Page 213 of The War and Deceit Series omnibus

“The land started to change.” Master Ardeth’s face turns grave, and the mood around the bonfire changes. Glancing over, I see that Saril seems to have shrunk in on herself and is leaning against her mate, Taelir wrapping his arm around her tightly. I’ve only ever seen the older elf either looking bored or jolly, but right now, with his mate shaking at his side, he looks fierce.

“I’m friendly with some of the local sea elves,” Ardeth continues. “And they showed me a darkness that was infecting their land, destroying their homes, and turning the cliffs black.” As he speaks, the sorrow in his voice easy to hear, he paintsa picture in my mind, and I can almost see the devastation. “I knew we needed to find you, so we visited the wood elves. Only, when we arrived, we found you had already left, and the forest was suffering from the same infliction.”

I stare into the fire as he speaks, watching the flames, something I find myself doing a lot of lately. The darkness, that’s what is killing the land and the forest. In a way, I’m glad things happened the way they did and I never had to see the forest get destroyed by the darkness. I know it’s only a matter of time, that eventually, I’ll have to face it, but it will break a little part of me to see it.

Humming to myself, I pull my gaze from the flames and look around our little group. Vaeril is watching me from across the fire, as are Tor and Eldrin, who are still standing, their arms crossed. Master Ardeth sits quietly next to me, waiting patiently for my questions, his soft gaze on my face.

“You spent time with the sea elves. Is that why they are here? You convinced them?” I’m still not a hundred percent sure about the presence of the sea elves. Are they just making sure Master Ardeth arrived here safely? The wood elves I understand, they were given an ultimatum by the queen and they decided to rebel against her. Their home is dying, they had to leave. What is the motivation for the sea elves? Are they here to fight? I hate that I’m instantly so suspicious of them, but if life has taught me anything, it’s that trust is hard earned.

A hand on my lap pulls me from my spinning mind. Looking from the hand to the face it belongs to, I see a sympathetic expression on Master Ardeth’s face. “They didn’t need convincing, Clarissa.” His voice is earnest as he tries to get me to understand. “They had already heard of the beloved who stepped in and saved one of their own from the tax collector and paid off their debt. They know you work for the goddess. They’veseen the darkness spreading across the land. They will follow you, Clarissa.”

They don’t even know me,I want to scream. How can they put all their trust in someone they’ve never even met? Whispers and rumours, that’s all they know, and they are risking their lives and the lives of their families.

But they know me, beloved,the Mother whispers into my mind.And that is enough.A great calm sweeps through my body, and I realise she’s right. It’s not me they’re putting their trust in, it’s the goddess. They have travelled at the mention of their goddess to find me. Didn’t I do something similar?

Looking up, I spot Speaker Hawthorn chatting with a group of dark-skinned sea elves. I wonder how they’re going to cope so far away from the water, remembering how uncomfortable the wood elves who travelled up to the mountains were. Can sea elves survive with only fresh water? I know so little about them.

I return my gaze to the elvish couple and the master sitting next to me, and a shaky smile appears on my face as I try to keep my emotions in check. “I’m just so glad you’re here and you’re safe.” The reality of how close they were to being in the city when the attack happened hits me hard. I feel a pair of eyes on me and look over to see Naril watching me from Saril’s side with an odd expression, like he’s seeing me for the first time.

“The goddess was looking over us,” Saril agrees with a smile, making Taelir relax slightly, grinning down at his mate with obvious affection.

Movement catches my eye at the edge of the treeline, and as I glance up, a wide smile spreads across my face. I open my awareness slightly and laugh with delight. “The other fae came too.” The others hush as they turn their attention to me with bemused expressions on their faces. Pushing up from the bench, I walk towards the treeline, still amazed by how many creatures there are out in the forest. Pulling back my awareness, I reachthe edge and kneel on the ground, aware I’m being watched, but I don’t care, I’m too excited to meet the fae.

Why are they acting so surprised? It’s like they’ve never seen another fae creature before,I think to myself as I sit with my hands palm up, waiting patiently. The fae are cautious, but also curious. I could feel their desire and excitement to meet me, so I know it won’t be long. I just need to be patient.

There are a few hushed whispers behind me, but otherwise, it’s mostly silent, and I can sense my mates nearby. Vaeril’s amusement hums down the bond, and Tor is confused but thinks I look ethereal, his arousal evident through our connection. From Grayson I feel…a wall. For some reason, Grayson doesn’t want me to know about whatever he’s doing. As if realising I’m reaching out to him, that wall disappears and he sends me a wave of affection, soothing my worries before withdrawing and that wall reappears.

That was strange, I think with a frown, but before I can overthink it too much, there’s a rustle in the foliage at the bottom of one of the trees. Two glowing orange eyes appear as a creature watches me through a bramble bush, which crackles as the creature moves. My smile widens as the creature stands and walks towards me, and I realise the creatureisthe brambles.

