Page 22 of The Broken Elf King
The wife smacked him lightly in the back of the head and I had to hide a grin.
“My husband is a proud man,” the wife explained. “Wehumblyaccept your offer, my lord, and next season we will be more watchful now that we know what to look for. We’ll spread the word to other farmers too.”
Raife nodded. “Very well. My castle treasurer will be in touch.” He then bent down to Corleena’s level. “Miss Corleena, have you eaten any of those berries last night or today?”
She nodded. “Just one.”
Raife reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. A purple glow emanated from his palm, and for a split second I saw a blackness travel up the vein of his wrist and into his body. He released her and winced slightly.
The mother reached out and held tightly to Corleena, shaking her head. “We didn’t know. How could we not have known?”
My heart felt for this family. To be farming blackberries for so long and not realize a fake was in your midst. Even now, I looked at the two different bushes that the farmer had pointed to and could barely see a difference. The points of the leaves on the fakes appeared a tiny bit rounder, the berries a bit plumper, but it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between them.
The king straightened. “Well then, I think you’re going to be just fine now.”
After another five minutes of the wife and farmer profusely thanking the king and I, we finally mounted our horses.
I winced as my sore muscles ground into the hard saddle.
Raife noticed. “Hurt?”
I blushed. “Not used to riding.”
He looked at me for longer than was socially appropriate and I cleared my throat.
“You saved her life, Kailani. Even after I gave up and told you to put her case out of your head. You should be really proud…”
It was as if the air charged around us. I could feel it as a tangible force.
“I’m proud,” he added.
Proud. He was proud ofme?
It was a silly thing to say, something a teacher said to a student or a father to a child, and yet it unlocked something inside of me. It warmed my heart and made me choke up a little. I hadn’t really thought of it as saving her life, but we’d caught her eating the berries and so… I guessed I did.
“It’s something anyone would do. If you have the chance to save a life, you should save it.”
He chuckled, displaying his handsome smile. “It’s not always that easy.” He was staring at my forehead and I wondered if there was a bug on it or something. “Your mind works in a beautiful way, that’s why she’s healed,” he said.
Did he just call my mindbeautiful? Because that was doing warm things to my insides.
“Have you ever heard of the healing caves?” he asked.
“No.”
He kicked his horse and then took off, Cahal following after him, and then myself a moment later, wincing as my butt pounded the hard saddle.
Not another word was spoken. We rode for an hour in a direction I didn’t recognize, and I was ready to prop up on my feet to give my backside a rest when the king pulled his horse up to the base of a large mountain. Cahal tied up his horse and went to the mouth of a cave, disappearing inside.
I raised one eyebrow at the king and he dismounted, looking up at me. “Come on.”
I sort of loved how informal we’d become over the whopping three days we’d known each other. It would be exhausting toYes, my lord,No, Your Highnessevery sentence for the next five years.
I slipped off my horse just as an old elvin woman stepped out of the caves with a towel wrapped around her.
Were we at the healing caves he’d mentioned?
The old woman saw the king and bowed deeply before scurrying off some stone path that led away from the cave opening. I peered past her and noticed a village just beyond it.
