his face on both sides to reveal his delicately pointed ears, and its strands glowed white in the light of the flames. The pale, silvery gray of his skin should have looked strange, but in the moonlight, it simply looked right. As though this were where he belonged.
And it was.
Her Raven was a night elf.
The most powerful and mysterious of all Abreia’s magical races. Shapeshifters. Hunters. Feared and avoided.
And his eyes had begun to glow brighter now, with the banked glow of his magic rising from within.
“How are you even here?” she asked softly. “I have heard stories all my life, but to my people, you are barely more than a terrifying legend.”
His hands dropped from her shoulders.
“I am here because I was a prideful young fool,” he said, holding himself still and tense, as though he expected her to run from him any moment. “I was… traveling. A few days from here. In Eddris. Melger was also there. I sensed his interest—even a form of obsession—but I ignored him. Whenever my people travel outside our borders, humans behave similarly, so I judged him no danger to me. I was wrong.”
“How did he capture you?”
His hands clenched on his knees. “I recall hunting in the forest. Fleeing through the snow with blood running down my arm. I must have been hit by a poisoned arrow, because my next memory is of waking in Garimore, encased in that spelled armor, with no recollection of the time between.”
Leisa hissed a curse. “He ambushed you. The same way he does human mages.”
The Raven shrugged. “I let down my guard among humans. Perhaps I deserved what came of it.”
“We aren’t all evil-minded bastards,” Leisa argued, feeling stung.
“No?” One elegant eyebrow rose. “I was enslaved for ten years. In plain sight. How many of your people walked on by, choosing to ignore the proof that was right in front of them because it would be inconvenient to admit what Melger had done?”
It was not an unfair question.
“Maybe they were afraid. Maybe they didn’t think there was anything they could do.”
“Maybe they never tried.”
“Because they were afraid.”
“Is that how you humans allow so many atrocities between you? By convincing yourselves that fear absolves you of responsibility?”
She wished she could deny it. But she’d seen the proof.
“I’m sorry,” she said simply. “You’re right. We’re not that great sometimes. We lie and cheat and steal and do other terrible things because we act out of our fears. We will do almost anything to make ourselves safe, even trample on others. But I believe some of us are trying. Trying to be better and to do better and to make the world safer for those around them.”
His silence suggested he was unconvinced, and she could not blame him. He’d endured too much at the hands of an evil man, and now he remained at the mercy of yet another human. Forced to rely on her to set him free.
“I’ll find a way to free you,” she said suddenly. “I swear it. Just… come with me to Farhall. I have to warn them, or Garimore will do to our mages what they forced you to do to theirs.”
He stood up, so suddenly she fell backward in surprise.
“You’re asking me to trust humans. To risk myself among them again.”
She was. Leisa realized abruptly that her request was blindingly naive and unfair. She had no right to ask it of him, no matter how urgent her errand.
But she also wasn’t willing to risk her kingdom’s safety for his sake.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “But I have to do this. I can’t afford to wait until I’ve fully recovered, or everything I have risked to this point will cease to matter. All of our people will suffer, and mages most of all. But I won’t ask you to go with me. I will go alone and tell King Soren what I learned. My debt to him will be resolved, and then I’ll be free to come find you and help you.”
“And now you’re asking me to trust you,” he said softly, tilting his head and pinning her with that strange, glowing gaze.
Leisa didn’t know if she could convince him, but she had to try.
Somehow, she found the strength to stand. Balanced carefully until her knees stopped shaking, then crossed the distance between them and willed her arm to stop shaking as she reached up and placed one hand on his chest. It felt different now, without the armor, but the muscles beneath were