Page 25 of Captive

“You don’t mind that?” she pressed.

His frown deepened. “I stopped him,” he pointed out.

Novikke felt her lips twitch in annoyance. “I suppose you want another medal for that?” she said. “For not quite being totally despicable?”

Aruna canted his head, looking like he didn’t like her tone.

She put the pencil to paper, trying to suppress the anger and desperation that was threatening to spill over.

“I’m no threat to you. You saw that I was traveling alone. I don’t know anything about the attacks on your outposts. You have nothing to gain from keeping me here.”

She looked up at him, hating the knowledge that her life was entirely in his hands. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Do you believe me?” she wrote.

“Yes.”

There was a start.

“Do you think I deserve what they are going to do to me at the next outpost?”

He looked like he hadn’t expected such a direct attack. He hesitated long enough that Novikke got impatient and started writing again.

“Will you feel any guilt at all when they kill me?”

She waited, but he didn’t take the notebook. She turned the page and scrawled another line.

“Just let me leave. Take me out of the forest, and you’ll never hear from me again. No one will know the difference. Please.”

A crease formed between his eyebrows. He took the pencil from her. “You’re asking me to commit treason.”

“Treason?” she said, laughing bitterly. “That’s a big word for someone as insignificant as me,” she wrote.

He sighed and shifted his feet, looking like he was tiring of this conversation. “It’s not my decision to make.”

She could hardly believe she was having this discussion. That he had the audacity to be annoyed at her for reminding him what he was doing to her. Like he was perfectly aware of what was going to happen to her and had decided to simply not think about it instead of helping her.

Novikke drew a hand over her face. She didn’t know what to do to get through to him. “Don’t let them kill me,” she wrote miserably.

He took the notebook from her after she’d finished writing. “They will not kill you.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Night elves are not kind to humans.”

“Do you believe you know more about Varai than I do?”

She couldn’t tell if he thought she was stupid or if he really believed they would have mercy on her.

“Why wouldn’t they kill me?”

“We are not evil. We don’t harm the innocent without cause.”

She had to stifle a dismissive laugh. They would ever see an Ardanian as innocent.

“I will speak for you.” He paused. “I’ll tell them that you helped me.”

It took her a moment to understand what he meant. The wound sealer she’d given him several nights ago. She’d thought he’d forgotten about it.

She’d done it because she hadn’t wanted to be alone with Zaiur. But she supposed the result was the same either way. She’d saved his life. Maybe he was more grateful than she’d realized.

“You are not like other humans,” he wrote.

“There are a lot of humans like me.”

“If there are, I haven’t met them.”

He tapped a finger under the words “I will speak for you” again, giving her a reassuring nod, which gave her little comfort. Then he closed the book and kept walking, as if that settled the matter. Novikke frowned at his back, but had no choice but to follow.

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