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  “One night of rest and forgetting our responsibilities won’t harm anything.” His smile made his chocolate eyes twinkle.

  “I do not have the luxury as you do. It is not only humans that I strive to protect, but my own people and everyone else as well.”

  “Right.” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “And who knows what will happen if you have a drink with one of us and lower your standards.”

  Instead of answering, she flung open the door to her room, dashed inside, and slammed it closed.

  How dare he speak with her that way? Tomorrow, she would tell Gillespie to take him back where he found him. They didn’t need a jester in this battle.

  Inside her room, Mirhana paced, careful not to wake Celeste as she slept.

  Mirhana did not trust Jeslyn, but could not find a reason why. Rather than wake Celeste, she left the room and saw Brock and Jeslyn talking downstairs at the table. She stayed out of their sight, but watched and listened.

  “You’re not tired?” Brock asked Jeslyn as he sat across from her.

  “I’ve survived on a few hours since I was a child.” She smiled into her flask then took another gulp. “Guess you don’t need sleep either?”

  “Not really.”

  “Perhaps I may journey with you?” She leaned across the table, her hand seeking his, but he jerked back. “With all these undead creatures lurking about, extra hands and weapons would make me feel more at ease.”

  Part of her wanted Jeslyn to touch her brother, so she would see the power he wielded. Maybe then, the woman would stay away from them. Mirhana had experienced a flickering of his power, and didn’t want to ever feel that again. It was sharper than static and left an ache behind so that she wondered if he took a piece of her soul with him.

  “Where does your journey end?” Jeslyn continued to lean forward as though to rest her chest on the table.

  Maybe she's drunk, Mirhana thought.

  “Doubt you will travel as far. We head for Cape Seyechell.”

  “Truly?” The sapphire slivers over her eyebrows flickered from the light of the fire. “I need only go to the outskirts of Zeborah.”

  “I’ll ask the others, but I don’t know any reason why you cannot travel with us. Besides, we appreciate your help with the Troblins. Although, evil hunts us. Perhaps it would be best if you went alone, or ask if Gillespie or Landon will take you to your destination.”

  Jeslyn’s mouth flattened as if he insulted her. “I’ve faced my share of evil. Besides, more blades are safer as I said. Thank you for saving me back there.”

  “Welcome.” Brock looked relieved when she leaned back in her chair. Her blue cloak draped over the back. She wore black trousers and a blue silk tunic that plunged down between her breasts.

  “First light will be in a few hours.” She stood. Her copper colored skin glowed in the firelight. “I assume we leave after breaking our fast?”

  Brock nodded. “You may come with us only as far as your destination. But I beseech you to find other travelers, for even with our number, you are the least safe with us, because evil hunts us.”

  “I’ll take my chances.” With her cloak over one arm, she sprinted up the stairs.

  Mirhana ducked into their room. The newness of being with these strangers and her brother drained her. Life was simpler before. With all she had heard, she feared she would not sleep for hours. The fire churned wood to ash as she waited for morning.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mirhana awoke to the scents of cinnamon and baking bread wafting from the kitchen. She ordered two baths brought upstairs.

  “Don’t have but one metal barrel.” The tavern maid pointed to a bucket propped beside the hearth. “Folks use our hot springs about half a mile past the stables.”

  Mirhana thanked her and advised they would need food for five, along with extra bread and jerky.

  She hiked back upstairs, nearly tripping over Jeslyn asleep outside one of the doors. Her cloak was bundled up like a pillow behind her head. Her back was propped up against the door, so she appeared to sit instead of slumber.

  Mirhana saw Brock in the hallway and nodded. She opened her door when she heard a curse and a slap. “What is it?” she whispered.

  “Just a bitefly I guess.” He wiped blood from his neck.

  Jeslyn was turned the other way as if she had awakened.

  Mirhana paused outside her door and heard Brock enter the room with Landon and Gillespie. He left the door open. She tried not to listen, but her Elvin ears picked up everything. It didn’t help that the walls were thin either.

