Below the Peak (Sola)(72)
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.
Chapter Thirty-three
“Where are you going?” she asked, eyeing him.
“To hunt,” Calemir said, strapping the quiver over his chest. He lifted his head, eyes fastening on her face. He studied the black strands which managed to escape the coffins of her plaited long braid and fell on her temples. He had not seen her let her hair loose since the evening in Vessener, she has had it braided or tied ever since that day. Her clothes were also the same, long tunic and trousers dyed in Forod vibrant colors. He mused if she hated any other form of clothes that wasn’t some tunic and pants. His eyes lingered on the hair again, marveling how black it was like raven wings then moved to her hazelnut eyes that stared him back with little fear and challenge. She braved up before him even when he felt his gaze was beginning to unsettle her. He was tempted to let her curious eyes see everything that lurked beneath his green ones, deep down into the core. He would pour everything into her… the good, the bad, she would feel it, be consumed by it, driven insane until she became terrified down to the depth of her soul to be near him. Then, she might learn to have a hard skin and not easily be susceptible to emotions and tempt him.
He hated her for making him a mess of contradictions.
Indistinct voices coming from the entrance hall had his thoughts halting.
“Hunt what?” Nara asked.
“Hunt game” he replied before twisting his body half way to see Finn.
“Are you ready?” Finn asked him in elvish as he halted a foot away from him and Nara.
“Yes, where is Leena?” asked Calemir, rolling one wrist then the other before dropping his hands to his side.
“She will meet us at butterfly tree” Finn replied in elvish, his eyes going to Nara. His lips curled up and switched to Nyr. “I haven’t seen you in a while, hope you are well.”
Nara nodded and said in elvish, “I am great and what about you?”
Finn’s smirk spread into a full smile, eyes twinkling as he rested his hand on the butt of his sword hanging on hips. “Do you speak Elvish??”
“I’m learning” his wife answered back in Nyr.
Finn nodded slowly. Calemir had discovered Izza was teaching her elvish two days ago when he had heard and found both the women in the dining room speaking. He thought it was a right choice for the servant to teach her instead of him since he wasn’t around the house very much. She was learning alright. Still, much work was needed with her pronunciation.
“May I join you?” her eyes bored into his, holding her breath. She kept her expression neutral, but Calemir could see past it, her anticipation and fear of him rejecting. She begged with those brown eyes to let her go with him or another day inside the house was going to tear her.