Page 104 of Sun Elves of Ardani

Kadaki took the glass from him, alarmed. “What?”

“It tastes wrong.”

She sniffed it, then took a cautious sip. It was sour and bitter. “It tastes normal to me.”

“This is how it’s supposed to taste?” He sighed. “Goddess help me.”

She smirked, handing the glass back to him. “Have you never had alcohol before?”

“I’ve had wine. This is worse.”

“Yes, but it’s cheaper.”

“And I’m risking the spit for this,” he muttered.

“You’re going to have another one after that, too. One glass isn’t enough to get tipsy.”

“You’ll excuse me if I don’t savor it, then.” He tipped it back to drink the rest of it quickly.

Kadaki looked around the tavern. Rhian was sitting with a large group of Ysurans on one side of the room, and they were unusually boisterous despite the fact that only a few of them had drinks in front of them. Perhaps the Ardanians’ mood was contagious, even to the sober ones.

There was cause for celebration today. Rhian had requested approval to take over Caradoc’s role in Refka. That morning, they’d received word that her request had been granted.

The Ysurans weren’t the only ones who would be pleased by this news. Rhian had become somewhat popular among the Ardanians, which did not surprise Kadaki. Caradoc had set expectations low.

Kadaki had to admit that she liked her. In the past month, Rhian had demonstrated surprising concern for the Ardanians who had lost their homes and businesses, and for people who had lost friends or family members during the fighting. She wasn’t required to take resources away from her core mission of exploring the ruins in order to help reconstruct the Ardanian portions of the town, but she chose to anyway.

At Kadaki’s request, Rhian had sent a message to the Conclave, inviting them to send mages to help with the exploration of the ruins and management of the axis. It was a big step forward. Allowing Ardanian mages to work alongside them was a significant gesture of goodwill.

As Kadaki watched, Rhian looked across the room, locking eyes with a human man who sat at a table with some other Ardanians. Something silent seemed to pass between them, and then Rhian got up and went to the front door. The human rose to leave at the same time. In the shadows by the doorway, Rhian gave one of her vulpine smiles and took hold of his collar. The human looked about to melt as she pulled him out the door.

Kadaki was beginning to think that all sun elves secretly wanted to bed humans. Perhaps that was the real reason they’d come to Ardani.

“Did you know about those two?” she asked Neiryn.

“What?” he said, out of breath. He’d just finished downing the entire glass of ale at once, and he looked nauseous.

Kadaki shook her head, changing the subject. “Was it you who persuaded Rhian to take my suggestion to contact the Conclave?”

“She does occasionally make wise decisions on her own without my help, you know.”

“But you helped her with this one.”

“Yes,” he admitted.

“Thank you.”

A year ago, she could not have imagined a tavern full of humans and sun elves drinking together, with not one of them trying to fight the others. She could not have imagined ever seeing Neiryn again. She could not have imagined her magic coming back to her.

She could not have imagined how much happier she’d be.

* * *

The next day,Kadaki found Neiryn lying naked in the garden beside the house.

To be fair, not completely naked. He had kept on his underwear, not that they left much to the imagination. His eyes were peacefully closed, his face turned toward the sun. He seemed to be asleep. She might have worried that he was injured, had there not been a blanket beneath him that indicated he’d planned this and was lying almost-naked in their garden on purpose, for some reason, and not by accident.

She watched him for what must have been a minute before he spoke.

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