Page 10 of Dark Elves of Ardani

“A friend taught me,” Zara replied. Kashava had been the one to insist she needed to learn to defend herself, despite Avan’s reservations. It was forbidden, of course. So she’d taught her in secret, inside the house and away from prying eyes. There’d been no room to practice with weapons aside from small blades like daggers or knives, but Kashava had said that she should learn to fight without weapons anyway, since she would not be allowed to carry them outside the house.

“You were friends with a night elf?” Farhana asked, her brows knitting.

“Yes.”

“Old man Kostas said the night elves must have tortured you.”

“Far,” Tahir said quickly. “She doesn’t want to talk about that.”

Farhana was still staring at Zara, curious.

“Some of them did,” Zara said.

“But you were still friends with one?” Farhana pressed.

“Yes.” She waited while Farhana thought about that, but the girl didn’t ask any more questions.

The Varai insisted that the practice of slavery had been born out of necessity, not because the Varai really desired slaves. Outsiders occasionally wandered into the night elves’ forest and were captured, and then there was the question of what to do with them. No one wanted to set them free to go tell other outsiders Kuda Varai’s secrets. The forest was more vulnerable than anyone liked to admit, and the Ardanians might have destroyed it if given the chance.

So trespassers were kept as prisoners. Their masters were their wardens. It was said that making them slaves gave them a place in Varai society, that their servitude and obedience was fair payment in exchange for not being executed.

She wanted to try to explain this to Tahir and Farhana, but she didn’t know how. It sounded like she was making excuses for the Varai, but the way she’d been treated in Kuda Varai could not be excused. The rest of Heilune didn’t live like this. As Theron had said, slavery was illegal in other civilized nations.

Why did she have such a strong impulse to defend the people who had treated her like cattle, even when she knew what they’d done to her was wrong?

“It’s getting late, Far,” Tahir said, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Let’s get inside.”

Farhana nodded. “You can’t stay out after dark,” she told Zara.

“Because that is when the night elves come out?” Zara asked. Farhana nodded solemnly.

Zara hadn’t really been a part of raids. Kashava and the others had crept through villages and into travelers’ camps while she watched from a distance. They told her that her human feet would be too loud. She’d always been a little resentful about it.

There was no denying that the Varai could cause devastation when they wished. But they also did not go looking for conflict. The Varai way was to use stealth first, and switch to violence only when it became necessary.

She couldn’t help but wonder if the Ardanians’ fear of the Varai was stronger than was warranted…. until the third night, when Varai attacked the village.

Chapter 4

Just after nightfall, as Zara was scrubbing ancient dirt from the floorboards of her shed, she was startled by a pounding on the door. She put down her brush, then cautiously opened the door.

“Zara,” Basira gasped. Her eyes were wide, her brow damp with sweat. She carried a lantern in one hand, and with the other she grabbed Zara, pulling her from the shed. “They’re here. We have to hide.”

“What?”

“The elves. Hurry.”

Zara stumbled along with her, scanning the landscape. She wished she still had her collar. Without its enchantment, and with the blue moon a mere sliver that night and the ghost moon missing entirely she couldn’t see a thing.

Basira’s feet raced over the grass and stone.

“I can speak to them in our language,” Zara said as they burst through the stand of trees between her shed and the inn. “I will tell them we will not fight. If you lay down your weapons, they will not kill you.”

As she spoke, something flew through the air in front of her. An arrow with black fletching struck the wall of the inn beside them, cracking the wood it landed in. Another hit the wall just over their heads. They kept running.

“They are not interested in talking things out, Zara.”

A distant voice oozed from the darkness.“Run, rabbits,”it called in Varai. A laugh echoed from somewhere else nearby. Zara felt a chill run down her spine. A pair of shimmering dots flashed in the darkness and then were gone again—eyes watching them.

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