She observed him for a moment longer, then looked outward. “So, would you ever have expected in beginning your grand scheme that you’d be facing demons?”
Alluin leaned forward. “No, but it doesn’t really change things, we still have to kill Egrin.”
Elmerah gripped the railings above her legs and stretched her back, grazing the ends of her loose black hair across the granite tiles. She sat back upright and took a deep breath of the flower scented air. “Any idea how were going to do that?”
He laughed again. “I was hoping you knew. You know him better than any of us now, except maybe Isara.”
She watched those below them. “I never truly thought it could work, but here they all are: the Woodfolk, the Moonfolk, and Arthali all in one place.”
She spotted Celen walking below, carrying a sack of grain like it weighed nothing. He looked up at her and gave her a militia salute. She smiled. Now where on earth had he learned that? She stiffened as she realized Alluin was watching her, then glared.
“What?” she snapped.
He smiled and shook his head.
“What?” she asked again, giving his shoulder a shove.
He playfully shoved her back. “Must you ruin every decent moment?”
She snorted. “You ruined my decent moment the second you walked your pointy ears out here.”
“I owed you a ruined moment. I owe you a million ruined moments for sacrificing yourself to Egrin like that.”
Elmerah opened her mouth, hoping another scathing remark would pour out, but nothing came. “Am I to believe you were worried about me?”
He shrugged, not looking at her. “Just a bit.”
She watched him, waiting for him to reveal that he was only joking. When he did not reply, she turned her gaze back out to those working below. “I might have been ever so slightly worried about you,” she admitted. “With only two Faerune elves to watch your back you were as good as dead. I’m shocked you survived.”
His shoulders slumped. “Yes, especially considering one of them was a traitor. Out of all the people who could’ve betrayed us, including each other, he was one of the last I would have expected. He seemed to care so much about Faerune. I can’t believe he would betray them all.”
“I don’t find it hard to believe. How would you feel, watching the priests and priestesses up here in their high Temple?”
He shrugged. “I can’t say, Valeroot has no such hierarchy. We assume the roles to which we are best suited, while the eldest make the final decisions for their clans.”
“Well regardless, we’ll kill Malon too. What’s one more name on the list?”
“Nothing to an Arthali witch.”
She grinned. “You’re incorrigible.”
They sat like that for a long while in companionable silence. Perhaps they should have helped the workers below, but Elmerah felt entitled to rest while she could. She was the one who had to figure out how to kill a demon, after all, with help only from the elf at her side, a naïve priestess, and a fluff-headed scholar with demon blood running through her veins.
Really, it was more help than she’d ever had in anything else, so she supposed it wasn’t too much for her to take on. If anyone was going to get to tell the tale of how they killed a demon, it was going to be her.
To be continued…
Want to read the full tale of how Malon and Saida first met? CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SHORT STORY, WARD OF WINTER, FOR FREE.
Other series by Sara C. Roethle:
TREE OF AGES
THE THIEF’S APPRENTICE
BITTER ASHES
XOE MEYERS
Curse of the Akkeri Page 20