Page 64 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

It was silent and empty as they moved through the rooms. Crow’s gaze hovered on a narrow set of stairs that led downward.

“The cellar,” she whispered. “Check down there and make sure it’s empty.”

“We should stay together.”

She shook her head. “It’s too dark for me to see down there. I’ll be waiting right here. It will only take a minute.”

He hesitated, frowning, then descended the stairs into the welcome darkness. The dirt floor and stone-and-damp smell gave him a sudden, visceral memory of the prison. He quickly glanced into each of the individual chambers before going back upstairs. He shook his head at Crow, who nodded and took his arm again.

They started slowly up the stairs to the second floor. Vaara held his sword behind him to keep it from scraping against the wall. His footsteps were silent on the hard wood, but Crow’s caused the floorboards to squeak every so often. She winced every time it happened. He could hear her breathing, too—a soft, anxious rasping through her throat and nose.

They reached the landing of the second floor, which split off in two directions toward either end of the house. The entire floor was dark save for the gray sunlight coming through the windows.

Crow paused, glancing in either direction. Even through the fade, Vaara could see the apprehension on her face.

He lifted a hand to tell her to stay, then touched his finger to his lips. She nodded. As he let go of her, she lifted her hands to her ears in an odd nervous gesture.

He slipped silently down the hall to the right and peered into room after room, sliding from shadow to shadow. There was nothing. No one. He kept going until he’d come all the way back around to Crow, who jumped when he appeared beside her.

“It’s empty,” he said. “There’s no one here.”

She lowered her hands from her ears and opened her mouth to say something, and then—

“Crow.”

They both froze at the sound of a voice down the hall.

“Crow. I know you’re there, girl.”

She paused for a long time, the fear on her face turning into something dull and tired. She turned and started down the hall.

She went right to the large room at the back of the house, as if she’d somehow known exactly where the voice was coming from. Vaara held her back at the door so he could enter before her. He crossed the threshold with his sword readied, scanning the room.

It looked to be a study, as elegantly furnished as the rest of the house, with a desk and many shelves of books and ledgers, a mage light desk lamp, and neat stacks of papers and pens. A full-length mirror on a stand sat in the corner of the room.

It was still empty. He hadn’t been mistaken the first time.

“Don’t make me call you again, Crow. You know how I feel about being made to wait.”

Crow slowly crossed the room to stand in front of the mirror. Vaara followed her, a few steps behind, and was alarmed to see a man reflected in the glass. There was an unfamiliar room behind the man. The mirror was reflecting another place entirely. Vaara stood back, out of the man’s line of sight.

The man gave a thin, humorless smile. “Am I mistaken, or did you come here with the intention of harming me, Crow?”

A soft, defeated sigh huffed from her nose, probably too quiet to be heard from the other side of the mirror. “I hope you’re not expecting an apology,” she said. She hid her fear well, though perhaps not well enough to fool a man she’d worked with for years.

“And if I am?”

“Don’t hold your breath. Or do, I don’t mind.”

The man laughed—a low, quiet sound. An easy, unworried sound. Crow had made him sound like a frail, frightened old man, but the man in front of them did not at all resemble that description. “After everything I’ve done for you? After providing you a roof over your head all these years?”

“You’ve done nothing for me that wasn’t for your own benefit.”

“No. Why would I do otherwise?” He rubbed his chin with one hand. “Did you kill Toreg, then?”

“Do you really care either way?”

“Of course I care. I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of fishing him out of that place if he wasn’t worth it. I’ll be rather put out if it was all a waste.”

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