“Stix!” I call out, recognising the creature as the fae who helped me in the forest outside of Arhaven. When Vaeril had been poisoned and I didn’t know how to help him, Stix had been leaving me gifts of food and water. He then told me how to find the nos weed, which ultimately saved Vaeril’s life.

“Friend!” His voice is breathy as he ambles towards me, his pale stick-like limbs and bramble covered body hurrying across the open space. He’s got a sweet face with a button nose and wide, glowing amber eyes with large, bat-like ears. As soon as he reaches me, he climbs into my lap, and I can’t hold back my laughter. The clearing behind us is silent, and Stix suddenlystiffens as he realises we’re not alone. He makes himself small, and his already wide eyes seem to get impossibly wider as they dart over my shoulder. Turning my head, I see that everyone seems to have moved closer, watching with disbelief.

I can understand this behaviour from the tribes, because up in the mountains, they wouldn’t have seen other fae creatures. My aunt explained many of the deeper clans had never met an elf before until she had called them together for the ceremony. What doesn’t make sense is the reaction of the other elves. They are watching with reverence in their eyes like they’ve never seen another fae creature before.

Stix shifts in my lap, and I return my attention to him, smiling. “It’s okay. They’re my friends,” I reassure him. Stix appears dubious, but when no one attacks him, he relaxes in my lap, playing with strands of my hair. I laugh, not quite believing what’s happening. “How did you get here?” I ask, although I really want to ask why he’s here.

“The trees told me,” he says simply, turning those big, glowing eyes up to mine. “They’re dying, you can help us.” He says it like a statement, his faith in me absolute, but he seems to be waiting for confirmation from me.

Trust in the Mother,I tell myself. Taking a steadying breath, I nod. “I’ll do my best.” This seems to be enough for Stix, who makes an odd whooping noise before leaning back in my lap and continuing to play with my hair. Movement catches my eye once more, and I see several other sets of glowing eyes. Smiling, I extend my hand to them, welcoming them. The fae were never this shy around me the first time I met them, but then I didn’t have a whole army of tribesmen and elves watching their every move last time either. When they don’t come any closer and continue to watch me warily, I sigh and look over my shoulder with a frown. “You’re scaring them. What is wrong with you? You’re acting like you’ve never seen the other fae before,” Igrouse at Naril and the group of elves standing a few paces behind me.

“Forgive us, Clarissa, but the other fae have been gone for decades,” Master Ardeth comments, taking a few steps closer, his eyes alight with scholarly interest. “Many of us have never seen imps, pixies, or other such fae beyond elves.”

I remember Vaeril saying something similar, that they hid deep in the forest as they didn’t like the elves, but I hadn’t realised that some of them had never evenseenanother type of fae. Even the wood elves have very little contact with the other fae of the forest. When I was with the wood elves, a forest spirit showed itself to Speaker Hawthorn and me. He explained it was incredibly rare and he’d not seen one in decades, that it was a sign of magic returning to the forest, that the goddess had returned.

Looking at the other elves, I see Vaeril, Naril, and Eldrin seem much more relaxed around the imp. In their past roles as warriors and ambassadors, they had to travel, so it makes sense that they would have seen many creatures on their journeys. Tor seems curious but cautious, and I remember his last encounter with the fae in the forest—the forest witch. She drew me in with her song, a strong type of magic that lures unsuspecting fae to their deaths. We all nearly died, but I managed to break away from her spell, so I don’t blame Tor for being suspicious.

“Stix, can my friends come meet you?” I request, wanting to break some of the tension between the two groups.

The imp seems to think about it for a second before kneeling in my lap and peeping over my shoulder, narrowing his eyes. Flopping down into my lap, he settles back, playing with a lock of my hair once more. “Bear man.”

“Bear man?” Twisting, I look around in confusion, wondering who he means by ‘bear man,’ when my eyes land onTor. Snorting, I point at my tattooed, tribal mate. “Do you mean him?”

Flicking his eyes up briefly, like this whole conversation is taking too much effort, he nods his head once. “Bear man,” he confirms.

Someone starts howling with laughter behind me, and I’m almost certain it’s Naril, but I try to ignore it as Tor walks towards us. As he lowers himself next to me, I can see under his beard he’s trying not to smile.

The next hour is one of the happiest of my life, and it’s filled with laughter. I managed to coax the other fae from the trees and introduce them to my other ‘bear friends,’ and I even managed to convince them, with the help of Speakers Hawthorn and Fawne, that the other elves were ‘the nice ones.’ The tribespeople seem to be surprisingly taken with the smaller fae, although most of them stay away from the wraiths that hover by the treeline. Not that I blame them, even I find the wraiths uncomfortable to be around.

---