Chapter Thirty-one
It started to rain during midnight and went on until the morning. Unable to go outside, Nara occupied herself that morning with unpacking and arranging her clothes in the closet and tidying her room. It has been three days in this house, she might as well try to settle in. Nara felt it deep within her gut she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, no matter how against she felt of being there. In the entire afternoon, she spent idly in the living room, staring and at books and flipping pages written in elvish. Glancing out the window, the rain wasn’t letting up, it looked it would be pouring the entire day. Izza served her lunch and went back in the kitchen. She hadn’t seen nor heard Calemir again. Finished eating, Nara climbed upstairs and into her room. Lying on the bed, she listened to the rain drops drum against the window.
***
It poured the next two days again, pissing her off for ruining her plans. She had planned to go for a ride, explore the land after being scooped up in the house for too long. As she laid on the bed idly, she wondered where he was. She hadn’t seen the prince the last five days nor did Izza, or the stable elf said a word about him. Where is he?
Jumping from the bed and out of the room, she stalked to the kitchen, finding Izza working on the counter. The servant paused and greeted then continued slicing the meat.
“Does it always rain like this here?” Nara asked, staring at the grayness outside caused by the dense clouds.
“Oh yes, this is common, though this will probably stop early by tomorrow” Izza replied perceptively. Izza had started getting comfortable around her as she has been of the elf.
“This one is very light. It usually rains a lot harder” the elf remarked.
Say what?
The pot on the stove started to bubble loudly, and the soup inside it leaked from the corner of the top lid and slid into the fire, making a hissing noise.
“I got it,” said, Nara, as she looked around for a cloth to use to carry the hot pot.
“I’ll handle it” Izza offered kindly as they both reached for the same piece of cloth hanging on the wooden rack.
“Let me do it” Nara insisted and tugged at the cloth.
“No” Izza quickly interjected, pulling back. “Your highness it is my duty I cannot let you do this work.”
“Fine” Nara snapped, letting go. She instantly felt guilty when Izza stumbled back, looking stunned and frightened yet she really didn’t care.
“Sorry” she mumbled and stormed out the kitchen ignoring the servant apologizing as if it were her fault.
She skipped the stairs two at a time to the second floor. She slammed the door to her room. She huffed, finding the calming method useless as she counted randomly…useless as she has become. What was she trying to do back there? Lessons to be a perfect house wife? She snorted unpleasantly. She was wasting here, nothing to do, her help not needed since the servants took care of everything. If she were back in Vessener with her mates, things would have been different and not have to stoop so low into trying to do mundane things. She knew her duties in the Elite, what to do and how to do them, she wouldn’t have been pacing the room helplessly as she was doing now.
Dread washed over her as the days ahead of her looked bleak.
She dragged the chair and sat, her back folding forward. She hunched, resting her elbows on her thighs and palmed her face.
Izza avoided her the following day, not lingering in her presence unnecessary. She served her breakfast, dinner and lunch. Once she was done, she bid her good evening and left.
She was beginning to be concerned of the prince. It was the sixth day, and he was still absent. Was something wrong or has anything happened to him? A deep rumbling that seems to shake the house followed by a white crackling flash that briefly lit the whole room had her heart jumping and her fingers gripping the table. The winds flap widely as the rain descended strongly from the dark skies.
The flame of the oil lamp sitting on the dining table flickered.
Nara stilled, ears picking a creaking noise. The silent shut of a door followed. Alert, she got to her feet and silently drew closer to the exist of the dining hall. Nara cocked her head and watched down the hallway and kept her eyes on the front entrance door of the house. A figure stood by the door. She couldn’t make out the face of the person because of the darkness. Her fingers reached to the back of her waist and rested on the tilt of the dagger tugged inside her trousers as the tall form of a man started walking forward in long strides. Calemir? She wasn’t too sure until she caught the unshaded blond flash of hair and the angular side of his face she knew it was him. She unclenched her fingers from the dagger but left her hand folded behind her back.
Her pupils enlarged at his state when he got closer to the light. He was soaked from head to toe. His hair wetly slicked down to his shoulder, his tunic cling on his flat torso like a second skin, as did his trousers around the muscle of his thighs down to the inside of his muddy boots.
Nara was startled when he bent his hand past his shoulder and dragged his tunic over his head. He bunched the fabric in one fist. Fair damp skin glowed over broad shoulders and lean muscle which worked, clenching and unclenching as he started to walk again.
He hadn’t noticed her…yet…
His head snapped. Dark green eyes glowed at her. The hair on her nape stood at the end, as the air in the manor changed to more haunting than it was before, darkening like the thunder growling and echoing within the walls when he started toward her. Nara straightened and stilled when he halted in front of her.
“You are awake,” Calemir said, his voice gruff.
“It’s hard to sleep with the storm” Nara replied, keeping her eyes on his face, and far away from his bare chest.
Calemir rolled his shoulders. “Is it just the storm or are you afraid what’s in the dark?”
Nara bristled, his closeness unnerving her.
“I am not afraid of anything” she fired back.
Calemir rose one eyebrow. “Explain the dagger your holding then,”
Nara’s stomach sunk.
“You didn’t think I have not seen it, did you?” Calemir stared at her intensely, his face brooding.
“Whether you have seen it or not, it matters little to me” she replied indifferently except it irritated her of him knowing about it. How had he come to see it, when she had been hiding and keeping it with her all the time. And from the way he said it, it appears he had known of her dagger for a while.
He smirked a smirk which could tell horseshit from dung. He didn’t believe her.
“Where have you been?” Nara asked instead.
His expression hardened and tightened. “Performing duties” he replied darkly.
