Cassia shook her head as she gazed back at her reflection. She doubted herself at that moment; she doubted her strength and her ferocity, her magic and her knowledge.
She shouldn’t. She should have never belittled herself this way.
She was by far better than those pretty, spoiled females.
She was the Heir. The Heir of the King and the blood of the gods ran through her veins, hot and alive. Alive.
The scars over her back thankfully were under Mersila’s glamour. She cleared her throat and shook her head.
I would not doubt myself.
She repeated that over her head, repeated it until her mind could no longer hold it and a smile went over her lips. She closed her eyes and kept the smile plastered on her face.
I would not doubt myself.
She took one, last glance at herself before she twisted on her feet and left the room, closing the door loudly behind her. She turned around and-
She groaned as she collided with a black silk clad chest. She was about to speak, but as Cassia raised her eyes, she clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. She took a step away from him.
“Look at what we have here.” The sneering in Griswold’s voice made her want to snap at him like she had done in the morning.
She groaned. “What do you want?”
He surveyed her, glanced at her dress from her feet and upwards. Something flashed in his eyes, but it was brief. She felt his glance hovering about her exposed chest and for a moment she cursed Mersila under her breath for ever persuading her into displaying her chest with that sultry way.
“Stop looking at my breasts, you pervert.” Cassia crossed her arms over her chest, trying to cover as much skin as she could.
He smirked viciously as he raised his eyes to hers. “Where is her majesty going?”
“None of your concern.” She groaned and shook her head in annoyance.
“I believe it is my concern since Lord Beathan is absolutely uncaring of your well-being.”
She tilted her head to the side and snarled. “And you think entitled to care about me? Let me remind you that a few hours ago, I was scum and beneath you. I am sorry, my Lord but I have nothing to do with you.”
She twisted upon her feet and left as quickly as she could.
+ + +
Ael straightened his spine as he twisted about himself and glanced at her from beside the wooden door in the main hall. She tried not to peek at his face as she walked steadily on the heeled, black boots Mersila had taken so much time on hexing with silvery ornaments. She was certainly not a sight to behold. She felt more ridiculous than beautiful, but she tried to allow her mind hover over the idea of being somehow agreeable.
The face of the Captain though had blanched, his blue eyes wide opened and staring at her with some peculiar kind of awe. She was not beautiful, she was a pale, little, and scarred thing that one day would inherit the Kingdom of the Dark Elves. She despised every bit of her legacy, every death and every soul it had cost.
She managed a broken smile, but Ael seemed too far off to even avert his eyes from her. It was uncomfortable, far more uncomfortable than she had ever thought it would be. It felt serious and... and it made her nervous. What if Mersila had been correct and the Captain aspired something more than a friendly relationship?
No matter how old she was or how many things she had faced in life, relationships had ever been a nonexistent notion in her vocabulary. Whenever she had taken a lover to her bed she had never done so willingly, it was either to take information out of him or kill him in his sleep. It was how her life had been. She had known little pleasurable moments and not a whit of real unrelenting happiness.
Even though Ael was a fine elf, a warrior just as herself, a more intimate relationship was uncharted territory.
She raised her eyes back to Ael’s and to her relief they had softened a bit. She cleared her throat in uneasiness and took a step back. He wore black pants and shirt and a dark leather jacket, his hair was loosened in a sensual way, blond soft curls falling carelessly over his forehead as he pushed them back with his fingertips.
“You…” He trailed, finding hard to remember words and smiled. “You look beautiful.”
It was the first time. The first time that someone had complimented her this way. She should have cringed and walked away from him. She took in a long breath and she couldn’t help but remember the lessons the King had paid so handsomely for her.
Lessons in etiquette with the most renowned Ladies, swordsmanship with General Aikho, lessons about how a lady should act on all phases of her life, lessons of how a wife should be with her husband, but not a normal kind of wife, the lethal kind the one that plotted against her husband and killed him in his sleep after lovemaking. She’s had lessons on how to please the opposite gender with the best male courtesan in the Citadel. History lessons, sparring session, magic and so much more that it had taken her years to finish her tutelage.
Lady Reastra had pointed out that Cassia should always accept a compliment with a smile and a polite thank you. She had been adamant that a true Lady should not blush at being complimented on her beauty because she was certain of herself, and needed no one to reassure her.
Cassia gulped and smiled at Ael, nodding her head. “Thank you, I believe Mersila was far too...pressing on the matter of the dress.”
“Beathan’s sister?” Sia nodded as he chuckled lightly. “She’s been a very annoying brat in the past.”
She shook her head. “I doubt it, I find her quite sweet to converse with.”
He rolled his eyes. “Mersila is the last thing I want to talk with you about tonight.”
She chuckled, nodding her head in approval. “Show the way to wherever you will take me to.”
His eyebrows shot up as he grabbed onto her hand. “I can but only comply to the command of such a lovely presence.”
Before Cassia could understand what had happened Ael was into the city
+ + +
Cassia’s eyes glanced at the colourful cobblestones that had had her magnetized the first time she had ventured into the city. She raised her eyes from the little purple cobblestones underneath her boots. Maybe every colour had a meaning. She made a note in her head to ask Ael about it later.
