in Galandell?” Now that I know he’s safe, I fear for others. What of Eldrin and Master Ardeth? And my friends in the guard, Kaelir and Elier?
“It happened so fast,” he starts, shaking his head as he tries to put his thoughts in order. “I was in the atrium with the queen, and all of a sudden, everyone was shouting and running around. The queen seemed to be the only calm one, so I followed her to the entrance of the palace,” he recalls, and I have to push down my irrational jealousy that he was with the queen, trying to focus on the rest of his story. “That’s when I saw elves attacking the guards.”
The speakers start muttering between themselves, their expression of surprise and shock obvious. Vaeril and Naril are sharing looks of concern, but they don’t seem hugely surprised by this.
“Rebels?” Naril asks the tribesman with a look of contemplation. Recalling previous conversations with the elf, I remember mentions of rebels and problems they’d been having at the borders of Galandell. Problems the queen blames me for. Is this my fault?
“I don’t know,” Tor answers with a frown. “They were wearing palace uniforms and…they looked different, strange.” The way he says this makes me shudder, and I know the others are thinking the same thing I am.
“The forsaken?” Speaker Hawthorn queries tentatively, like he doesn’t want the answer to his question. The expressions on Naril’s and Vaeril’s faces tell me everything I need to know—they believe the forsaken were involved in this attack.
“I don’t know much about your forsaken,” Tor says, glancing over at the speaker, “but something other was happening.” His emphasis on the word ‘other’ makes me think he means something different. “I don’t think the queen realised I had followed her, she was so focused on the fighting. That’s when I noticed the guards were fighting those wearing castle uniforms, some of them were even wearing guard uniforms, yet they were attacking us.” I hear his confusion as he explains, and I shudder at how close he must have been to the battle.
“Something was different about them, and when I reached the queen, I could see she was smiling.” Nausea churns my stomach. I can imagine the queen’s smirking face perfectly as her people fall and she does nothing but watch. My dislike for her morphs into hatred, bubbling hot within me. “I knew then that something was wrong,” he continues. “So I turned to leave. As I was departing, I heard her give an order to one of the guards.” He turns his attention to me now, and I know exactly what he’s going to say. “She said Clarissa was behind the attack and was a traitor to the elves. She’s to be captured and executed, and anyone who aids her in her escape will share the same fate.”
Dread fills me, and anxiety claws at my throat over how the elves are going to take this. I’ve been declared their enemy. Best case scenario, they ignore the order to try and capture me and allow me to escape, but this would only result in them sharing my demise. I could never live with that. They could detain me and send me back to the queen where I have no doubt she would kill me. Being mated to Vaeril is no longer enough protection from her. My companions would never allow them to capture me, which means we would have to fight them, which is something I don’t think I can do. They accept me for who I am here, they’ve offered me a home, and this is the closest thing I’ve ever felt to a family. Having to leave all that behind… It would have been better never to have experienced it, rather than getting a taste of it just to have it torn away, I lament. I glance at Vaeril, who’s watching me with a concerned expression. No, I’m glad I got to experience this, however briefly.
Bracing myself, I turn and look at the gathered wood elves. Seeing their expressions, my stomach flips as fear, excitement, and grief wars within me. They don’t look surprised at the news, in fact they look eager. Speaker Hawthorn glances at his companions, who just nod at his silent question, and takes a step towards me. “We will help you, Clarissa. We’ve known something was wrong with the queen for a long while, this has just confirmed it for us.” His voice is strong and sure,