Page 35 of The Elven Healer's Apprentice

“So, you don’t wish me dead after all.”

“What?” Her concern transformed into annoyance in a blink of my eyes. Green fire flared in her gaze as her eyes narrowed. “I have never wished you ill.”

I snorted. “Everyone does at some point or another.” I closed my eyes and rolled my shoulders to ease the tension between them. “I am told I could annoy a saint.”

“Annoyance and hatred are not even remotely the same.” Adela rose to her feet and bent over to retrieve the cup from my hand.

“Glad to know you are among those willing to tolerate me.” Leaning forward, I rested my forearms on my thighs as I stretched my knotted neck muscles.

“Turn to the side.” She knelt behind me and began massaging the muscles of my shoulders and neck. “Casimir cares about you,” she said as she dug into the knotted pain with the heels of her hands. “He and Veta were very concerned about how exhausted you were before we left their home. Also, Sina would be quite distressed should something happen to you. Lippin wouldn’t know what to do if you didn’t return.”

I groaned as she tackled a particularly troublesome spot. “Now, there you are wrong. Lippin would rejoice if I neverreturned. All the easier for him to run his side business in quawkatoo eggs.” I sank into the bliss that her hands were slowly creating as she worked through the knots in my back. “Did you know that the faun has bred up a sizable flock from a few eggs that he stole from the compound’s flock? He currently serves at least forty customers, delivering a dozen eggs to each on a weekly basis.”

“That’s a lot of quawkatoos. Still, it explains what he has been doing so secretively and why he kept asking me to cover for him.” Her capable fingers threaded through the hair at the back of my neck as she rubbed away the tension there.

Her soothing voice made my head swim. Now I was free from the pain in my neck and shoulders, exhaustion lulled me toward sleep. So, when she eased me down on the pallet, I didn’t resist. Before I knew it, she had tucked me beneath the blankets and had returned to her own bed. Sleep slipped over me soon after.

Chapter Eleven

Adela

After retreating to my bed, sleep eluded me. Lying alone in the darkness, I listened to the steady rhythm of Merlon’s breathing.

His words wouldn’t leave me be. Did he truly think that everyone hated him? Casimir clearly took Merlon’s sarcastic nature in stride. He trusted the healer with the woman he loved and the children she carried, although Merlon had been clearly irate with him when they arrived.

I didn’t hate him. How could I? He hid a heart of gold beneath a caustic shell. Instead of driving me away, his prickliness had done the opposite.

I glanced over to where his white hair had become a pale blob in the darkness. He worked so hard to do right. I saw it in the way he accepted everyone, no matter their background. Yes, he complained at times, but despite his tendency to grumble, he never turned away from those who truly needed him. He cared for them even when they annoyed him, like the elf king and his queen. He never complained about how much it hurt him to give so much of himself.

Instead, he used his bluster to keep everyone at a distance and protect his heart. Those who truly saw him understood that. And he rewarded those honored few that had earned his trustwith the most loyal friendship one could ever have. An honor I hoped would someday be mine.

Maybe in a decade. I smiled sadly in the darkness. It might take longer to earn my prickly employer’s trust enough to call me a friend.

I hugged my knees to my chest and tried to recall how it had felt to be held—safe and cared for—by the healer. That had been bliss.

Seeing Casimir and Veta together had made my heart ache. My observations of marriage relationships had been few. Warlord Hectorius treated women like playthings, casting them aside when he finished with them. Only marrying when he needed an heir, he had returned to his latest mistress within hours of his son’s birth. However, other couples had given me glimpses of the partnership that marriage brought. The fortress’ blacksmith and his wife, one of the washerwomen, had always treated each other with respect.

Still, none of them had given me even a glimpse of the affection and care that I had seen demonstrated over the past three days in the Whispier household. Casimir’s near- constant presence at his wife’s side demonstrated his affection. He appeared to never stop touching her, supporting her, and protecting her—only taking breaks to visit their children for an hour at a time.

The way Veta brightened up when Casimir entered the room spoke even more about their relationship. The two of them loved each other. And deep down, I craved that.

I glanced over at Merlon’s form. Loving him that way would be so easy, but it would bring risk. Could I survive him treating me like Hectorius treated my mother?

“Foolish,” I told myself. The word lingered in the chilly darkness. What would I ever be able to bring to that relationship? How could I hold his interest? What could I givehim that he didn’t already have? And the thought that he would ever love me back was ludicrous. Merlon was nothing like Casimir.

Merlon stirred. At first, it was a restless movement of his head. He stilled and then began thrashing as though fighting an invisible force.

Scrambling from the bed, I pattered across the floor. By the time I reached his side, he was keening in distress. Magic prickled the air, and he arched his back, crying out in pain. If I didn’t do something quickly, he would wake the entire household.

Ignoring the risk of waking a dreaming elf stronger than me and very capable of hurting me, I shook his shoulder. One moment I knelt next to him, and the next, I lay beneath him—the cold, unforgiving surface of wooden floorboards at my back. His long fingers bit into my shoulders while he stared down at me, wild-eyed. Behind his head and to one side, a ball of magic light floated above us.

“Adela?” He blinked and then focused on my features. “Why?”

“You were having a nightmare,” I whispered. He was crushing me so that I couldn’t draw a full breath. “I shook your shoulder when you started yelling.” My face burned with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Irritation flickered in his eyes a moment before he rolled off me and retreated to the far side of the room with elegant elven grace.

I stared up at the ceiling, trying to reclaim my equilibrium. “Sorry,” I whispered as I sat up.

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