  “Expecting anyone besides me?” Brock asked.

  “Just making certain.” She heard the sound of a sword sheathing as Gillespie continued. “After what I’ve witnessed, mistakes are made when one is too casual.”

  “Food will be ready downstairs. I hope to see you both well after your journey.”

  “We’re traveling with you.” Landon’s words rushed out. “After all, we can’t leave three women unescorted through these lands.”

  Mirhana wasn’t pleased he wanted to stay with them. And his words about unescorted women made her snort.

  “They have an escort—me,” her brother answered. “Although, I believe the women would take offense at your suggestion that they need protection. Wasn’t it them who rescued you, my lord?”

  “What have you told him?” Landon snapped. “I’m but a noble man, if that and nothing more.”

  My lor—Landon, I told no one.” Gillespie’s boots scuffled across the floor. She assumed it was him for Mirhana could see Brock just inside the room and she guessed by their conversation that Landon was either still in bed or at least barefoot.

  “I was joking,” Brock said.

  “Give us an hour to wash and be ready,” Landon answered.

  “Unless you are keen on bathing in a bucket, then I suggest we take the tavern maid’s advice and bathe in the hot springs near here,” Brock said from the doorway as he turned to leave.

  “Outside?” Landon asked.

  In the hallway, Jeslyn stared at Mirhana. Her smile didn’t light up her cerulean eyes. “Celeste eats already.” She nodded toward the room behind her. “Are they ready?”

  “Should be soon.”

  As if she and Mirhana were connected, Jeslyn followed her downstairs. Mirhana felt her stare, and it made the hairs on her neck and arms straighten. Her fists clenched involuntarily like they did whenever she and Melwyn used her as bait to lure in a vampyre or wraith. She would feel their stare on her back like oil coated her skin. So why do I feel like this now?

  In the kitchens, Jeslyn sat beside Celeste. Grabbing a bowl, Mirhana scooped up porridge with a piece of cinnamon bread.

  Brock sat down beside Celeste, but did not eat.

  “Aren’t you hungry?” Jeslyn accepted a bowl and slice of bread from the cook.

  “Not really.”

  What could he say? Mirhana thought. That draining people of their life was food to him from his curse? She did not know how he handled this atrocity. She saw the way he and Celeste loved each other—she did not have the courage to tell him life was fleeting. Let them enjoy each other before mortality rode in.

  After they ate, Celeste and Jeslyn packed up their supplies while Mirhana and Brock saddled their horses.

  Brock paused halfway then shouted about a fire. Mirhana dashed after him, but smelled no smoke. At the stables, Brock shook his head.

  “What fire? I see nothing.” Still, his words brought a fear like black ichor seeping into her.

  “Never mind … it just looked as though. Forget it.”

  Inside the stables, the stableboy greeted them. As if nervous, he swept back his hair from his eyes. “That black one’s not verra friendly.”

  The scent of hay, barley, and manure welcomed them back.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t think he likes anyone but his mistress.”

  Brock saddled the horses then tied his pack to Shadowdancer
’s saddle. She spun around to find Jeslyn watching them.

  Mirhana fought the urge to tell her to leave and journey with someone else.

  “Mind giving me a hand with mine?” A pair of reins swung in her hand. “I purchased the broodmare in the back. Not much to look at, but it’ll stay alive long enough to reach a larger town.” She sashayed past Brock into the stall.

  The stableboy thrust a saddle into Brock’s hands.

  Jeslyn’s horse was a muted white mare. After Brock saddled it, the horse’s back appeared to sag even more. Mirhana doubted the mare would last the day. Celeste entered the stables and Brock took her hand.

  “Where are these springs?” Mirhana held her pack with a bundle of clothes spilling out of it, bow and quiver slung over one shoulder.

  Behind her, the others carried their packs.

  “Just past the two elm trees over the hill,” the stableboy answered.

