Page 97 of Dark Elves of Ardani

Naika shook her head. She pointed at Zara, and Zara’s stomach turned uneasily. “He wants me,” Zara said, and Naika nodded. “Theron is hoping we will try to rescue them.”

“Well, he’s right. We will,” Crow said, crossing her arms. “We’ll just have to be smart about it.”

“I don’t understand how they found us,” Basira said.

“It was only a matter of time,” Crow said. “We knew they’d find us eventually.” She looked down at Inaya, whose expression was an exact copy of her father’s perpetual scowl. Crow put a hand on the girl’s shoulder, drawing her closer. “This is why we must keep moving. This is why we trust no one.”

They kept walking, because they couldn’t stay near the caverns now that they’d been compromised.

The air was freezing, and they huddled in groups for warmth. They had no food or other supplies. Everything had been left in the mountain.

They needed to rest. Naika needed to recover her strength before they fought again, and so did everyone else, for that matter. Most of them had been awake for far too many hours. And they had to get the children to safety. Farhana kept asking Basira when they were going to eat and sleep, and eventually Basira picked her up on her back and carried her. Farhana soon fell asleep on her shoulder.

Somehow, Zara had ended up at the front of the line. Perhaps it was because she’d kept striding forward when everyone else had wavered, even though she had no idea where to go. If she kept moving, maybe she’d think of something.

They’d been walking for perhaps ten minutes when Zara heard the familiar sound of hooves on stone. She looked up to see a tall, pale shape coming through the fog.

“Changa,” she sighed, jogging to meet the behelgi. She must have run off when the fighting started. She had no reins and no saddle, but she came to Zara and followed her without prompting. Zara rubbed a hand through the thick fur on her neck, and Changa bent to sniff her hand.

She didn’t have Nero, but at least she had Changa. This was a start. It was a glimmer of hope in a dark time.

After a time, they came to the road.

“Someone will come eventually,”said one of the Varai.“We can take supplies from the next party to pass by.”

Zara frowned. She knew he spoke Ardanian, but he’d intentionally spoken Varai to keep the humans from hearing.“Take?”she asked.

He looked annoyed by her skepticism.“It’s what we do.”

“Have you ever tried asking?”

Most of the Varai in the group chuckled.

“Why are you laughing?”she snapped, stopping to look at them.“Why not try to make peace with your neighbors? You have no one else.”

“We did try,”another said bitterly.“In Valtos. We had Nero’s bar. Some of us had human friends. That all went away with the Paladins.”

“So try again!”Zara said, waving an arm angrily.“Try harder!”

He gave her an unimpressed look. Zara took a breath, steadying herself.

It was odd to shout at a group of Varai and not face immediate punishment. Before she’d come to Ardani, she would never have behaved this way. It would have been unthinkable. But today she hadn’t thought anything of it, and apparently, neither had they.

Crow put a hand on her shoulder.“We’re all feeling stressed,”she said.“Let’s try to be patient with each other.”

Zara allowed herself a few seconds to get her emotions under control before she spoke again.

This was the most open-minded group of Varai she’d yet come across. She wanted to believe that it was possible for them to coexist with Ardanians.

“Please don’t give up on humans yet,”Zara said.“The Paladins are your enemies, but the villagers are not.”

To their credit, they didn’t argue, though no one looked optimistic.

Zara studied Crow. She was surprisingly calm. “Why are you not worried?”

“I am. But I also know that Vaara has survived worse than this before. He’ll be all right.”

“He’s going to kill them,” Inaya put in, as if it was a foregone conclusion. Crow smiled down at her.

---