The Wild Swans (14 page)

He crunched on leaves and twigs as he marched back in the direction of their camp
.

Elise sat in her tree and listened to her older brother walk away.

“Freedom isn’t want I wanted. I just want to be included,” Elise murmured.

Chapter 7

The follow
ing day, Elise was too stiff to stay in her tree for the day. Instead, she retrieved her knitting—if she was being honest with herself she knew she could never leave her foster brothers as swans no matter how tumultuous their relationship was at the moment—and sat out of sight in the forest, intending to retreat to a tree when the hour of transformation arrived.

She sat on the opposite side of the rock formation she used as shelter
, out of sight of the pond and thus her foster brothers.

Brida did not speak much
, if at all. The guard captain practiced her sword form and archery for a few hours before grooming the horses and catching a few fish. She kept busy, but she always was within eye-sight of the rock formation.

Somewhat alone
, Elise bit her tongue until it bled to keep herself from screaming in pain as she knit. Tears stung her eyes, and she didn’t bother to wipe them from her face.

Elise
was so involved in her work that she didn’t notice the swan until it was a few feet away from her.

Elise stared at the swan
. The swan stared back at Elise.

She couldn’t tell which brother it
was, and she leaned back into her rock as he walked a half circle around her before sitting down within kicking range.

Elise considered gett
ing up and climbing a tree, but the prospect did not seem appealing thanks to her stiff back and sore bottom. Besides, both Steffen and Rune mentioned they couldn’t clearly remember what was going on when they were swans, right? It was most likely that whatever brother this was would forget she was here by the time he transformed.

After Elise made up her mind and went back t
o knitting, the swan stood and took a few steps closer before sitting down again. Elise glanced up from her knitting, but did not respond.

A few minutes later
, the swan moved closer again and again, until an hour later, he sat even with Elise, his feathers occasionally brushing her when he used his orange beak to preen his feathers.

Elise looked at the swan
, and the swan looked back to Elise. Realizing how ridiculous they must look—a grubby girl sewing nettles and a swan behaving like a dog—Elise let the corners of her lips curl before she shook her head and returned to knitting.

“Eliiiiiise!”

“
Elise
,”

ELISE
!”

Elise squinted in the dy
ing light—the sun had dipped beyond the horizon but its glow hadn’t completely departed yet, letting Elise knit on. “I think I can finish this tonight,” Elise said, looking at the nettle shirt. She had completed the front half of the shirt and was working on the back half. When that was finished, all that was left to do was to stitch the two pieces together.

It wouldn’t be the prettiest shirt
, but Elise guessed it would still break the curse. Even though it had been days since she harvested the first nettles for the shirt, the plants were still green and pliant. That had to be a sign of magic.

“It’s been over a week. Are you go
ing to forgive them anytime soon, Princess?” Brida said, looking down at the forest from the branch she draped her body across. (After it became apparent that Elise was going to spend the hour her brothers were human in the trees and out of their grasp, Brida started climbing the tree with her for reasons beyond Elise’s comprehension.)

“I already have forgiven them
,” Elise said, biting her lip out of habit to keep from crying as she knitted.

“Then why won’t you speak to them?” Brida asked over a repetitious
chorus.

“Because I am still furious with them
.”

“I don’t understand.”

“They are my family.”

“No they—
,”

“They are my
family
,” Elise firmly said. “It’s possible to love family and want to save them and, in the same moment, wish they would choke on a fishbone.”

“You are go
ing to make them pay?”

“Pay for what? No. I’m avoid
ing them until I can face them—any of them—without wanting to wrap this shirt around their perfect, smiling faces,” Elise said.

“So you aren’t avoid
ing them because of Rune and Falk’s love for you?”

Elise yanked so hard on the sting
ing nettle she snapped it. She was silent for a few moments to keep herself from cursing before she grabbed another nettle and slid out her last few loops so she could tie the new plant in. “No, definitely not.”

“Do you think you’ll marry one of them?”

“I do not want to talk about it,” Elise said, her voice growing high-pitched.

Brida sat up on her branch so she could face Elise in the purple dusk. “You honest
ly did not know, did you?”

Elise hunched further into the tree
, her neck disappearing into her shoulders.

“And
that is why you do not want to face them,” Brida continued.

“I
’ll tie off this end, and then I will need something to cut the remaining stem with,” Elise said, trying to crowd Brida’s irritating, spot-on observations out of her mind.

“
Eliiiiiiise
!”

The
Arcainian princes still called out.

When the sun went down two days later
, Elise climbed her usual tree alone.

