Page 46 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

“Of course, lady.”

Annoyance flickered through her as he coldly met her gaze. Was it possible for him to look at her with anything but contempt?

She put a hand to her head, cursing Garros again. On the bright side, she was still alive—if that could indeed be considered a bright spot in all this, which was questionable.

“It’s a good thing I bound you, after all,” she said. “I’d likely be enslaved or dead if you hadn’t been there to help me.”

“Is that your way of thanking me?”

“Yes, I suppose it is.”

“I would have helped you without the binding compelling me, had you not done the evil of binding me in the first place.”

“But if I hadn’t bound you, you wouldn’t have been with me to begin with, would you?”

He had no response to that.

“Did you consider letting me die?” she asked.

“The binding wouldn’t permit it.”

Something in his voice gave her pause. “You might be surprised what the binding permits. Maybe you’re thinking too hard about it.” She beckoned for him to follow, and started toward where she guessed the road was. She wanted food and a roof, badly.

“Are you suggesting that I’mallowingthe binding to control me?”

“No.”

She supposed it hadn’t been long enough for him to develop a resistance to the binding’s pull yet. In time, the more he resisted it, the weaker its control would become. There might come a day when he would be strong enough to allow her to die. Hopefully that day was still far in the future.

* * *

That afternoon,they came to a village. There was no inn, but a farmer generously offered her dinner and the use of an empty barn for the night—after she encouraged him with some empathy.

As Crow set out wet clothes to dry and bundled herself in blankets, Vaara stood beside her.

“Is there any other way I may serve you, mistress?” he said, with a nastiness that was subtle enough you might have missed it if you weren’t paying attention.

Crow frowned a little. He gave her a thin smile. It looked odd on him.

“I guess your commands don’t keep their hold over me forever,” he observed.

She started to ask him again to stop, then exhaled softly and laid her head down on the floor. She had no energy left. “No, they don’t,” she said quietly.

Vaara’s eyebrows twitched down a little. He studied her a moment longer, then turned away to find his own place on the floor.

She fell asleep to the near silent sounds of him preparing a bed, as the setting sun filtered through the slats of the wall.

And a few hours later, she awoke to the sound of a low voice.

It was dark. She fumbled for a mage torch and flicked it on, setting a soft blue glow over them. She could see Vaara’s sleeping outline across from her. He shifted, his hands balled in fists. He turned toward her, and he was grimacing in his sleep.

She crawled toward him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Vaara,” she whispered. “You’re dreaming. Vaara!” She shook him.

He awoke with a thrash. She ducked as a hand flew toward her, and gasped when his hand closed tightly around her wrist.

Then he stopped. As he awoke fully and realized he’d been dreaming, he let her go. Crow backed away a few inches.

The fear on his face transformed into anger. “You’re doing this to me,” he hissed at her.

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