Her eyes came to face a wooden round door carved with bits of leaves and wishes in an elvish dialect she remembered to have studied years ago and an arched golden doorknob. She twisted her head to the side and glanced at the brown outer walls of the building.
Beautiful round windows adorned at both sides of the wall and with neat green curtains hanging from the inside pulled at either side of the window with red strings of what looked like velvet.
The smell of flowers came fresh to her mind and she took a look around. It was a lush green garden with many brown and black pots of various flowers, round and with many leaves, small and big just as big as her palm. Roses, purple flowers, green ones and yellow. Herbs also stretched across the foundations of the building and emitted a pleasurable smell of lavender, honeysuckle and sage, they somehow managed to twist her senses in a dance of peculiar smells and dreams.
Wherever he had brought her, this place had already taken a special place in her mind.
The tablet hanging from the wall just above the door read ‘Caran’ life in the southern elven dialect, the dialect of her kind. She flinched as Ael opened the door, her feet dragged her back, unable to move. Caran. Caran… The word repeated itself in her brain, her face contorted. Home. She wanted to go back home, to her people and stop pretending that she tolerated these elves. Home, she had to return.
The warmth of Ael’s palm reached over the ice, cold skin of her arm. She shot him a glance and narrowed her eyes. He withdrew his hand away and gave her a reassuring smile.
“Get in.” He moved to the side, making way for her to enter. She walked in reluctantly. Ael stepped beside her and smiled down at her. She nodded plainly as she followed him deeper into the homely restaurant.
Th
e owner seemed to have a love for round furniture because the place was made of round shapes and forms. Round wooden tables were stretched on either side of a red carpet, parting the restaurant in the middle and leading to a fine wooden bar and matching stools.
Candles and other varying flower pots were placed onto the tables. She had to admit that she preferred this little restaurant better than the one Beathan and the lot of Lords had taken her that night. She took a look around and exhaled soundly, she had nothing to be afraid of in that place.
“Caradah, you are here and you are not greeting your firah.”
Cassia turned toward the high pitched female voice. The female approached them. She had blond locks twisted in a braid around her head and her eyes, as she came forward, were a match for Ael’s. Caradah loved one, she had said. Firah, mother, she had said.
She stepped before Ael and threw her arms around his neck kissing and pinching his cheeks. She grinned, her blue eyes beamed with motherly love. She laughed and smiled and chuckled.
The female held onto Ael’s cheeks with her palms and smiled. “Look at you!” She exclaimed smiling. “I’ve had such a long time since I last saw you.”
Ael growled. “Firah, I was here two days ago.”
She faked a few sobs and turned away from Ael. “Your poor, old firah is so alone here in the restaurant.”
Ael shook his head and turned around to look at her, he motioned to come closer as he smiled sweetly. He placed a hand on her waist, a gesture that alarmed her more than the casual Southern Dialect thrown between mother and son. His mother?
“Firah, this is-”
The mother moved forward and smiled. “Oh! Dear, you’ve brought a bride!”
“Firah, no.”
“Oh! Caradah, you make your firah so proud. I am going to be a faraho.”
Grandmother…
Cassia shook her head and smiled, trying to swallow the bitter words rising on her tongue. “My lady, I am Cassia. It is very nice to meet you.”
The she-elf’s eyes widened as realisation struck over her features, she took in a breath wore a smile and bowed before Sia. “Such an honour to have you in my restaurant.”
Sia stepped forward and pulled the female up. “No need to bow before me.”
Ael’s mother smile somehow reminded Sia of the vague memory she had of her mother. The female pulled Sia by the hand and laid her on a table by one of the round windows with the green curtains.
The female grinned and forced Cassia to sit down as she pulled Ael down at the seat across Sia. The Captain was found to be in an awkward position. Maybe bringing Sia here was not a very fruitful thought.
“I will take care of your meal.” The she-elf smiled and moved away somewhere at the back of the restaurant.
Ael remained silent until his mother had vanished from the hall. He shot Cassia an apologetic look and sighed heavily, resting his head on his hand.
“I am sorry for my mother.” He said and relaxed at the chair he sat.
Sia shook her head, “I thought your mother was dead.”
Ael winced. “She was my father’s first wife actually. He cast her away just as he did with me. I found her a few years ago.”
Cassia pursed her lips and chuckled. “She is… rather indulgent to you.”
He grinned. “Now, you think that I am a mama’s boy.”
She laughed. “No, none at all. It’s strange to me though. I’ve never known my mother well enough to care and-”
He shook his head. “It must be hard for you.”
She bit her lip, memories crept around her mind. “It’s nothing. I don’t even remember her anymore.” The atmosphere seemed to have become so heavy that it brought a pain over her chest. She took in a deep breath and smiled. “So, you’ve never brought a female companion here?”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Now you are going to torment me.”
“My pleasure,” she chuckled. “Mersila could have even thrown a party right there in my room when I told her I was having dinner with you.”
