His kin were merchants from Lothern and his family had been mere freeholders while her ancestors had ruled a kingdom and married into the Blood of Aenarion himself.
Her father was proud but you could not eat pride, nor repair ancient buildings with it nor pay the required number of retainers unless they too were like you, old and with nowhere else to go.
Her father understood these things, she knew, but he was too set in his ways to change. It had fallen on her to improve the fortunes of her house by marrying well, and to tell the truth, she had found it no hardship. She took out her locket and opened it and stared at his picture. Moralis, her husband-to-be, was as good and kind an elf as one could hope to meet, and he was handsome too.
More than that he brought a dash of the swashbuckling adventurer with him, for he was a sea captain and had travelled to many far places while helping make his family’s fortune. She liked him, and he liked her, and there was love there, which was not something she had ever thought to find, growing up as she had in this remote place far from the centres of civilisation.
She counted it a blessing of Isha that he had bought the land beside their estate. It had proven even more of a blessing that he had taken to her when he had first seen her.
She thought she heard a noise somewhere in the gloom. She went to the window and looked out into the night once more. She could not see anything.
She was not frightened. There was nothing really threatening in this part of Ulthuan. No wolves prowled here. No monsters strayed down from the mountains. No marauders had made it this far inland in a couple of centuries. The worst things she had ever heard about were some rumours of the spread of the old cults of luxury in the area, and those were most likely just Elrion and his friends playing at being decadent, and frightening themselves with the thought of the old dark magics.
She heard a stone bang against the shutter of her window. She knew who it was without having to look. Only one elf had ever done that. She opened the shutter. As if summoned by the thought of him, Elrion emerged from the gloom. There was something wild in his appearance. He looked different although she could not quite put her finger on how and she had known him since childhood.
‘What is it, Elrion? What is wrong?’ she asked. She thought she heard some large animal growling in the dark behind him. Perhaps some wild thing had strayed into the area after all, and he had fled before it. That might explain the wildness of his appearance.
‘In the name of Isha run down and open the door, it’s following me,’ he said, but he said it quietly, as if he did not want anyone to hear. Perhaps he was afraid of attracting the creature’s attention. She thought about ringing the bell to summon the servants but realised it would be faster just to go down herself and open the gate as she had done when they were younger. She raced down the stairs, threw the bolts on the gate and opened it.
‘Quickly, come in,’ she said, peering past his shoulder to see if whatever it was was still out there. She thought she caught sight of glowing eyes glittering in the gloom. There was something terrifying about them. He stepped passed her into the courtyard. As he did so, old Peteor emerged from inside the mansion. He carried a bow in his blue-veined old hand and he had an arrow knocked and ready.
‘I thought I heard the bolts being thrown,’ he said. ‘What is it? Who would come calling at this time of night?’
‘It is only Elrion,’ Fayelle said. ‘Some night-stalking beast followed him here.’
‘It’s an odd time of the night to come calling,’ said Peteor. He had never liked Elrion, and his liking had grown less as tales of Elrion’s debauched lifestyle and wild parties had become common knowledge in the neighbourhood.
‘I have urgent news for Prince Faldor,’ said Elrion. He strode over to Peteor with his hands outstretched. ‘It concerns the wedding. It’s not going to happen.’
‘Has there been an accident? Has something happened to Moralis?’ Fayelle asked.
‘What else could bring him at such a time of the night,’ said Peteor. ‘News brought after dark