Page 52 of This Midsummer Heart
When this is done, it leaves us all staring at one another, not quite sure how to proceed.
“You both are dressed so splendidly,” Titaine interrupts the silence, ever the gracious diplomat. “I fear we’ve interrupted a private celebration.”
Indigo and Veld exchange looks. “Your majesty, it’s not a private event at all,” Indigo says, sounding reluctant to have to explain. “It’s midsummer night.”
“Is it really?” Now it is Titaine and I who exchange looks. “We’ve been journeying for over six weeks, then.” I return my attention to the lady and lord of this forest. “We won’t intrude upon your revelry. We only seek a dry place to sleep for the night—“
Indigo’s eyes widen, outright shocked. “Your majesty doesn’t wish to attend our midsummer night celebration?”
Inwardly, I groan. I’ve just insulted them.
Chapter twenty-four
By the Firelight of Embersdeep
Auberon
Thankwhatevergodsremainin this world for Titaine. Before my panicked mind can come up with a way to salvage this meeting, she is speaking.
“Please,” she says to Lady Indigo and Lord Veld, taking my elbow, “call us by our given names—we insist. Of course we’ll be pleased to attend. It’s only that in our current state…”
“You’ll want to freshen up and have a little rest first, of course,” Veld offers, just as eager to smooth over my gaff.
“That exactly,” Titaine agrees.
Every set of eyes seems to be focused on me. I swallow, my throat bobbing as I cope with a sudden dryness. “Of course,” I repeat, feeling more than a little silly.
My poor mother did her best to teach me proper elven manners. If only my lessons in fighting had been a little less interesting, I might remember a few of them.
Lady Indigo whispers something to another attendant she’s beckoned forward, then smiles at us. “We’ll prepare rooms for you right away. Follow me, if you please. We’ll guide you there ourselves.”
“I’d love to hear more about Embersdeep as we walk,” Titaine says, releasing her grasp on my arm and moving to Lady Indigo’s arm instead. Something in Indigo’s posture softens, as if she is relieved by Titaine’s friendliness. “I’ve never been here before.”
“Not surprising, given the state of things, eh?” Veld says to me, attempting to prove just as genial. “Until now, of course.”
Until a few hours ago, when I finally became a worthy king.
“It might interest you to know,” I say, because I cannot stand to echo anotherof course,“that I am no longer the leader of the unified House of Elves.”
“Just a king, then?” Veld raises his brows jokingly. I find myself matching his easy expression.
“Yes, just that.”
“You must be weary, traveling all this way from Avalonne. I’ve already called for our healers. I’m sure there’s a tale to tell there.”
I oblige him with one, not shying away from the part where I was bested by northern bandits. Rather than being taken aback by this, Veld looks worried. When I get to what happened earlier today, his face lights up. Soon enough, I begin to feel as though I’m telling a story to an eager child.
He sort of is one, compared to me.
With a start, I realize that Titaine and Indigo are no longer walking parallel to us, but split off in another direction. We’ve reached our lodging for the night—and it isn’t together.
As Veld directs me toward a set of spiraling stairs that disappear behind a cloak of red-glowing moss, I spare a look back at Titaine to see which way she is going.
And find her gazing across the draping embermoss at me.
For a moment, our eyes meet, and I nearly miss the next stair. When I glance up again, whatever that was is lost for good. Veld continues to tell me about the festivities, oblivious to it all, while Indigo chats amiably with Titaine, who seems to have forgotten me completely. Her face is animated as she replies.
Was that a pang of regret I saw in my bride’s backward glance as Indigo led Titaine to separate quarters? For the first time in a long while, we are neither sharing a room, nor a bed—nor a dark corner in a stable, for that matter.