“I am nothing special.” He shook his head; the smile he wore seconds ago had wilted away. “Anyway, her brother would have never allowed a lowly elf around his sister.”
Sorrow spread over his words and made her heart clench inside her chest. Then it dawned on her that Ael might have had feelings for Mersila. It was complicated though. A Captain with a Lady, nothing could have ever gone right with that match. Sia let out a heavy breath and glanced at the Captain before her.
“What’s your mother’s name?” She asked with a smile, trying to lighten up the mood.
He pursed his lips. “Aelia.”
Her eyebrows rose. “What happened?”
He grimaced and shook his head. “She left though, found her mate in the War and changed alliances. I guess love alters the way we see the world.” He smiled softly. “Can we change the subject? Do you want my mother to sit down with us and began talking like,” he waved his hands. “Endlessly?” He winced and groaned.
“She likes that you finally brought a girl with you.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ve brought a girl before, but she talked to her about how chubby I was as I a kid and how funny that time I walked into the garden naked when I was like three years old.”
Cassia could hardly contain her laughter as she imagined a three-year-old with blond hair and brilliant blue eyes running about the garden bare as the day he was born. It was the only genuine laughter she’s had in a long time.
Genuine, the one that warmed her chest and made her head dizzy with the lack of air in her lungs.
He glanced at her through worried eyes that held a sparkle of joy, despite the anxiety over his mind. He sighed soundly and fell back to his chair wincing slightly.
“Don’t laugh, I’m serious. I did get out naked and my mother laughed so hard.”
Sia shook her head, her laughter dying away slowly. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He raised an eyebrow questioning her in silence.
“For making me laugh.”
She pulled her glance away from his and glanced about the room as silence betook them and settled over in a beautiful haze. She pursed her lips and looked back at him.
“Griswold knows something about the Sword.”
He stilled but sat up straighter as a waitress brought them the careful meal Lady Aelia had put together. Light Elves had a preference for vegetables and fruits contrary to the Dark Elves. The waitress placed the platters with the traditional Adanei dish before them, poured them red wine, bowed and left without saying a word.
It was a colourful meal, red and green and yellow and some purple vegetables that were so certainly Adanei. She debated whether she should check it twice for poisoning rather than consuming its contents right away. Ael took up his fork and dived into his plate. She checked for poison and when she found none she followed suit and tasted first the forked yellow vegetable.
Sweet, but sour at the same time, not at all disgusting, but still nothing like she has tasted before.
They ate mostly in silence, Cassia’s words heavy over them. Thankfully Aelia hadn’t come out of the kitchens and they were left alone.
Once they had finished Ael pushed his fork and knife on the plate, he rubbed his face in his hands and said, “How can you be certain he knows?”
Sia’s lips clamped together. “After I threatened him today,” Ael quirked an eyebrow and she shook her head. “He wore a pendant with a rune. I was certain I had seen it somewhere.” She rubbed her forehead with her index finger. “Wonfare is not a place; it’s a rune of transportation.”
Ael nodded and tilted his head, resting in on his palm. “What do you propose then?”
“I have to write it with blood on the floor and then step on it and call the name of the one I want to meet.”
Ael huffed. “We have no idea what exists on the other side of that rune, Sia.”
“Elaine.”
“What?”
“Elaine.”
“Wait,” Ale frowned. “She died in the battle of Wonfare. It’s on the first page of Leondir’s dairy.”
“Ael, the diary is a riddle in itself. Wonfare never existed, it was Leondir’s rune. Elaine was not his mate, yes she had been his only lover, but she left him at the same point.” Sia shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. “The Tales of Fynwy? Does it ring any bells?”
Ael sat straighter on his chair, his throat bobbing. “That’s a children’s book.”
Cassia rolled her eyes. Indeed, it was a children’s book, but sometimes the most unexpected things were found in the most obvious places. She cleared her throat and tilted her head to the side. “The third tale begins, ‘Elaine, Angharad, Aeres, fair Lady of the Lake. Beware of the she with silver blood in veins’. Ael, it was all there from the beginning.”
Ael narrowed his eyes and frowned. Cassia was not the easiest she-elf to go by, most of the time she spoke in riddles. Ael huffed loudly, resting his chin on his hand. “What was all there from the beginning? Sia, I can’t follow you.”
Cassia stood from her chair. “Tomorrow,” she said, smiling. “Tomorrow we go meet Elaine.”
+ + +
Ael stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up at her as she ascended them. She stopped at a lonely stair and turned to look at him, a smile playing over her lips.
“Tomorrow morning, don’t be late.” She said and tilted her head to the side.
“I don’t believe I can even deny you anything.” He huffed, a smile playing over his lips. “Goodnight.”
She chuckled lightly and grasped her hand around the handrail. She smiled and sighed. “Goodnight, Ael.”
+ + +
Cassia reached the top of the stairs listening to Ael’s footsteps.
She reached the door of her room and gingerly placed a hand on the doorknob as she took a deep breath and smiled sheepishly against the wooden door.
It had been too obvious from the beginning. Down there, in the pits of Wonfare...
A War of Silver and Gold Page 32