With that, I agreed. “Still, he might be a problem.”
“Unfortunately for him, you’re the best damn fighter on this island,” Haldor said with a chuckle. “And knowing how Isveig trains his murks, I’m sure the half-orc is more than capable of standing up for herself.”
I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to this. Only hours ago, I’d been hopeful for the summer. My name had never been drawn for the Midsummer Games, and I felt my time had come. I would finally take part, and I would win. It would mean Isveig would never find this place. His people would never find this place.
But it seemed fate had another plan in mind.
If I were to take part this year, it would be with my enemy by my side. At least, at the end of it all, I would be able to protect this place from her, too. She would likely never even make it back to the mainland.
Thunder boomed in the distance. The rains would be here soon. With a heavy sigh, I resigned myself to six weeks of living Hel.
“Fine,” I said. “Six weeks. Then we send her off on the first ship we can. But you two have to play a part in this, too. Make her believe this place is paradise and that it’s worth protecting. Shouldn’t be hard, because it’s the truth.”
5
DAELLA
I wandered through the village as the strong winds whipped up leaves and dirt. The place was bigger than I’d first assumed—closer to a town than a tiny hamlet home to only a few families. Cottages and shops crawled along the hills, all engulfed in vines and blossoming flowers. The scent of it was almost staggering—so sweet, so earthen. Back in Fafnir, most of the greenery had been replaced with stone and steel.
The sky cracked with thunder, and I flinched. I couldn’t bring myself to start knocking on strangers’ doors and begging for a place to stay. I already knew what they’d say when they caught sight of me. To the people of this village, I was the enemy.
I spotted stables at the corner of the dirt road, so I headed that way. Animals were often better company than people, anyway. When I reached the door I tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. I should have expected as much. Sighing, I looked up at the small overhang just over the door. It wasn’t particularly wide, but it might keep away some of the rain.
I settled onto the dirt and pulled my knees up to my chest. My clothes were still soaked through, and my feet felt like mush. The wind was whipping faster now, chilling my clothes. Most of the time, I ran hot, but even I wasn’t immune to the cold. Shivering, I dropped my chin onto my knees and tried to focus on the positives.
At least I was alive. Deep down, I knew Thuri and the others might not have survived. The Elding had taken out dozens of ships over the years, and most of the time, no one ever came back. Their bodies were lost to the Boundless Sea forever. I was lucky to even be here.
I was cold and wet and soon I would be in terrible pain, but I was no longer trapped inside that damn tower. I was out in the elements now, where I belonged. The dirt beneath me felt grounding, comforting. Orcs had never been meant to spend their lives indoors.
The sound of footsteps snapped my attention away from my thoughts. The thudding grew closer, and I steeled myself. Perhaps the owner of the stables had seen me squatting out here, and they’d come to chase me away. I’d have to find somewhere else to wait out the storm. Perhaps I’d be better off returning to the woods, where the trees would provide a little shelter.
A tall, muscular elf strode into view, and my stomach dropped. For fuck’s sake. It was that damn Rivelin again.
He swept his gaze across me, his expression hard. Was fate working against me somehow? If these stables were his, I hoped the ground would swallow me whole.
“You look cold,” he said, coming to a stop only a few feet away.
“What an excellent observation.”
“Why are you here?”
“I told you. I lost all my coin in the sea. Seems free room and board isn’t a thing here.”
“And so you decided to sit outside the stables.”
“I didn’t see any other inns, so unless they’re invisible it seems I’m out of luck.”
“Another inn wouldn’t offer you a room, either. That’s if we had one, which we don’t. Wyndale is a small, peaceful village. We don’t get many visitors when it’s not Midsummer, let alone murks.”
“Fantastic information. Thank you for telling me. I think I’d like to get back to my nap.”
His lips curved. “Nap? It looked more like glowering to me.”
“I don’t glower,” I insisted, reminding myself that I did, in fact, need to stick to my motto despite how dreadful I might feel at the moment—with my puffy eyes, my clammy skin, and the headache throbbing at my temple. These people would only stop seeing me as the enemy if I didn’t act like the grumpy bastard who stood before me. So, I wiped away the frown. “I’m just tired, that’s all.”
He shifted on his feet, suddenly looking a little uncertain. “You can’t sleep out here.”
“Let me guess. You don’t want the murk anywhere near your horses.”
“No, I mean…” He closed his eyes and spoke his next sentence through gritted teeth. “No one should have to sleep on the ground. I have a room. You can stay with me. For one night.”
For a moment, all my words and thoughts left me. Surely I hadn’t heard him right. Out of everyone in this village, he was the one offering me a bed? Had the storm already started, and I had gotten delirious from the rain? Or had I fallen asleep, and this was nothing more than a dream?
“I thought you hated anyone associated with the crown,” I finally said.
“I do.” He opened his eyes, and the gleaming yellow of them speared me. “But I won’t have you roaming around Wyndale hungry and cold. So get up and follow me.” Rivelin barked the words like an order, and I bristled.
Ah, I understood now.
Did he think I was a fool? He didn’t want me roaming around Wyndale because he and the others were hiding something. If he hadn’t already made it clear what he thought of me, I might have fallen for it, but I’d spent most of my life in Fafnir Castle. I knew what scheming looked like. He wanted to keep me close so that I wouldn’t find anything.
“Nice try,” I said with a smile. “But I think I’ll be far more comfortable out here in the rain than in your house.”
The scowl was there and gone in a blink of an eye, but I caught it. “Fine. Suit yourself.”
He turned and walked off without another word. Now that he was gone, I dropped my smile, and then settled against the stables once more. But try as I might, I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him. I watched him walk to the end of the road and then climb a short flight of stairs to a two-story timber house with white and red beams, the many window boxes vacant of flowers. The ground floor had wide doors and a metal sign in the shape of an anvil that read, Rivelin’s Forge.
That explained a lot. No wonder he smelled like smoke and steel.
When he vanished inside, I blew out a tense breath. He was going to be difficult to deal with, I could already tell. Suspicion practically swam in his yellow eyes when he looked at me. The fact he’d invited me into his home meant he would try to do his damndest to keep me from finding out the village’s secrets.