  “Let’s go.” Celeste flashed Brock a grin. “I smell like I haven’t bathed in weeks.”

  As they hiked to the springs, Landon increased his pace to match Mirhana’s.

  “I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night.”

  “Don’t mention it.” A rock skirted away from her boot a little too forcefully.

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, but I do think even in war, each day of freedom must be celebrated. I’ve had so little of it in my li—”

  When he didn’t continue, she glanced at him. He thought about something and it didn’t appear pleasant. Perhaps she had misjudged him and his motives.

  Feeling guilty from her words, she broke the silence. “No, I’m just on edge. A little lightheartedness will do me good, Breena tells me.”

  “Breena?”

  “She’s my friend. Even though I’m centuries older than her, she corrects me so often, I feel like she’s my elder.”

  He laughed, and the sound echoed through the woods. “Is that what it’s like being one of the long-lived races? Like the Anda?”

  “We live longer than they do. Their lifespan is three centuries, four if they are fortunate. Elvin live for several thousand years or more.” She thought about Nivel who was the oldest Elvin living and her ancestor. Despite that his life was linked with the Warloc’s, she was grateful that she knew him.

  “When I met you, I had no idea you were Elvin. You don’t look like Brock at all except for your coloring.”

  She shrugged. “I get that a lot. I look human to Elvin, and strange to humans.”

  “I wouldn’t call it strange. Exotic and beautiful are words that come to my mind.”

  No one had ever complemented her without wanting to bed her. The thought of rubbing her naked body against his sent shivers down her spine and moisture formed between her legs. Damn, it had been too long since she was intimate with someone.

  She had never had a reaction this strong from merely a voice. It unsettled her and she stared ahead instead of acknowledging his words.

  “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you, is there another way to kill the deadwalkers besides chopping off their heads or burning them?”

  “You have to do both.”

  “What?”

  “Well, if you burn them, that takes care of it. But, you have to burn all the parts. Even an arm will reanimate after a time. I have poison-tipped arrows that help slow them down, but nothing else will kill them. They are a productive army, doing their master’s bidding without pain or wanting to sip mead.”

  He laughed at her jest. “Touché.”

  • • •

  Thankfully, the springs converged inside a cluster of boulders. Landon and the men took the lower one, while the women bathed slightly out of their sight.

  After he disrobed and sank into the water that felt like it boiled his skin, he heard the women’s laughter float on the breeze. He wondered what Mirhana’s laugh would sound like. She was serious all the time. When she snuck in that remark about the deadwalkers drinking, it took him aback. He wondered about the woman behind the mask of warrior she always wore.

  Gillespie brought a handful of soapstone and passed a clump to him. The water crept up to their stomachs.

  Steam rose from the spring pool like the earth cooked them in her stew. Landon scrubbed his body and hair while sweat poured off him. How could anyone expect to get clean in a boiling spring?

  Landon took off his medallion and placed it outside the spring on a rock. The pendant was a silver dragon twisted around on itself with a ruby as its center and eye.

  A glint on the next bolder twinkled. Curious, Landon shielded his eyes from the sun. What he saw made his skin flame with embarrassment. Upon the boulder, Jeslyn sat naked with her back to them.

  Two rows of sparkles, like the ones over her eyebrows, made a diamond outline across her back. One point was just below her neck, the right and left brushed over each shoulder blade, then dipped down to her lower back.

  Landon turned his eyes to the ground as she slipped back into the water.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After they bathed and dressed, the men washed their clothes in the hot springs. Landon watched Gillespie soap his clothing and he copied his movements. He noticed Jeslyn fiddled with her clothes. Then Celeste gestured and said something, took Jeslyn’s trousers, and washed them. Jeslyn, as though not knowing Landon or anyone watched, smirked. He wondered if she was perhaps noble-born to have the air of arrogance.

  The men’s clothes cleaned, they draped them over the branches of a bush to dry.