“I just wanted to know. You have been gone for the last couple of days” Nara explained, seeing how cold he suddenly turned. His eyes flashed with an emotion she couldn’t pin. A burning stirred inside her, crawling its way up to her spine. She felt agitated… having an urge to smash something. Nara blinked. The need to do it continued growing.
Where was, this urge coming from?
“I’m going to sleep” Nara muttered, taking a step back and dodging around him.
“Our ears are our weakness” his deep voice made her freeze on the stairs. Nara tried not look curious when she faced him. Her ear cocked in anticipation. “If you cut them, we are easy to kill. Sleep tight” Calemir finished.
Nara resumed her walk, feeling his gaze the whole time until she disappeared down the hall. Why reveal his kind’s weakness to her after he indirectly confirmed she didn’t trust his kind, feared them and was armed to protect herself if the worse situation arose?
Still, it wasn’t until much later she realized that he was enjoying her.
“Bastard” she hissed in the dark.
***
Nara was standing at dining hall window, looking over the wet field. It was a good thing the house was on a hill, or they would have had water inside. Fortunate, the rest of the houses below the hill were stilt houses, and the water wasn’t very high to flood.
“You should see the town once the water dries” he spoke.
Nara glanced over her shoulder.
Calemir stood a few feet away from her. In clean clothes, blonde hair dry, he was less intimidating in the late morning light. The warm beams created a sort of crown over his head.
“That was the plan before it rained.” She replied.
“The rain is the norm here, I’ll advice you to get used to it very quickly.”
Nara scowled, rising a chuckle from him. His chuckle was neither too deep nor too light but smooth and pleasant to hear. She turned her head back to the window, and her eyes narrowed at the mountains. “There is smoke rising from the mountains.” There was so much smoke, it was alarming.
He drew closer, standing close beside her. Nara tensed and eyed him. Why was he standing so close? He was practically invading her personal space, but he didn’t look like he noticed or cared as his peered at the mountains and calmly said. “It is nothing to worry about.”
“Are you certain? It could be fire outbreak” she said with concern, focusing on the object of their talk. Although how could there be a forest fire when it had just rain, and the warmth had started returning.
“Perhaps, the rain must have disturbed the dragons.”
She stared at him, mouth parted. “Dragons?”
Calemir smiled, liking her innocent reaction. “Uruloki means dragon. It was once a land inhabited by dragons, but now they live in the mountains.”
“Oh.” The amazed expression was still on her face. It must be the reason the air here had a tint scent of smoke. “Do you not fear them?”
“No, I don’t,” he replied most confidently. Nara wondered how having a giant winged creature that breathed fire, that could burn cities to ash and in soar the skies not be terrifying.
“The old ones were feral, but their descendants are gentle.” He folded his arms on his chest.
“Are you lying to me?” she asked, her eyebrows quirking suspiciously.
“Why would I?” he stared at her.
“Because you lied to me yesterday about your ears being your weakness” she retorted, her eyes going to his pointy ears for emphasis.
“You actually believed it” Calemir smirked. Nara’s face heated from embarrassment. He thought her a fool.
“I speak the truth, they are not gentle as lambs, but one could ride them before they kill you that is.” He said so casually as if it was a simple matter.
Huh, Nara had doubts but decided to reserve them.
Calemir shifted his gaze to the mountains and said, “I had gone patrolling the days I had been gone.”
Nara lifted her eyes to his face, looking at his strong jaw twitching.
“There had been problems at the border near the mountains that had to be dealt with.”
Seeing he decided to share with her she went on to ask. “What problems?”
“Attacks from nuisances” he spat.
“Was it the cursed spirits?” she asked, recalling the nasty creatures she had encountered.
Calemir shook his head. “they are dhaeraow…rebels who don’t see eye to eye with the throne” his voice was detached when he spoke this.
“And dhaeraow are they elves?” an intuitive warning settled in her bones.
He nodded. Her stomach knotted with apprehension. She would have to be extra careful whenever she goes out.
“The attacks are frequent, have been for long and they have never gotten out of hand. The rebels have never reached this part of town” He said as if he had heard her thoughts and was somehow reassuring her, possibly not in the best way.
****
Chapter Thirty-Two
Calemir was around the following day. Nara had eaten breakfast with him before he left to check on the horses in the stable. The fields were still wet, they barred her from going sightseeing once again. Nara decided to hang in the kitchen with Izza, but this time she watched the elf cook and not interfered.
“I want to learn your language,” she said, sitting on the stool as she watched Izza stir the stew on the fire. “Teach me please.”
Izza stopped stirring, turned and looked at her, a little confused and very intrigued. “Why know it?”
She shrugged. “I live here now, it’s best I try to understand what your kind say.” She was willing to try to learn something of their culture, and language was the best first step she thought. She bet not a lot of the elves spoke Nyr and they wouldn’t start to learn just to accommodate her. She was in their lands, and if she was to live here for a long time, she should at least know the language to start understanding the elves and make her stay less hard and more comfortable.
“As I am to live here, it’s best of me to learn your ways” she replied. Izza stared at her intently before saying gently, “My Nyr is not very good it will be hard to interpret and translate elvish words for you to understand better before learning the tongue your highness, perhaps the prince can teach you.”
Nara scraped her teeth on her bottom lip. “He is too busy, he won’t be able to do it, but you and I are always here.” Nara wasn’t going to tell on Calemir. Izza needed not to know she had approached him first and he hadn’t helped her. She wasn’t going to blame him, she understood better than most his duties were his top priority.
“I will do my best” Izza nodded after a moment of deliberation.
“Thank you,” she said softly.