Page 60 of Dark Elves of Ardani

Zara was unmoved. He could make all the threats he wanted. Being told what to do only made her want to defy him more.

“He has gotten worse lately,” Zara said to Basira. “This is too much.”

“Just keep your head down,” Basira said. “Don’t give him a reason to dislike you.”

She had half expected Basira to say she was just imagining it. The confirmation that Zara wasn’t the only one who saw it made it all the more worrying.

* * *

Nero waiteduntil night had well and truly fallen before he approached the village. The fog obscured anything more than twenty paces away, but it was easy to spot the three Paladins patrolling the village by the large spheres of light cast by their lanterns.

He crept through the trees behind the inn and knocked lightly on the back wall of Zara’s shed. It was a minute before he heard the door open and close. He felt a strange combination of relief and dread as he heard her footsteps coming closer.

He never should have kissed her.

He should have anticipated her reaction. Human women did not like Varai, or half-Varai. Women in general did not like men who put blades to their throats and grabbed their hair and shoved tongues into their mouths without permission.

Zara appeared through the fog. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of resentment and embarrassment when he saw her. Rejection did that to a person.

She carried no light. When she reached the back of the shed, she paused and stared into the darkness.

“It’s me,” he said.

“Nero,” she said, and she sounded almost relieved. He wondered if she’d worried it was another Varai.

He swallowed his embarrassment. Best to get right to the point. He hated needing to ask for help, but there was no avoiding it. “I need your help. I need more medicine.”

She gave him a wry look. “You mean you are not going to rob me this time?”

He was glad he hadn’t put her off so badly that she would refuse to speak with him. “I thought I would try asking.”

“I thought you might come back. I made some things for you. Take me to the workshop. Do not let anyone see us.”

He had expected she might give him something if he asked for it, but he had not expected her to already have things prepared.

It meant she’d been thinking about him after he’d left.

Inside the seclusion of the windowless alchemical workshop, she turned on the mage light in the center of the room, and Nero squinted in the sudden brightness. Zara went to a shelf and picked up a generous handful of bottles and sachets. She set them on the table in front of him.

“This one is for… um, what is the word? Feeling like you will throw up?”

“Nausea?”

She nodded. “For nausea. This is four doses. You can drink a teaspoon every three hours. And this one will dull pain anywhere in the body…”

He listened mutely as she told him about each of the items. There was a startling thoughtfulness to the assortment. She’d included not only the necessities for healing, but things that merely provided comfort, like a balm that gently heated the skin it touched, for cold hands in the winter. Luxuries he usually couldn’t afford.

“You made all this in a day?” he asked when she was finished.

“No, no. I have been working on these for a while.”

“Do you not have need of them yourself?”

“I want you to have them.”

He hesitated, then reached for one of the bottles.

“Wait,” she said, putting her hand out to stop him. “I want something in exchange.”

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