  “If the women do not hurry, it’ll be noon before we leave.” Gillespie ran a hand through his damp dark hair.

  “We’ve had a hard journey, let them relax.” Landon leaned against one of the boulders.

  “We don’t have time to rest. Each day makes us farther behind schedule to make Cape Seyechell by Beltane,” Brock said through clenched teeth.

  Brock checked on his washed clothes. As though in frustration, he wrung the clothes out until no water splattered on the ground. Then he laid them down across the bush again. Before he dried his hands, the women skipped into view.

  “Aren’t ready yet?” Mirhana chided. “Our clothes are dry.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Well, if you wish to wait all day for the sun to dry,” the corner of Celeste’s mouth twitched as she addressed Gillespie’s statement, “it will take most of the day. Or I can run a magic breeze through them now.”

  Brock bowed slightly for Celeste to dry their garments. Seconds later, they packed.

  “Do you wish to ride with Celeste?” Mirhana asked Brock.

  “I can run as long as you.”

  Her pet, Melwyn dashed across the ground in front of them as if chasing invisible prey.

  Gillespie took the lead. Jeslyn rode on her mare beside Celeste, then Landon before Mirhana and Brock on foot.

  • • •

  After a few miles, Mirhana increased her stride. Brock gulped air to catch up with her.

  Her eyes focused on Jeslyn and Landon’s laughter as their mounts rode side by side. “Do you need to ride with someone?” Her breathing was even, not labored like Brock’s. “I’ll tell the others to stop.”

  Even Melwyn did not seem fazed by the pace.

  “I’m well; no need to stop yet,” he answered. “It’s those who sleep at night that need rest so.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. And she reminded herself again that she was his sister.

  Perhaps some like Landon considered her a beauty by human standards. By Elvin, she’d be mocked. For her face, eyes, hair, everything about her physical form masked her true Elvin nature. Before she met Brock, she worried he’d reject her because of it. And she wouldn’t blame him if he had.

  The sky darkened and they found a clearing to make camp. She took first watch.

  Rather than sleeping, Landon strode over. He held out a tin flask. “Just a little. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

  She accepted the drink and took a big swallow before handing it
back. It tasted like honey ale. He didn’t wipe off the tin, but took a drink as well.

  “Do you have a drinking problem I should know about?”

  He spewed the ale onto the ground. “What? Ah, no.” He chuckled and she found herself smiling as well. “In my realm, we drink wine and ale as though it’s water. Truth is, sometimes it is safer than water.

  “Once two villages came to our—the king’s palace with blackened tongues. The court physicians discovered it was from their well water. I’ve been raised on this stuff. Though Jeslyn out-drank me the other night, if you can believe that.” He took another swallow and then tucked the flask into his boot.

  “What do you make of her?”

  “I’m not sure. She seems eager to please when she has an audience, and people like that usually have a hidden agenda—their own. Still, I think she’s harmless enough. However, I don’t envy Celeste as she flirts with Brock all the time. That would make me want to strangle someone if he was doing that to my woman.”

  “I’ve seen her flirt with you, too.” Why did she say that?

  “I thought she was just being friendly.”

  The crickets chirruped and bullfrogs echoed in the distance.

  “Brock tells me, even though you two are twins, you grew up among the humans and not Elvin.”

  She sighed. “Yes. Twins only come every ninth millennia. It is custom whenever twins are born to sacrifice one, the girl, to the witches. Brock and my parents thought the sacrifice meant I was dead, but it wasn’t that kind of sacrifice. The previous Elvin twin sent to the witches had passed away. I guess, in a sense, I was the replacement.”

  “So you had your life mapped out. I understand that. I cannot do anything without someone reciting a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t.”

  “Not as bad as that for me.” She shook her head. “I came and went as I pleased. Where were you raised that you didn’t have simple freedoms?”

  “My parents, especially my father, were very strict. Even my playmates had to meet their criteria. I wasn’t allowed to climb trees for fear I’d fall and break something.”