Chapter 28 | Corym

Chapter 28

Corym

A WEEK HAD PASSED SINCE I parted ways with Ravinica Lindeen. The silver-haired warrioress who stole my breath and thoughts. During our month-long time together, she had surreptitiously become my primary focus, whether through sword sparring, runeshape training, or casual discussions around the campfire.

I was disappointed how things had ended between us, with only a kiss to send us our separate ways. As suspected, that kiss had invaded my soul and trapped me.

Even before that, agreeing with the elders and forcing her to stay with us at the encampment, when her entire life awaited at Vikingrune Academy . . . it was a mistake I felt horrible about making.

The short time we spent listening to Lady Elayina, the Ancient One, and then speeding through the woods during our mad escape from the academy soldiers, had brought us closer together again.

Interesting how sacrifice and dealing with impending death together will end any petty squabbles and cut through the blare of noise. Fighting alongside Ravinica for our lives had put to rest any animosity felt between us.

Which was why it was so difficult being apart from her now, when she consumed my thoughts. We had just started to get back on the right track. I had sacrificed a relatively safe life in Alfheim to stick by her side and make sure she returned to her people safely. I'd abandoned my brethren in the process.

For her part, my lunis'ai had not wanted to let me go. She was the one who initiated the kiss, much to my excitement.

After everything we'd been through, both personally and together, I was beginning to wonder what the point was of staying in Midgard if I wasn't by her side.

I sacrificed much to be here . . . and now she's not with me. My kinfolk may never forgive me for what I've done—how I shoved Deitryce into that portal and forced her to leave. They likely think I'm dead. Who wouldn't, after seeing the forces of twenty armed men bearing down on us?

Ravinica and I had been lucky to escape the Huscarls out of our camp. Even luckier to have her mates descend on us at the perfect time—when we'd had our backs against a wall and our only option was to fight to the death.

We had been ready to do just that. Die in each other's arms, die honorable deaths that spoke of her Viking nature, rather than let the academy minions take us captive or get the satisfaction of killing us.

The conflict between humans and elves had always been tumultuous. Now, after the past month, I feared it would only escalate. Luckily, the humans couldn't come to our land, which was a small mercy.

I sat on a stump in the woods, contemplating all this with a bowed head, eyeing the men and women who surrounded me in camp.

This ragtag band of strange rebels, the Lepers Who Leapt, had brought me to the southeastern edge of the Isle, far from Vikingrune Academy and civilization. I had learned over the past week it was one of their hideaways to avoid detection.

In front of me were three twining rivers that converged on each other, fed from three hilltop waterfalls these people called the Three Norns, in respect to the soothsayers of their people. The hills to my back were the Koldna Hills, with a valley of the same name where our camp was set up in the woods. Etched into the mouth of those hills was Hildesvini Cavern, where the leadership of this outfit arranged their clandestine meetings.

Though my people had names for most placenames on the Isle in our own language, these locations were unnamed to the Ljosalfar, so I went along with what my human captors called them.

That was what I considered the Lepers: my captors. It was interesting how I'd swapped places with Ravinica. Now I knew how she felt: held back, frustrated, antsy.

I wanted to get out. Over the past week, I'd planned my escape route if given the opportunity. I would not be escaping for the portal to Alfheim. I would be escaping to go find Ravinica, even if it was a death wish.

I had learned little about the Lepers Who Leapt. I still couldn't get the measure of them. They were a stalwart, surly bunch; hard workers who did not veer from chores; competent fighters, with a mercenary air about them.

Dieter and Frida were two of their leaders. They had performed a ceremonial rite once we'd arrived to send the spirits of their fallen comrades off, and then life had picked up like usual for them.

The Lepers were inundated with scouts and spies, always trying to stay a step ahead of their adversaries. In this case, their adversaries were other humans—namely the leaders of Vikingrune Academy.

I did not know why these humans hated each other. They hadn't told me. I assumed it was an age-old conflict similar to the one my people shared with the Dokkalfar in Alfheim.

If nothing else, it was beautiful out here in the wilderness, surrounded by high peaks, low valleys, snaking waterways, and bushy greenery.

These were red-blooded humans, just as privy to passionate frolicking as impassioned battle. I had caught more than a few of them fornicating in the woods during my stay, stealing each other behind the waterfalls up north. No one was ashamed here. They lived their lives like it was their last day on this plane.

"Live hard, love hard," Dieter had explained to me when I'd caught him together with another man and a woman, all of their limbs entwined as I went about gathering herbs through the forest.

In the trees, the Lepers had makeshift hovels and bridgeways to create a thoroughfare in the sky. Those hovels were used as lookout towers for their scouts, or as hideouts for their orgies.

It was the concept of "lookout towers in the sky" that made this feel like a prison more than anything else. I always had eyes looking at me—suspicious, untrusting eyes from the pretty golden-haired lass Frida, or others who were aligned with her. Dieter was more open and trusting. An elder statesman of the group.

In all, they numbered nearly thirty members, with a smattering of others in other parts of the Isle, doing other work. Dieter had told me that tidbit over a campfire last night, and abruptly changed subjects after he realized he'd drunk too much and spilled his insider knowledge to an elf.

I brought up the threesome between lovers I'd stumbled upon in the trees, and Dieter had chuckled and explained the "live hard, love hard" philosophy to me.

"When death is around the corner at every turn, every day, you tend to embrace all manner of desire when it's offered to you, Corym," he'd said.

Staring back at the licking flames between us, I'd nodded. "I am not a stranger to this belief. My leader in Alfheim has four wives and two husbands."

"What a life. Good for him."

"For him, it is more a notion of prolonging his legacy."

