Page 136 of Elven Shadow

A cheer rose from the back of the room, but it was quickly squashed by a series of urgent shushes.

“Don’t you worry,” she continued. “Things will start moving around here soon enough. Everything in its time. But first, the Roth-Da’alwillbe holding a kibrál, and she’ll conduct it out of her private office upstairs. I’m sure you all know the one.

“To be clear, that’s one at a time. No group ambushes. All right, now go find one of you who’s organized and start putting the lineup together. The Roth-Da’al can’t hold a kibrál in her office if she’s not damn well in there. As you were.”

A deafening roar of cheers, laughter, and a few pounding feet rose from the task force, and Rebecca felt like all the noise was about to make her pass out.

Somehow, Zida caught her just in time and managed to make it look like nothing more than part of her duty in leading their commander away from the chaos and toward her “private office”.

Rebecca didn’t have a private office.

Which meant…

“Are you serious?” she grumbled at Zida while simultaneously leaning on the old woman for the support she really did need just to walk back down the hall.

“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you I’m wearing myjokingface.” Zida looked up at her with a deadpan expression hidden even further by centuries of deepening wrinkles.

Rebecca would have laughed if she hadn’t felt like shit—and if she hadn’t thought this fun little kibrál was the worst idea ever.

“Fuck that,” she grumbled through gritted teeth. “I’m not sitting on the throne like the last douchebag.”

“Trust me, elf, looking the way you do right now, you’ll be thanking me before this thing’s even halfway over. Besides, the only other place to do it would be your private room, hmm? Something tells me that wouldn’t go over too well with anyone.”

Dammit, she was right.

And Rebecca was falling beneath constantly intensifying exhaustion—maybe even too intense for even Zida’s emergency medicine to combat.

If she couldn’t keep her wits about her now, the entire task force would figure out all too soon that Rebecca Knox was just a sham, and then she wouldn’t even have her anonymity to protect her anymore.

Then there would be nowhere left to hide.

34

Rebecca’s gut clenched at the thought of carrying out Aldous’s old job, in Aldous’s old office on the second story overlooking the common room. Then came the churn of nausea and a ringing in her ears that bordered on a splitting headache.

This wasn’t what she wanted.

How the hell had things gottenthisout of hand already?

She didn’t have to like her new circumstances, but at this point, she was in no position to argue with anyone about anything. The only thing shecouldcontrol was how to pick her battles, simply because the majority of them were now battles she couldn’t fight on her own and definitely couldn’t win.

Not in this state.

With a sigh, she nodded at the old healer but paused when they reached the base of the stairs. She tried to make it look like she was busy thinking, but mostly, she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that Zida—and everyone else, most likely—truly expected her to climb that staircase just to get to Aldous’s office.

No,Rebecca’soffice now.

That would take some serious getting used to.

When Zida realized she wouldn’t be able to keep tugging the elf up the stairs, she stopped and clicked her tongue. “What is it now?”

Rebecca glared at the staircase. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Well,there’sthe spirit. You know what? You stay here. I’ll go tell everyone that the elf they all just pledged themselves to doesn’t think she can do this. It’ll be fine, I’m sure. No complications at all.”

Glaring at the healer seemed to take all the energy out of Rebecca, and she hadn’t even started to climb the stairs yet. “Any suggestions, then? At this point, I’m wide open.”

“Yeah, actually.” Zida grunted. “I’ve got just the thing.”

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