Page 44 of Sun Elves of Ardani

He hesitated, then steeled himself and reached down to take her hand. She glanced down at his hand, then up at him.

Most often, she reacted with a sort of clinical bemusement when he touched her. He was still not sure whether the contact was welcome or not, or if she understood what he meant by it. An Ysuran woman would have instantly recognized his interest, but perhaps things were different in Ardani.

He wouldn’t mind if she wasn’t interested in sex, as long as she was interested in him. But even that, he was uncertain of.

He licked his lips before he spoke. “I don’t want to leave you.”

She stared at him, her gaze wide and inscrutable. “Why not?” she asked quietly.

He looked at her. “Why?” he repeated, scoffing. If she didn’t yet know why—no, she knew. No one was that dense.

Why.Who asked something like that? She made him feel as if he were foolish for saying it. As if she couldn’t fathom why he would think she might care how he felt.

Sometimes he was certain she cared for him, and other times… Other times, she made it quite clear that she would never see him as more than a curiosity. A person to mine for trivia about his homeland or his magic, which she found momentarily entertaining.

He took back his hand. “Well, you can hardly get along on your own now that you’ve made such a mess of your life,” he said coolly. “I’ve got to stay and make sure you survive without the army, haven’t I? You saved the entire Kuda Varai axis, so I owe you that much.”

She arched an eyebrow at his tone. “Oh.”

She withdrew, verbally and physically, and stared into the fire.

Guilt and anger wormed through him.

He got up and started to walk away from the fire, but stopped when he spotted two men standing in the trees a few dozen paces away.

“Kadaki,” he hissed. “Someone’s here.”

The men seemed to have just stumbled upon their camp and were watching warily from a distance. Neiryn could see red and blue cloth through the brush—army uniforms. Kadaki drew her cloak closed to cover her own uniform.

“Are they from your company?” he asked.

“I don’t recognize them.”

Either way, they wouldn’t take kindly to suspicious sun elves hiding out in the Ardanian wilderness. “What do we do?”

“They don’t know you’re Ysuran. Many elves live in Ardani.”

“How will you explain my accent?”

She bit her lip, then worked her mouth into a wry smile. “Perhaps if you can manage not to talk for a few minutes. I know it’s a lot to ask.”

One of the men was carrying a bow. Neiryn inched closer to Kadaki. There was nowhere to hide from arrows. By the time they ran to the cover of the closest trees, they’d already be dead, if the man was a decent shot.

“We should kill them,” Neiryn said, his hands itching to spark flames.

Kadaki’s eyes widened. “No!”

He saw movement from the direction of the trees. The one with the bow was drawing an arrow from a quiver.

Kadaki stepped forward and threw open her cloak, showing her uniform. “Don’t shoot,” she called, holding up a hand.

The men paused. The one with the bow didn’t nock his arrow yet.

“Well met,” Kadaki called.

The men exchanged words under their breath.

“Well met,” one of them replied after a few moments. They came a little closer. “Where did you get that uniform, girl?”

---