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After much debate, Selene and Gweneth decided that the strange knight who’d burst into Neserie’s house through a portal had in fact been telling the truth. For while elven knights weren’t exactly fond of humans, they also didn’t go out of their way to deliver messages to them without serious cause, nor would one bother taking a portal across the realm just to set a trap. If anything, by walking up to Selene and Gweneth with her sword sheathed, Arryn had made herself vulnerable. She easily could have been slain! If Calain had been there, there was no doubt in Selene’s mind that the red knight would have run Arryn through before she’d fully left the portal.
And if Arryn really was a Wolf Knight, then she had no allegiance to anyone, not even Queen Carys. Wolf Knights were exiles and rogues, having been commanded by the mages of Menosea to lay down arms. It was not the way of the elven to engage in open fighting. No, the mages of Menosea would rather take back the realms through stealth and sabotage, if the rumors in Eldaris were anything to go by. The elves treated their knights as relics of a bygone era, while their assassins were venerated.
Selene was relieved to know that Calain was safe and was on her way there with Zelda. Once the sorceress arrived, she would be able to enter Elwenhal and rescue both Cassandra and Aereth. The only thing that worried Selene was the fact that Zelda must go there alone. Zelda was a powerful sorceress, but could she slay the fairy queen?
Selene supposed there were ways Zelda might outwit the woman. Fairies were highly susceptible to Bane Stones, as well as iron. Zelda could waltz into Elwenhal with a sword while never casting a spell, and the creatures would scatter in horror. Knowing that was enough to comfort Selene that at least Cassandra, who was fully armored and armed as she dreamt, had not ventured into the land of the fae completely defenseless.
The sun was setting when Selene, needing a breath of fresh air, decided to sit on the step outside her grandmother’s house. She watched a little sadly as the elven children ran up and down the street, chased once again by their little dog, who nipped playfully at their heels. Some small part of her almost wished she had stayed in Eldaris a little while longer, been a carefree child for a few more years. Knight training was demanding, often forcing young girls to grow into women overnight. When one was training to become a knight, there was very little time for play, and those early years of youth were spent studying history and learning swordplay. But it couldn’t be helped, for little girls had no choice but to begin their training early: the potion that would make them big and strong had to take effect before they reached puberty.
As Selene sat on the step, lost in thought, she heard the front door of the hut open and shut behind her, and then Gweneth sat on the step beside her. She seemed pleased about something.
“Your grandmother is hilarious,” said Gweneth to Selene’s unspoken question. “I thought she’d be a right demon, but she doesn’t take herself seriously. And she doth know how to trade blow for blow with that sharp tongue of hers.” She elbowed Selene and wagged her brows. “Wonder what she was like when she was young, eh? She has huge tits. Bet they were fine as any goddess. If she were younger, I’d make a lay of her so fast—”
“Gwen, would you not wonder aloud about my grandmother’s breasts? I would rather not lose my noon meal all over my nice shiny armor,” said Selene tiredly, and Gweneth laughed.
“Then best learn to projectile vomit.”
Selene couldn’t help laughing at that.
“What are you moping out here for?” Gweneth asked. “Worried about everyone? Tis your way, I know.”
“Everything used to be so simple,” Selene said heavily. “Seems since the moment we left Falcon Isle, we have been in peril.”
“Amen to that,” agreed Gweneth. “But things will settle down. Zelda will return, she’ll bring back Cassie and Aereth, and then we shall all go home to Wolf Fortress and get drunk and live happily ever after.” So saying, she lifted a skin of wine she’d taken from the hut and squirted a red stream into her mouth.
Selene gave a toneless laugh. “I hope you are right. I shall need a week’s sleep after all this stress and bother.”
“Sleep? I shall need a week’s worth of fucking! All this trouble we’ve gone through for Zelda, minding her babe and scrubbing the fortress floors! I expect many hours loving for this.”
Selene made a face. “Sex is not a barter or an exchange. It is an act of love between—!”
“Yes, yes, I was jesting, Selene,” said Gweneth tiredly. “By the gods.” She squirted more wine in her mouth.
Selene bit her lip. “I apologize. I’m in a foul mood. I haven’t slept well since Aereth took ill.”
“No, since Calain left us,” Gweneth corrected. “I’ve been marking it.” She sighed. “And one of us has to go down to the port and wait for Zelda, which means the other shall have to stay here and mind Cassandra. Seems neither us shall sleep tonight. And all this because of Calain!”
“Be fair, Gwen. It isn’t all Calain’s fault. Imagine things from her perspective. She is Bound to Zelda! Each time Zelda lays with another, she feels it! If it were me, it would have driven me howling.”
