Page 99 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

“We’re friends. Even if we weren’t, I don’t want to see you harmed.”

“But how did you know what had happened?”

Aruna hesitated. Vaara waited.

“Your enslaver notified me.”

“Notified?”

“She begged me to help her find you. Even after I tried very hard to slam the door in her face. She was very persistent.”

And that was what he’d been thinking about since he’d returned to Akaia’s Haven. That was what baffled him.

She’d come back for him.

And she hadn’t even asked him to go after Patros again. She almost seemed to have forgotten about her master.

“Do you trust her?”Aruna asked.

“No,”Vaara said automatically. Then, suddenly, he realized that wasn’t true. “Yes.”

“And youdon’twant us to get rid of her now, correct?”

He’d had a lot more unflattering things to say about her when he’d met with Aruna just a few days ago. “Correct,”he said, then nodded toward the two women at the door. “What about yours? Where did she come from?”

“We met a few months ago, under… unusual circumstances.”

“And after that?”

Aruna shrugged. “She offered to show me Ardani. I took her up on it.”

“And how have you found Ardani?”

He thought for a moment. “Big. Gray. Cold. Too bright.”

“Lovely place, isn’t it?”

“She tells me it’s much better if you have enough money for good food, transportation, and accommodations.”

“You don’t have any of those things?”

“We have no money. That’s a problem here. Ardanians don’t give away anything for free. Novikke tells me you can be arrested for picking fruit off someone else’s tree.”

“They claim ownership of specific trees?”

“They claim ownership of everything they can. It’s something of an obsession.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

Aruna laughed, and Vaara cracked a smile. He had a sudden appreciation for the opportunity to be around other Varai. It had been so long that he’d forgotten what it was like to talk to his own people.

“It’s not all bad,”Aruna said.

Vaara gave him a doubtful look.

“It’s not,”Aruna assured him. “I’ve seen more of the world in the past month than I have in all the rest of my life. I’ve been to the mountains and to Ardanian forests. I’ve seen dozens of new kinds of animals and plants. I’ve eaten foods I never knew existed. People in Kuda Varai have no idea how much they deprive themselves of.”

Vaara had never seen himself as deprived, personally. Aruna had always talked about leaving Kuda Varai, though. He had an unnaturally romantic way of looking at things. “Maybe,”Vaara said, still unconvinced.

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