“I’m go
ing to meet the princes at the camp,” Brida said, resting a sheathed sword on her shoulder. “You have your whistle?”

Elise nodded.

“I will be back once they are swans again,” Brida said, saluting Elise before she strode off through the woods.

Elise sat in her tree and tried to rearrange her wild
, curly locks. The red ribbon was barely enough to pull her hair to the back of her neck, and each day Elise’s hair seemed to grow more unruly.

Elise fussed with her hair
, jumping when she heard a thudding noise. She peered between branches for any sign of her brothers.

She didn’t see anyone
, but the afterglow of the set sun was almost gone.

Elise climbed to a lower tree branch and crouched there. No one
was around, and for the first time since their argument, Elise didn’t hear her foster brothers calling for her.

In the last bits of light
, Elise thought she saw something metal glint on the ground. After another cautionary glance, Elise climbed down her tree, wincing as the rough bark scraped her raw fingers.  She crept through the underbrush and pushed aside a fern leaf. The metal was a buckle, like the ones on saddlebags or horse tack.

Elise blinked and picked up the buckle. Maybe Brida
had dropped it.

“Found you.”

Elise whirled around and collided with Rune’s chest. She bounced off him but was steadied by another man, Falk.

“Elise
,” Falk said as Elise pulled her arms from his grasp.

“We didn’t mean to frighten you
. We just want to speak with you,” Rune said, slowly approaching Elise.

“We
have much to discuss,” Falk dryly said.

“We should explain—
,”

“GAAAAAAAH!” Elise shouted
, clamping her hands over her ears.

“We need to address the issue
,
Snowflake
,” Falk said, still audible over Elise’s protests.

“We never told you we loved you because—
,”

“
This can’t be happening,” Elise said, dropping her hands so she could start marching through the forest. “This
isn’t
happening.”

“Actual
ly, it is,” Falk said.

“Father forbid us from talk
ing to you about love until you declared you were ready to marry,” Rune said.

“Rune once attempted to test
that rule a year ago,” Falk dryly said. “He didn’t even get to confess to you before some guards tattled.”

Elise stopped and turn
ed to stare at her brothers. “A year ago? Wasn’t that the summer you fought a dragon and got that horrid black eye?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

“
The dragon fighting was really more…symbolic,” Rune said.

“Steffen
was the one who gave him the black eye,” Falk helpfully piped in.

“Like you faired any better. The on
ly reason Steffen never dealt
you
a blow is because you are utterly incompetent in terms of friendly communication,” Rune said, his handsome face twisting into a scowl.

Elise looked back and forth between Rune and Falk
before she shook her head. “No,” she said. She turned on her heels and started marching again.

“Return
ing to the original point,” Rune said, easily keeping up. “When you finally announced that you were available, Clotilde already had her claws into Father. Steffen told us we could try to pursue you, but it was fairly obvious you would just end up hating us both if we attempted such a thing when you were already feeling the pressure.”

“
‘Tis true,” Falk said.

Elise hopped over a log. “You’re ly
ing. Both of you are lying.”

“You know us
, Elise. Or at least you know me. I am not a liar,” Rune said.

“Except when it comes to your feelings
, eh?” Falk said.

“Shut up
,” Rune snapped.

“No
, this is impossible. I will tell you why it is impossible,” Elise said, stopping to shaking a finger at the princes. “You,” she said, stabbing a finger at Falk. “You hate me. You call me all sorts of sarcastic nicknames that any
idiot
can tell you use to mock me rather than as a term of endearment. You are a plague on my department, pointing out any perceived mathematical mistake and insisting on breathing down my neck and lingering in my office whenever our departments work together. In no way do you give off the faintest
whiff
of a man in love. You are as pleasant to me as a bad-tempered porcupine.”

Rune looked away to hide his grin
, but he did not bother to muffle his snort of amusement.

“A
nd
YOU
,” Elise said, placing her hands on her hips as she turned to Rune. “You are
worse
! Yes, you acted nice to me and cared for me on a more personal level than the rest of our family, but you are an unforgivable
flirt
! How dare you say that you love me when I have stood next to you for countless parties and heard you flatter and compliment any female that crossed your path. You are the court favorite because you’re handsome
and
because pretty words fall from your mouth like honey from a beehive!”

Rune lost his mirth rather quick
ly. “Falk is popular, too,” he said.

“Falk is popular through no actions of his own. The man lives like a monk—I always thought he
had taken some sort of vow of celibacy as he seemed to despise the companionship of any marriageable lady. But you! I could accept it, and perhaps encourage, it for the good of our country when you are my brother.”