Ellina did not expect the human to live.
The fever had passed, but his foot was swelling again now that they were forced to walk, and she did not like the look of those stitches. Liked less, the empty-eyed stare, the tight lips. Ellina knew pain when she saw it. She knew determination too, and grit, and a fierce will to survive. He had all three, but simply wanting to live was not enough. Not in these lands.
She scouted ahead and behind as they followed the forest trail. She tried not to push him, tried not to say hurry. It was still raining, which might have been lucky had she been alone. Heavy rain meant better cover. Rain also meant slick earth and wet clothes and a human who did not need either.
He was younger than she had first suspected, maybe somewhere in his second decade. It was difficult to tell with humans; they did not age as elves did. She glanced at his face, the unshaven scruff, strong jaw, hair pulled back and loose. He did not wear armor and carried no weapon save for that hunting knife, which was not a real weapon. He did know how to wield one, though. She could tell by his hands. That particular pattern of calluses was not from chopping wood.
Young, yes, and lost, yes, but maybe not so naive. She had seen that in his grey eyes, heard it in his voice in the heat of fever. She had touched his skin and felt its razor burn, had seen his expression morph in pain and anger that had nothing to do with his injury.
Steady, human, she had said to him. She knew better than to wake a man from a dream, and especially a fever-dream. It was said that when men dreamed they walked another earth, and to wake them was to meddle in that other realm.
Ellina could not know for sure. Elves did not dream. Still, she had stayed close, and sprinkled the fire with berrybough to ease his mind, and waited for him to wake. She was glad then that the others had gone ahead. She imagined what Raffan would say could he see her now.
You are getting soft, Ellina. He is human. He does not deserve your pity. But then, pity was not what she felt, was it? He was strange for a human.
It was his eyes. Most humans had a way of looking at elves. Quickly, then away, as if they were afraid to stare too long. But this human did not dart his glances. He stared at her full on as an elf might, without a whiff of fear on him.
She kept waiting for it. Waiting for him to show some sign that he feared her. He should. She had pointed her weapons at him, threatened him. She had him at her mercy, but he simply gazed at her with that too-long stare and waited for whatever came next.
Maybe he did not fear her, Ellina thought.
Maybe he was a fool, she thought.
He seemed to sense her gaze and lifted his eyes. Grey, like a winter storm. A wintery smile, too, that he flashed at her now.
Yes, Ellina decided. She was glad that Raffan was not there. Glad, that he did not see her turn away from that smile, the dark resolve that settled into her. And something else, too. The air piqued with some unknown feeling.
Uneasy, a little somber. Raffan would know it. He would feel it. He heard and saw and felt everything.
Ellina's skin prickled. She suspected Raffan already knew she was hiding her real reason for saving the human. He had to know. And it was obvious, was it not? The human was a liar, their bargain a charade. No elf would believe a human had been sent to Evov to speak with their queen. She certainly did not.
Ellina was an elite soldier, a scout trained in the art of deceit. That had been their mission before this diversion: to investigate the rumors of southern elven resistance, to observe their enemy. To spy.
The north and the south had never been allies, but only recently had tensions between their two sides sharpened into something like a weapon, capable of doing violence.
Ellina was not afraid of violence. And yet, she also understood the power of stealth, of gathering evidence, of watching and waiting for a plot to play out.
She thought of the human's plot. The story he told about who he was, the way he lied to convince her to spare his life. Ellina did not have much experience with humans, but dishonesty had a certain flavor, a certain color.
She knew it well.
She used it herself.
But Ellina could not let Raffan know her real reason for saving the human. She could not let anyone know. If they found out…
She clamped down on her mess of worries. She was thinking too much. Better not to think at all. Better to watch the shadows, listen to the trees, the rain.
She forced her gaze to the path ahead and marched on.