"Aye, surely," Dieter had said, tossing a crackling leaf into the fire. "Having all those warm bodies to yourself surely must help the prolonging aspect."

A small smile had curved my lips. "I suppose you're right."

Dieter had leaned back on his elbows in the dirt. "And what of you? Any special lady or lad in Alfheim for you, elf?"

My head had shaken on its own. "Only Ravinica."

"Got you wrapped around her finger, don't she? No surprise there."

My head had lifted, eyes narrowing and jaw clenching. "You must let me leave to see her."

With a sigh, Dieter had decided the conversation was over, and stood up. "Afraid I can't do that, elf. Made a promise to some people. You're safe here, until things change. Isn't that enough?"

No, it was decidedly not enough.

When would things change? I wouldn't last a month out here with these cretins, like Ravinica had done with my people. I wasn't like her. I felt no allegiance to these men and women, who lived their short lives like they were already doomed. I had no inclination to learn about their ways, their history, their plight.

I was starting to feel the very human emotion of depression fall over me, and as I sat on my stump and debated my options in the afternoon sun the next day, I sighed and shook my head.

Somewhere in the camp, beneath one of the lookout towers, a ruckus started.

I tilted my head curiously, watching as Lepers descended on the situation. Slowly, I rose to my feet. Looked left and right inconspicuously, and noticed my usual wardens—the piercing eyes of Frida Gorndeen, two of her comrades—were focusing on the situation.

I wandered over. A man was on his back, convulsing. Five Lepers were huddled over him, trying to administer aid of some kind. His skin was pale and yellow, sickly, and his lips were turning bluer by the moment.

It was not the blue of asphyxiation. This was a tinge of sapphire that spoke of a different nuisance.

The Lepers were talking over themselves. Frida was at the forefront—the youngest of the group here and yet the loudest. "Give him space, you wretches!"

I crossed my arms over my chest, watching from the background. The helper in me wanted to administer aid, though the devil in me wanted to escape this place while I had the chance.

I knew where I was, generally, and could find my way to Vikingrune Academy. Of course, I had no idea what to do once I got there—whatever it was, I'd do it, if it meant seeing Ravinica and holding her in my arms.

Torn between two paths, I chewed the inside of my cheek.

The man was going to die. Clearly, he had imbibed something not agreeing with his insides. I knew just what it was, even if the Lepers Who Leapt did not.

Frida scowled over her shoulder at me. "What are you doing here, spear-ear? Back on your stump!"

I frowned to her. She enjoyed ridiculing me, calling me "spear-ear" as a slight, though I did not know why she hated me so badly. Perhaps she had been too deeply indoctrinated about the terrors of elvenkind in her past.

I said, "Your comrade will die if he doesn't get help."

Frida ripped the convulsing man's shirt off, on her knees beside him, and started shoving down on his chest. "You think I don't know that?!"

"That won't help," I pointed out. "His heart is not the issue. He's not suffocating, either."

She bared her bright white teeth at me, twisting her pretty features. "If you aren't going to be a help, then get the fuck out of here!"

The Lepers circled Frida protectively, eyeing me. They wanted to fight me, for no other reason than their leader did.

"There's an herb in the forest that will help," I pointed out. "It will smooth his breathing. He will be vomiting for a week, but it'll be better than dying."

"Fuck off. How do you know—"

"Decades spent in the woods in Alfheim have lent themselves well to my knowledge of herbs and elixirs, Frida Gorndeen."

Her bluster died on her lips, simmering. I could read the rage beneath her fair face. She looked down at the dying man, where the veins in his neck were starting to turn black from infection.

I said, "Let me go. I can be back in ten minutes. I know where the herbs are located."

"Like Hel you will! I let you go now, you're never coming back."

Of course, that had been my plan. But seeing this man actually about to die changed that. I would find a different means of escaping my captivity here.

I shrugged, not willing to play into her hand, and turned to leave the scene . . .

Knowing Frida would call out to me a moment later.

"Spear-ear! Get out there and find those fucking plants, then. And if you're fucking me here, I'll fuck you twice over down the line. Understand me?"

I smiled to myself at her outburst, nodded, and took off through the trees, out of the Leper camp.

Locating the specific herbs I needed— a spate of fungi hidden deep beneath some overturned, rotted treebark—took me a few minutes.

As I crouched to pull the fungi from the soil, my eyes teetered over the top of the rotted bark, deeper into the woods.

The forest called to me. Ravinica called to me, and I debated tossing aside my mission and leaving once and for all.

This is your opportunity, Corym. Do not squander it, because you may not have eyes off you for a long time after this.

With a sigh, I shook my head.

Words filtered in calmly behind me, drawing me up short and making my body go rigid with surprise.

"Will it be worth it, elf?" It was Dieter, who had masterfully tracked me into the woods. "Letting this man die all so you can die at Vikingrune's doorstep?"

I clenched my jaw and looked over my shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about, human."

He chuckled. He was leaning on a broken tree branch, using it as a staff. "I probably couldn't stop you if you really wanted to leave. I ask again—"

I stood with the mushrooms in my hands, turning toward him and cutting him off with, "If you want your man to live, we'd better act fast."

Dieter smiled as I passed him, knowing he'd won this round.

I will manufacture a new time to leave, if needed. It doesn't have to be now—not when I can actually make a difference here, for once. Do some good.

The honorable elf in me would not allow me to escape in such a heartless, cowardly way.

And yet, Dieter had misspoken. He had assumed I was looking out over the rotted tree bark because I was longing for the forest to embrace me during my escape.

In reality, he hadn't seen what I'd actually been gazing at with curiosity—

A shock of wheat-gold hair, a fanciful tunic, and an attractive but bruised face, staring at me from deep in those woods, watching my every move.