Page 56 of The Broken Elf King
My heart pinched. Leaving her here was going to be hard. Not because I worried for her— she’d be fine, she knew where the heck we were and she had a Bow Man visiting every three days—but she would take my running off hard, as a betrayal and a failure.
Over the next several hours, Magda boiled the root and made a condensed reddish brown hair dye for me. Then she gingerly applied it to my locks while I sat and stewed in my guilt. When she was done I looked in the mirror and genuinely smiled. It looked really good, redder and darker brown than the color I was born with, but good. The part of my hair that had still been brown was much darker now that the dye had been applied over it, and as I peered closer, into the mirror, I saw that the right half of my eyelashes had turned white also. Hopefully, no one would notice, because I didn’t want dye to get into my eyes.
I smiled at her. “I love it. Thank you.”
She looked pleased with my happiness, and whistled as she cleaned up her work. We settled into our nightly routine then, me reading one of the hundreds of books Raife had sent here, and her knitting by the fire.
When I got up to make our final cup of nightly tea, I almost backed out of putting the valerian root in hers.
The fact that I told Raife I loved him and saved his life and he repaid me by locking me up in the woods, I just couldn’t get over that. Ihadto get out of here.
Dropping a large pinch of powdered valerian root into Magda’s tea, I added extra sugar and brought it to her. She took a sip and made a face. “Sweet,” she told me.
I gave a nervous laugh and sipped my plain tea.
Twenty minutes later she was yawning. “Alright, dear. Let’s get you to bed.”
I nodded, standing. “Let me just go to the washroom first. My tummy feels upset,” I said, and walked down the hallway to the washroom, locking myself inside.
If there was any question to my being a prisoner here, it was erased each night when Magda locked my bedroom door. I was not allowed to leave and that thought terrified me. I knew she was doing her job, at the command of a broken king, but I wasn’t meant to be caged.
Not now. Not ever.
I sat in the washroom for five minutes before I heard Magda come to the door. “It’s late,” she said, sounding sleepy.
I flushed the toilet and made my voice sound in agony. “Ohh, my stomach is cramping. I think it was those eggs we had. I’ll be a while. Why don’t you lay on the couch for a bit?”
Silence. And then, “Okay, dear.”
I paced the washroom for the next twenty minutes, trying to build up the nerve to go out there and check on her. I knew that if I had to fight her I could overwhelm her easily—but I liked her, I didn’t want it to come to that. I also knew she had a raven to get word to the king quickly, and I wanted to have a head start before he started looking for me.Ifhe started at all. He might very well just want to be free of me and this would absolve him of any guilt he had to protect me in whatever sick way he thought this was.
After what I assumed was thirty minutes of silence, I reached out and unlocked the door, slowly turning the handle in my sweaty palm.
Please be asleep,I prayed as I crossed the hallway and peered into the living room. There, slumped in her knitting chair, was my slightly snoring captor.
I released a shaky breath and then tiptoed into my room, quickly changing into traveling clothes, then reached under the bed to pull out the stuffed pillowcase I’d been collecting things in all week: dried fruits and meats; a map of the realm I’d hand drawn to the best of my ability; an extra set of clothes and a meat knife; a canteen, and a blanket. Lastly was the angel novel I’d been reading. The king had sent it from the castle. It pissed me off that he’d do such a kind thing. Dump me, lock me up, but send my favorite book?
Idiot.
Hoisting the sack over my shoulder, I walked as light-footed as possible to the back door, the one just off the hallway that was farthest from Magda’s earshot. With trembling fingers, I reached for the lock and turned it. The door creaked a little as I opened it and my heart leapt into my throat.
Shhh, calm down,I told myself as the terror rushed through me. Slipping out into the night air, I closed the door as softly as possible and then ran into the woods like I was being chased.
I didn’t know if there were Bow Men around, or ravens or what. I just knew that other than sitting on the porch at midday I was not encouraged to go outside. The moon was high in the sky, but it told me nothing about where I was going. I’d have to wait for sun-up to gain my bearings of east and west. Nightfall was east, and I intended to save my aunt myself if the king was going to abandon her.
* * *
I didn’t wantto get too far away without knowing what direction I was going, but I also didn’t want to be too close to the cottage if Magda had woken and sounded the alarm that I was gone. I ended up walking four hours in one direction until I found a small logging village. There was a giant pile of stripped logs outside the gates. I climbed on top of them to keep away from prowling animals, and then promptly fell asleep out of exhaustion.
Men shouting and the warmth of sunlight on my face woke me in the early morning hours.
“There’s a woman up there!” one of them yelled in Old Elvish.
I sat bolt upright, rolling my blanket into a ball and shoving it into my pillowcase. Peering down at the men bleary-eyed, I smiled politely and waved.
The elf men looked at me with shock. “Miss, what are you doing out here?” He spoke Old Elvish too, and I thanked the Maker I knew how to respond in the same tongue.
I cleared my throat. “Traveling to see my aunt. Got a bit lost. Where am I exactly?” I asked as one of the elf men, an older man in his fifties with kind eyes, stepped up onto the logs to reach a hand out and help me down.
