Page 27 of Invocation

Avan put a hand out as the woman approached, stopping her a few steps away from them. “Hold your fury please, Kashava.”

“To the hells with that. I’m going to kill him,” Kashava snapped, pushing at her arm.

“I think you’ll want to hear what I came to say before you do that,” Aruna said—rather calmly, considering the circumstances.

“Why is that?” Avan said.

“Have you been to the heart recently?” Aruna said, making Avan’s brow tick downward. “Have you noticed anything awry?”

Kashava’s eyes shifted to Avan.

“What is it you think I should have noticed?” Avan said testily.

Aruna went to a chair in the corner of the room and sat down. “That the forest is dying,” he said, resting his chin in his hand.

Kashava scoffed, but lowered her sword. “What are you talking about?”

As Aruna started explaining everything that had happened in the past week, the girl down the hall cleared her throat. When Novikke looked over at her, the girl jerked her head, beckoning her over. Novikke glanced up at the elves, who were paying her no mind, then slipped down the hall toward the girl.

The girl pulled her into the next room, a kitchen. There was a ball of dough on the counter and heat pouring out of an oven—the reason for the aprons.

“I’m Zara,” the girl said. She looked perhaps fifteen, with plain but very neat hair and clothes and a nervous smile.

“Novikke.”

The girl looked at her for a moment. “You haven’t been here long. In Vondh Rav, I mean.”

“How did you know?”

“You have that look about you. You can always tell.” She bit her lip, then lowered her voice. “Avan is—she can relocate slaves who are in bad situations. There are people she knows. Places you can go where people won’t hurt you. She could get you away from him. You can trust her.”

Novikke’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, that’s not… I’m here voluntarily.”

Zara at her skeptically for a long moment. “Are you sure?”

“Quite sure.” Finally speaking to one of the slaves in the city made her slightly nauseous. She was already thinking of ways to take her with them when they left the city. Would Kadaki’s device transport an extra person, or would that be too much strain on the spell?

“Um. How long have you been in Vondh Rav?” Novikke asked. She looked Ardanian. She’d probably be curious about news from the outside world, from her home country. She probably had family there.

“I was born here,” she said, to Novikke’s shock.

“There are humans born in Vondh Rav?”

“Of course. It… happens sometimes. You know.” She shrugged, self-conscious. “You speak Varai very well. Most humans don’t.”

“Thanks.”

There was an awkward pause. Novikke could hear Aruna still explaining things she already knew in the other room.

“Um, maybe we should sit down,” Zara said. She slid into a chair and looked down at her hands as she folded them in her lap. “It seems like this might take a while.”

Novikke sat stiffly across from her. She’d never felt so uncomfortable in her life. What would this girl think if Novikke told her that she was trying to save the people who had enslaved her?

Gods. Maybe she shouldn’t be doing this after all. She hadn’t been thinking straight when she’d agreed to this.

“Aruna told me that Avan was some kind of advocate for humans here in Vondh Rav,” Novikke said. “I didn’t expect her to have slaves of her own.”

She nodded quickly. “She is. That’s why I’m here. She rescued me from a very bad place. I owe her everything.” Zara gave her another hopeful look. “She could do the same for you.”

---