Page 11 of Romancing the Throne
He had dark skin and the most astonishing hair. It was thick, like ropes, and he wore it coiled on top of his head, with the pointy ends sticking out of the coils like the leaves of a succulent that was reaching for sunlight. He also had earrings in both his ears, and not small, delicate jewels. Instead, he wore thick metal studs and clasps all the way from his lobes up to the pointed tips of his ears. He even had a metal stud through one of his nostrils!
“Then we’d love to join you,” Elowin said, releasing my hand so he could take off his pack. “I’m Elowin, and this is Sparrow.”
“Silrisar,” said the elf with the astonishing hair, and he proceeded to introduce the rest of the group. I forgot their names the moment he said them, fascinated by the way I could hear his earrings clinking and rattling as he nodded around the group. I wondered if it sounded like a cacophony to him, or a song.
The elves made space for us around their fire.
“Are you heading to the market?” a woman asked, sitting beside me when Elowin and Silrisar went to inspect the fish and presumably decide how best to cook them.
“Yes,” I said. “Are you?”
“We go every year,” she said.
“Every year?” I blinked at her. “Have you not found a marriage match yet? You’re very pretty.”
She laughed as though I’d said something funny, and the bangles around her wrist rattled as she patted my knee. “How sweet!” Her dark eyes danced. “There is a lot more to the market than marriage. Alariel wants to buy some new goats, Silrisar needs new components for a water wheel, and I’m after some more of the enchanted salve I bought last year which was both soothingandwarming. And those are only the items we know we need. There are always hundreds more to discover, things we don’t know we need yet. A few years ago I bought a charm that ensures our cows will always give only the best milk, and it still works as well as it did the day I got it.”
That sounded very useful indeed. I wondered if anyone at the market sold charms that made sure your chickens always laid. Perhaps I could buy one for Ismeray. Or perhaps there was even something for sale that would make life easier for my parents. A cheese-making charm? My mother hated to make cheese, which regrettably showed in the final product. And my father often complained that his eyes grew tired after reading. Perhaps I could buy him some spectacles. I brightened at the idea of giving them gifts, then remembered that I would have to send them home to Hillstowe instead of watching them unwrap them in person. Still, they could write to me and let me know they liked them. It wasn’t quite the same, though.
I watched as Elowin and Silrisar took the now-cleaned fish and laid them in a large pan on the fire. One of the other elves produced a stack of wooden cups, and someone else brought out a large flagon of cider, and very soon we all sat around the fire talking and laughing as we waited for ourdinner. The stream that ran alongside the campsite burbled and splashed in the background.
Elowin sat next to me, our shoulders brushing together, as the dusk darkened into night and the firelight shone on the handsome planes of his face.
The fish was good, and the cider wasverystrong. I only drank one cup, mindful of how unwell I’d felt this morning. It seemed very unfair that something that tasted so nice could be so cruel afterward. Warmth filled me as I sat beside Elowin, sipping my cider carefully as the conversation went on around me, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was caused by the alcohol.
Silrisar and the other elves had been traveling for four days already, and they came from a town northeast of The Glaes. They spoke of it happily, telling us stories of their friends and neighbors that made us laugh.
“And where are you from?” one of them—I think it was Alariel—asked me.
“I’m from Hillstowe,” I said, and they looked at me blankly. “It is east of here.”
“It’s a small place,” Elowin said. “Populated mostly by chickens and goats.”
It was the sort of thing that I might have taken as an insult, except he said it with a smile. Besides, I liked the chickens and goats.
“And Sparrows,” Silrisar said with a wink that made me flush for some unaccountable reason.
“And you, Elowin?” Alariel asked.
“Emberleigh,” Elowin said.
“Hillstowe,” one of the other elves mused. “Hillstowe… Ihaveheard of it, I think. To the north of the Quicksilver Mountains?”
I nodded.
“Yes,” the elf said, sounding pleased to have placed it. “Youremember when I was in Gearwick with Rhalyf?” The other elves nodded and hummed. “I asked if there was a road through the mountains, thinking it would cut a few days off my journey home, and they said, ‘Oh, can you imagine? You’d only find yourself smack bang in the middle of Hillstowe, and five hundred years in the past!’”
“Oh,” I said, blinking as the others laughed.
The elf offered an apologetic smile. “I’m sure it was an exaggeration. The elves of Gearwick are all techheads who think that if you’ve never seen an astronomical clock, you’re hopelessly uncivilized.”
“I’ve never seen an astronomical clock,” I said in a very small voice.
“Lots of people haven’t,” Elowin said, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Hillstowe is somewhat traditional, but it’s very nice.”
I sat up a little straighter and smiled at him.
“So you’ve decided it’s time to find a match?” Silrisar asked me.
