Page 2 of Sun Elves of Ardani

She looked at the large bloody spot on his pants a moment longer. “I need to remove your clothes.”

To look at the wound, or just for fun?he thought, but didn’t ask. Judging by her reaction to his last comment, she wouldn’t appreciate it.

She didn’t move, almost as if waiting for permission.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to do it myself.” He made a weak motion with his shackled hands.

She ignored the comment and stripped his bottom half down to his underclothes. She took care not to unnecessarily jostle the wound, for which he was grateful, because it hurt like all the hells. When she seemed to be focused on her work, he let his gaze wander to her face again. He felt her cool fingers brush against his skin as she peered at all the blood and rot. He couldn’t bring himself to look down at it. He knew it was a mess. But if she was bothered by it, she didn’t show it.

“May I ask your name?” he said.

She sighed a little, not looking up. “Kadaki.”

“I’m Neiryn,” he said. “All right, Kadaki. I’ll give you three guesses as to how the three of us met.”

“You were escaping the night elves together.”

He paused, annoyed. “How did you know?”

“It’s the obvious explanation. Are you talking so much because you’re nervous?”

He probably was. Maybe it helped a little.

Kadaki pursed her lips. Neiryn stayed quiet, thinking that it was probably best not to irritate her. But after a few moments, she spoke up again.

“What did this?” she asked with a sort of clinical interest. “An arrow? From the night elves?”

“Yes.”

“And you pulled it back out?”

“I did.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“I didn’t have much choice. I was running for my life. Not that it mattered. They caught me anyway.”

“You’re a sun elf. You have fire magic. You could have fought them.”

“Even magic has its limits.” He watched her fetch a few bottles, some white cloth, and a needle and thread from a shelf and set it all down on the table beside him. “You’re going to stitch it?”

“That’s the way it’s done,” she said with a long-suffering impatience, as if she were all too accustomed to people questioning her. “If you don’t stitch it before you use magic to heal the flesh, it—”

“It will heal crooked,” Neiryn finished for her. “Yes, the Ysuran healers have told me the same.”

She gave him a wary look, as if still waiting for him to argue. “Yes,” she said finally. “Yes, that’s right.”

He saw an opportunity and leapt on it. “It must be tiresome having to explain these things to people who don’t know anything about magic.”

She scoffed in agreement. “Yes.” She doused his leg in some kind of liquid that stung like mad. He held his breath until the stinging passed.

“You seem very knowledgeable about magic, for a human.”

Her face turned slightly pink. Neiryn smiled. He had her.

“You seem very polite, for a sun elf,” she replied coolly.

“All Ysurans are polite. We’re a very civilized people.”

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