“Aye. Calain was already crazy before she was Bound. Being driven to jealousy has just made her worse. The knot she left on my head! Love has made her absolutely mad.”
“And what about you?” said Selene in amusement. “You care for Zelda. I see it every day.”
“Yes, and I’m absolutely mad for it,” said Gweneth with a nod, and Selene laughed. Gweneth waved a hand. “Look at me, sitting here, steeped in this insanity! It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to become the knight of a river girl and go back with her to Low River and guard her talisman shop or what have you. But instead, I am here, waiting for my friend to come back from the fairy realm, and my other friend to return with our lady from some other mad venture!” She shook her head and squirted more wine in her mouth.
“Do you regret it?” said Selene, who had watched Gweneth rant in quiet amusement.
“Not a bit,” said Gweneth at once, with such a casual air that Selene laughed.
“But I do look forward to settling down,” Gweneth went on. “I think we all shall need a long rest after this string of events.”
“I wonder if we have been pardoned,” said Selene. “The Knight of the Wolf didn’t say. She just mentioned that Calain was with Zelda.”
“I can’t say I care much,” Gweneth admitted. “I have no special place in my heart for Eriallon. Let Queen Cilia banish us!”
“That’s right,” said Selene, remembering. “You’re not from Eriallon, are you?”
“No. I hail from Ellormest. Many elven ruins there, ancient things, old places the rest of the world has forgotten. It would be a good place to settle instead of returning to Wolf Fortress.”
“Aye. If Queen Cilia hasn’t pardoned us, then it would be foolhardy to return to Wolf Fortress with her knowing we were there,” agreed Selene.
“We shall have to discuss it with Zelda,” said Gweneth thoughtfully, “but Ellormest would be a good place to take the child. Tis mostly wilderness, a few villages, wandering nomads, no large cities like in Eriallon and Koradara.”
“Mostly wilderness? And you want to raise Aereth there?”
“She would be hidden from the dangers of the city,” said Gweneth almost defensively. “You wouldn’t understand, Selene. You grew up in this little village, in a small community, where you were protected by your grandmother, a powerful, scary, old witch! The city is no place for a young girl.”
Gweneth sounded very bitter as she was speaking, and Selene remembered that Gweneth hated the city specifically because she had grown up in the wild. Selene knew that if she were to tell Gweneth about Zelda’s near-rape in Ternia, she would just see it as proof that cities were dangerous. And perhaps she wouldn’t be wrong.
“So how came you all the way from Ellormest to Eriallon?” asked Selene. “You never told me as I recall.”
“Well, Ellormest is all wilderness and roaming nomads, eh? If I wanted to be a knight, there was no academy nearby. I would have to leave my home. Eriallon and Falcon Isle were closest. So my mother and father put me on a wagon and kissed me goodbye.”
“Just like that?” said Selene in surprise.
“Well—no,” Gweneth admitted. “My mother didn’t want me to run off and be a knight. She wanted me to stay with the caravan, learn the herbalist trade from her. And my father, he didn’t want to let me out of his sight. Was afeared for me so far away in another realm. But my parents have six other girls, so I don’t suppose they were too fussed.”
Selene laughed flatly. “I bet they wept for you every night,” she teased.
Gweneth smiled.
“So we all became knights because we wanted to,” Selene realized. “Cassandra didn’t want to be a sorceress, Calain wanted to be a knight, I wanted it, you wanted it. . .”
“Were you expecting a sob story?” Gweneth said, lightly teasing.
“Yes,” Selene admitted. “I thought we all had them.”
“No. You’re the only one,” said Gweneth, grinning, and she laughed when Selene gave her a playful shove.
“But come, Selene,” said Gweneth seriously and nodded at the village. “You didn’t have it that bad.”
Selene glanced around at the quiet little village. There were people sitting on their steps, strumming lutes, brushing each other’s hair, singing and happy in the drowsy content of twilight. Mothers called children home, fathers tossed their daughters in the air. Selene saw a brother and sister skipping home through a thin patch of grass, a bucket of seashells in ones hand. It was a cozy, content little village, with no crime and little violence, where nothing much ever really happened, and because of that, the elves of Eldaris enjoyed a freedom that the elves in the city did not – Selene had enjoyed a freedom the children in the city did not, even if she had been lonely, even if her grandmother hadn’t been the most affectionate. She looked around and suddenly realized it could have been far worse.
“No,” said Selene, watching wistfully as the sun set beyond the spread of the rooftops, “I suppose I didn’t have it that bad at all.”