Page 132 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Vaara shoved his hostage into the room. The man stumbled and caught himself on the opposite wall, then whirled, his eyes wide.

Then he saw Aruna. He stared openly. “By the Five, what…?”

“You attacked my companion,” Vaara said, still wearing his glamour. He took a few steps toward the blonde, holding his knife at his side.

The man put his hands up in front of him in a placating gesture. “I didn’t do anything to her. I tried to tell him to back off.”

“What did he want with her?”

The man hesitated, nervous. “He said something about an escape from the prison east of here.”

“You work there,” Vaara guessed. “I recognized the other one, but not you. That’s the only reason he’s dead and you’re not, yet.”

The man licked his lips. “Listen. I don’t know anything about any of this. I just started working there. I don’t have anything against any of you. Do whatever you want. Be on your way, if you want. I don’t care.”

“That’s good,” Vaara said. “Then you won’t mind answering some questions.”

Chapter 37

When they’d finished questioning the man, Crow persuaded him to take a walk into the woods. A long walk, in the opposite direction from the prison. His eagerness to get away from them made him easy to convince. Empathy-dazed, he wandered out the back door.

Her face stung from when she’d been hit earlier. Soon she’d have another bruise to go along with the one Patros had left beneath her eye. She rubbed her cheek as Vaara pulled them back into the hallway.

The fighting in the other room had stopped, though there was an awful lot of yelling and arguing now as everyone tried to figure out what had started it all.

Vaara put his arm around Crow’s shoulders and nudged her toward their room. “Come. Before they notice us.”

They remained in their respective rooms as the commotion outside died down. And when the innkeeper came asking about whether they knew what had happened or if they’d seen a tall, gold-skinned, dark-haired man, they informed him that they’d never seen such a person in their lives.

Vaara had changed his glamour. He was a middle aged bearded human now. As the innkeeper left, Crow arched an eyebrow at him.

“Beard?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Thought I’d try it out.”

“Do elven men get beard envy?”

“Of course not.” He turned to look at himself in the mirror. The glamour flickered, and then he looked like himself again, but with the addition of a short, dark beard. He tilted his head side to side to examine it, frowning. “It’s like groin hair for the face.”

“I think it looks rather handsome.”

“Only because you’re used to looking at humans. You’ve been forced to find it attractive.”

She nodded slowly. “You are jealous.”

“You’ve found me out. This is what I really want: to look like a dirty, apish human.” The glamour flickered again, and the beard was suddenly a foot long. He turned to show it off to her. “Am I beautiful yet?”

A smile pulled at Crow’s lips. “This is highly valuable magic that most people would kill to get their hands on, and you’re using it to play dress-up.”

He changed back into himself, sans silly additions. “It made you smile. That’s valuable.”

“I smile all the time.”

“Not like you mean it.”

Crow met his gaze for a long second, then looked away. She sat on the bed and began unlacing her boots.

Vaara came to stand in front of her, then leaned forward to frown at her bruises. “I’ll get you some ice.”

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