Page 112 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

And then, he felt empty. Clean. Pure. He blinked and looked up.

There was no unnatural presence lurking in his chest. There was nothing compelling him.

The binding was gone.

“In fact, I don’t believe you,” Patros was saying. “I think she has manipulated you into protecting her. She has a talent for that sort of thing.”

Vaara let his hand fall from Crow’s mouth.

“Let me go,” she said immediately.

There was no pull. No compulsion. The sensation of unadulterated freedom almost made him giddy.

“No,” he said simply, relishing the word. Crow didn’t speak, but he saw her lips slowly tilt into a smile.

There was a flash of sudden movement. Patros’s hand shot out, flinging black dust in all directions.

Aruna averted his face, covering his nose and mouth. Novikke sneezed and fell to her knees. Toreg took the opportunity to run out the front door and disappear into the snow. Vaara backed away. He and Crow were the only ones far enough away to avoid it completely.

Patros shoved past Novikke and ran down the hall. Vaara itched to drop Crow and run after him—but if he let go of her, she’d try to stop him again. He dragged her over to Aruna, who looked faint but not on the verge of falling asleep.

“Take her,”he said, shoving her toward him. Aruna took her uncertainly, wrapping his arms around her the way Vaara had. She didn’t fight much during the hand-off—maybe the effect of the binding was growing weaker, with Patros out of the room and not in immediate danger.

“Don’t let her touch you,”Vaara said.

“No kidding.”

He started to leave, then paused. “Do not hurt her,”he warned.

Aruna just arched an eyebrow, giving Vaara a look that said he was more worried about the reverse.

Novikke was on her hands and knees near the door. Vaara pulled Zaiur’s sword from her hand as he walked by, and she was too weak to stop him. She protested half-heartedly anyway.

“I’ll bring it back,” Vaara grumbled.

He faded and stepped out into the hall, listening. He could faintly hear footsteps from the left. He followed them slowly. Patros couldn’t outrun him in the dark.

He followed the sound of Patros’s fleeing down the hall, around a turn, across a dining room and through the kitchen, to a narrow door. Vaara watched Patros open the door, which revealed a set of steep stairs leading down into a cellar. Patros peered into the darkness, then pulled a mage torch out of his pocket and fumbled to turn it on.

Vaara silently walked up behind him and, with both hands, shoved him down the stairs.

Patros shouted, dropping the unlit torch. There was a series of painful-sounding bangs as he tumbled and slid and then came to a stop at the dirt floor at the bottom. He quickly climbed to his feet, unhurt. Vaara scowled. He’d hoped that would work.

He needed to figure out how this enchantment worked. He’d thought maybe it only protected him from weapons. Evidently, that was not the case.

Patros backed farther into the cellar, facing the stairs. His eyes were wide. He was making that blank, staring expression that humans always made when they couldn’t see.

“I hope you’re not afraid of the dark,” Vaara said. He twirled his sword idly in his hand, slowly cornering Patros.

Patros frantically reached into a pouch at his side and threw more powder in Vaara’s direction, but only a few flakes of it left his hand. His supply had run low.

Patros’s lip curled. “Just go home, elf. You can’t kill me.”

“Is that what you think?” Vaara said. “I think I’m quite good at killing humans, actually.”

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with. You have no idea—”

“I’m dealing with a coward who hates other people so much that he has no friends to help him when things get dire. That was a mistake, wasn’t it? You’re realizing it now, aren’t you?”

---