Page 87 of A Fractured Song

“Go on.” The creature pointed up toward a dwelling, attached to the trunk at about three times Zev’s height.

For a moment Zev just stared, then he realized Marieke was moving forward. She’d been quicker than he was to spot the subtle ladder leading upward. It consisted of nothing more than thin strips of wood attached to the tree, easy to miss given they were of the same hue as the trunk. They were set close together, to allow for elvish limbs, so Zev had to skip two out of every three in order to make it work.

He climbed up behind Marieke, his tension not lifting until they emerged safely onto a platform inside the first level of the structure. The pressure in his chest eased slightly as they left the ground behind.

Zev had expected their guide to follow them up, but a glance back down the hole they’d climbed through showed him still on the ground, in conversation with another elf who’d approached.

“This place is quite something, isn’t it?” Marieke said, looking around the room in which they found themselves. Itwas cool within the clay walls, plenty of light coming in from regular windows, and one wall curving away, formed by the trunk of the tree on which the structure was built.

“I never imagined anything like it,” Zev admitted. “I’m surprised they settled in this area, to be honest. The trees here are so enormous, even to a human.”

“You thought they’d prefer somewhere with more elf-sized flora?” Marieke asked, with the hint of a grin.

“The flora of our ancestral home is as appropriate to elves as anywhere in the forest.”

The high voice made them both spin. Neither had heard the approach of the new elf around the curved platform. Zev could see Marieke’s flush at being overheard, but he felt no embarrassment as he looked over the newcomer. She looked much older than the other elf had, her face lined and her pointed ears longer than the ones he’d seen before. Her eyes were still brilliantly green, however, and her hair hung down her back in a thick, silver rope.

“Unlike humans,” she considered placidly, “we’re not daunted by being smaller than the world around us. It doesn’t fill us with the desire to conquer. We embrace it.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been gripped by the desire to conquer in my life,” Zev informed her.

The elf considered him, her expression thoughtful. “No?”

“We did not mean to offend,” Marieke said carefully. Zev was pleased that she’d remembered not to apologize outright, for fear it might be taken to indicate an obligation owed.

“I am not offended, child,” the elderly elf said. “I can more accurately be described as intrigued. Only once before in my lifetime has a human sought an audience with me.”

“With you?” Zev raised an eyebrow. “Are you the Imperator?”

“I am.” She looked him over shrewdly. “And you, I take it, are Zevadiah of this kingdom.”

“Well, no one has called it a kingdom in a long time, but yes,” Zev said.

“Hmm.” The elf was still studying him, her penetrating gaze unnerving. “What humans call the land is of less relevance than they imagine. It is what the land recognizes that has greater impact.”

Zev shifted his weight from one leg to the other, his expression carefully impassive.

“Come,” the elf said abruptly. “We will sit.”

She led them around the curve of the building, traveling through two more rooms before stopping in one that jutted further out from the tree trunk than the others. It was set up with cushions on the floor, onto one of which she sank. Marieke and Zev followed suit, their movements awkward as a result of everything being a bit too small for their frames. Another elf, this one much younger, appeared from nowhere and sat beside the Imperator, her emerald eyes bright and curious as they studied the strangers.

For a moment they sat in silence on the floor before the Imperator’s thin lips curved into a smile. “I am not what you expected, am I?”

“Not precisely,” Zev acknowledged.

Her smile broadened. “What did you anticipate? A crown? A castle?” She shook her head. “I am no monarch, Zevadiah of Aeltas. I hold a hereditary position, it is true, and my title carries with it a certain power and influence. But my role is more to unite and provide a central point of communication than to actually lead.”

She looked to the younger elf at her side.

“Speaking of heredity, this is my granddaughter Kiarana,who will take over my position when I return to the ground and my life is absorbed back into the magic of the land.”

Marieke inclined her head to the younger elf, her blue eyes full of the curiosity that Zev had sometimes had cause to rue.

“Well met,” she said politely. “I’m—”

“Marieke of Oleand,” the Imperator finished for her. “Or so said your note.”

Marieke nodded a little awkwardly. “It obviously made its way to you. I had no idea if it would work.”

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