Page 5 of War Bound

Farrendel stiffened but could not allow either of them to see the way those words twisted. Weylind understood. He knew how Farrendel struggled with change and new places.

Would Essie be as understanding? She had only seen him at his best in places where he felt as safe and controlled as he ever could feel. She might consider his nightmares his worst, but the ones she had seen so far were the manageable ones.

What would she think if he lost the tenuous balance he currently maintained? His life had tilted out of control once before, and it had taken all of his family’s tenacity to drag him back to this level of sanity.

Essie glanced at Farrendel before she returned Weylind’s gesture with her own, smirking as she did so. Farrendel tried to imagine what she was thinking but failed.

As Weylind stepped back, Essie muttered under her breath. “Elves love their cryptic warnings.”

As it did not seem something that required his response, Farrendel remained silent.

His sister Melantha was next, and the last person left for farewells. She gave him a quick embrace of his shoulders, her black hair dark against the deep red of her dress.

Farrendel gripped her shoulders, not sure what to say. He had always been closer to Jalissa than Melantha, since Jalissa was a mere hundred years older than him rather than two hundred years as Melantha was. But Melantha was the strong sister. The one who had carried the burdens the tragedies in their family had left to her.

Melantha’s gaze flicked to Essie, and for a brief moment, her mouth curled before she tamed the expression. “Do not let yourself be tainted by the humans.”

Farrendel gritted his teeth, forcing the churn in his chest to still. He had argued enough with Melantha over this already. He did not want to part now with yet another argument.

She did not linger for a reply, even if he had found one. Instead, she glided away, skipping over Essie entirely.

If Essie noticed the slight, her smile did not waver. Farrendel suspected her smile performed the same function as his impassive expression. They were both a mask to conceal emotions best kept hidden from those around them.

Jalissa pivoted and embarked on the train, her guard trailing behind her. Essie made a waving motion with her hand but halted. It must have been a human gesture Farrendel had yet to learn.

After a final nod to his family, he steered her onto the train. The dark green of the cushioned seats contrasted against the silver of the train’s walls while large windows looked out onto the forest and kept him from feeling too enclosed.

As he sank onto one of the benches, Essie perched on the bench next to him, peering out the window. “I’m excited to be awake this time. I missed seeing much of the Tarenhieli forest last time. It will probably be a shock to you when we reach Escarland and see our rolling, treeless fields stretching out to the horizon. Though, I guess you will have the same problem I had back then. We will arrive in the evening and cross the kingdom in the dark, so you won’t see much except for the last stretch before Aldon, and that’s rather urban.”

The train eased forward, gliding smoothly down the rails as it picked up speed. Essie leaned even closer to the window, coming within inches of plastering her nose to the glass.

Across from him, Jalissa quirked one eyebrow. He let his own smile flicker onto his face for a moment while Essie’s back was turned. Yes, he fully expected Essie to chatter the entire train ride. And, no, he did not mind. As long as Essie was talking, she did not demand a response from him.

The last time Farrendel had left for a diplomatic meeting like this, he had come home married to a stranger to form a marriage alliance between Tarenhiel and Escarland. Now he could not imagine his life without her in it.

Essie turned out to be a very adaptable, understanding human, but what if her family was not of the same disposition?

What if he could not convince her family of how much Essie meant to him? He could not even fully convince his own family of how right Essie was for him.

After two hours of alternating between staring out the window and regaling them with past trips she had taken and sights she would like to show them in Aldon, Essie flopped back onto the bench and glanced between them. “Aren’t you bored? The two of you have barely moved in two hours. What do you normally do on a long trip like this? Our trip to Lethorel took most of a day, but I napped during that one as well. I’ll probably nap later, but not right away. Do you have any games you like to play?”

Jalissa started, as if the suggestion was an immense relief. She gestured to the row of drawers set below the benches. “I believe there may be games in one of these from when we were children.”

Essie immediately plopped onto the floor and started searching through the drawers. When she located the games, she pulled all of them out until she held one up. “Elven checkers. I know how to play this one. Though, you guys might use different rules than my family does.”

Elven checkers? Was that what they called the game in Escarland? Farrendel reached to pull the folding table from the wall to set it up in the aisle. “It iseshalmahere. Jalissa?”

Jalissa lifted her shoulders. “I suppose I will play.”

After they had set up the game, a board with eight points and played with colored glass marbles, Farrendel played the worst eshalma game of his life. Essie was too fascinating the way she chattered through the game, exclaiming over good plays whether they were hers or someone else’s, and bouncing in her seat in that way that said she could not sit still even if she tried. With Essie, he did not mind being distracted.

As Essie made another play, her focus on the board, Jalissa met Farrendel’s gaze, her mouth twitching before she gave a small huff, glancing toward the ceiling.

Farrendel raised an eyebrow back. Right now, he did not care if his sister was laughing at how much he was staring at his wife. As Essie would probably curl up and fall asleep on his shoulder once she wound down for a nap, Farrendel being unable to take his eyes off Essie would not be the worst offense against propriety.

As evening descended, they neared the border station at the Hydalla River, which formed the border between Tarenhiel and Escarland.

Essie had indeed fallen asleep against his shoulder. Her head rested heavy, cutting off circulation to his arm. But she was warm against his side. Her breath wafted against his neck, fluttering the collar of his shirt.

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