before bed out there. As long as we are together at those two times, he is happy.”

  “Maybe it’s something about the beginning and end of the day with men, but they all have their anchors, and as long as those are safe, all’s well in their worlds.”

  Rhianna shook her head. “It’s not like that with Myron. I’m sure he has routines, but not with me. Sometimes I see him at breakfast, and sometimes I don’t. The only thing we do on anything approaching a regular basis is walking Nikki in the evening, but I’ve only been there for two weeks. That’s hardly enough time for him to count on that. No, he was afraid he’d have trouble with the elves if I was stupid enough to get myself killed.”

  Torrey looked hard at Rhianna. “You don’t believe that, not really, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do when he apologizes.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, he owes me several apologies for what he did and said last night, but I can’t see him apologizing. He was all high and mighty about it, so sure he was right.”

  “He’ll apologize, as long as you’re willing to wait for it.” Torrey paused and sipped more of her tea. “All he has to do is realize he’d rather have you around than win the argument. It may not happen the first time you see him, but it will. He’ll come around. They always do.”

  Rhianna frowned and looked at Ashni, who nodded in agreement.

  “All right. Say he does. What am I supposed to do? Say that’s fine and let him tell me when I can come and go?” Rhianna shook her head. “That’s not going to happen.”

  Torrey grinned. “Just like now, your first instinct will be to tell him why he was wrong and then drive the point home.”

  Rhianna nodded.

  “You don’t want to do that. I repeat. Do not do that.”

  “Why not? He was wrong and I want to be sure he understands why.”

  Torrey shook her head. “That’s not what you want.”

  “It isn’t?” Rhianna asked, frowning again.

  “No. What you want is to get your way, and that won’t happen if you start the argument up again. If you try to tell him why he was wrong, he’ll have to jump in there with all kinds of reasons for why he’s right, and since he’ll think he’s being perfectly reasonable, you two will go round and round in circles and end up fighting again.” Torrey paused. “What do you want to do that he doesn’t want you to do?”

  Rhianna thought about the question for a minute. “I want to come and go as I please without anyone getting upset about it.”

  “So how can you do it?”

  “Since he thinks he can tell me what to do if I live under his roof, I guess I need to live somewhere else.”

  “All right. You’re not living there now. You’re here. Problem solved. Are you happy with the solution?”

  Rhianna sat up straight. “Absolutely. I’m where I belong, right here as Landis’s assistant. I’m sure she’ll do better if I’m here to support her.”

  Torrey tilted her head to the side and looked at Rhianna. “Do you think your absence has slowed her down?”

  Rhianna shook her head. “But I think it’ll be more fun for her if I’m here.”

  Torrey nodded. “But let me ask you something. If you’re where you want to be, why are your eyes so red and swollen this morning?”

  “Anger. When someone makes me angry, really angry, I either strike out or cry. He’s the Master Sorcerer. I couldn’t slap him like I wanted to, so I ended up crying instead. That’s all.”

  “Same thing happens to me,” Torrey said. “So, if this is where you want to be, everything’s right in your world.”

  Rhianna nodded.

  “Then why do you look so sad?”

  As Rhianna stared at her tea cup, one lone tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and started its way down her cheek. Torrey leaned across the table and gently wiped the tear away.

  Rhianna took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “I didn’t want to leave Milhaven. I like it there. I was having a good time helping Doreen build her house and I promised her I’d do her gardens. Myron’s aunt is getting some seedlings together for me to plant in them. And I want to make sure something gets done about Marshall’s mother, and spend some more time with Nikki.” After a slight pause, Rhianna added in a whisper, “And I want to find out if this thing between me and Myron is all fake or if some of it is real.” When she realized she’d said it out loud, her cheeks flushed and she stared down at the table. “Forget I said that.”

  Torrey patted her hand. “We didn’t hear a thing, did we, Ashni?”

  “Not one word.”

  “But with everything he did, everything he said, there was no way I could stay, so I left.”

  “So what you need to do is figure out how you can stay in Milhaven and still do the things you want to do when you want to do them.”

  Rhianna nodded and swished the last bit of her tea around in her cup for a few minutes. A slow smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up for the first time that day. “And I might have an idea how to do it.” Rhianna looked off into the distance and thought for a moment. “But first I need to see what happens Thursday evening.”

  Ashni frowned. “Thursday evening?”

  “We’re supposed to go to his aunt’s for dinner. I think her name is Danyelle. I told Chris I’d go, that Myron can pick me up here. I want to see what happens then.”

  Chapter 21

  Making Things Right

  Kevin stayed busy Tuesday and Wednesday, but he had to admit he wasn’t having any fun. He hadn’t had much fun until Rhianna had come to stay, and now that he’d had a taste of it, he missed it, almost as much as he missed her. At the same time, he’d meant what he’d said. She had to let him make sure she was safe or she had to stay out of Milhaven. He would not compromise where her safety was concerned. He’d spent most of the night after she’d left convincing himself he’d rather live without her than let her get hurt, or worse.

  As Thursday afternoon dragged by, he alternated between looking forward to seeing her and dreading it. He wasn’t sure they should even go to Danyelle’s. What was he supposed to say when he picked her up? How was he supposed to act? What if she was still so angry she refused to talk to him? Or see him? Maybe he should have Chris go tell her something had come up and they’d have to postpone the dinner.

  As soon as that thought crossed his mind, he threw it out. His aunt would kill him. So would Chris. Besides, he wanted to go. He wanted to see her and spend time with her, but he didn’t want it to end up in an argument again. Maybe they could call a truce for the evening. Should he suggest that? Or wait and see how she acted when he got there? He really wished he’d had more experience with women while he was back on Earth, before it mattered.

  Before it mattered. Yeah, this one mattered. And that was the problem.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  It was after nine by the time Kevin made it back to the castle. Chris and Nikki were waiting for him in the office.

  “Let’s take Nikki out for a bit,” Kevin said as he petted her.

  “Okay.” Chris stood up and stretch
ed. “But then I’m heading upstairs.”

  After they went outside, Chris asked, “How did it go tonight?”

  “Fine, as far as I know,” Kevin answered. “Rhianna was ready when I got there, and she’d remember that Norrie was excited about meeting a warrior elf. She wore a couple of daggers on her belt, some knives strapped to her arms, and had her bow and quiver over her shoulder.” Kevin laughed. “Norrie’s eyes just about popped out of her head when she saw her. I was yesterday’s news. She didn’t leave Rhianna’s side all evening. And Teron was nearly as bad, although he did manage to tell me hello. Norrie didn’t even do that.”

  “Did you and Rhianna talk?”

  Kevin shook his head. “Neither of us brought up what happened Monday night. I was hoping she’d come back here, but when we left Danyelle’s, she said she wanted to go back to Wildcat Mountain. I thought we might talk some there, but as soon as we got there, she said she’d had a nice time and went inside. Reminded me of a lot of the first dates I went on back in college where the girl couldn’t get rid of me fast enough, but back then I was praying they wouldn’t invite me in.”

  “You’re still going to Kyle’s Saturday evening, right?”

  Kevin nodded.

  “I’ll set something up for the two of you here, in Milhaven,” Chris said slowly. “We need to get her back here.”

  “I know,” Kevin agreed. “Rolan’s never going to believe we’re a couple based on the little bit she’s been around.”

  “She knows that,” Chris said. “She said she’d come back for the day whenever she needed to.”

  Kevin frowned. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  Chris grunted. “She said it right before I took her to Wildcat Mountain. When I got back you weren’t interested in anything she or I had to say.”