The Elf Girl (44 page)

Lady Cora was sitting with the Queen and Brielle, who was clinging to her mother’s side. When we entered, Queen Taryn stood up and approached us.

If I hadn’t been so upset, I would have taken time to admire the beauty of Queen Taryn’s small “apartment.” All I had the heart to notice were the elegantly decorated walls, carpet, and bed. The traditional green and brown elfin colors were utterly magnificent.

“Welcome home, Zora,” Queen Taryn said. “I am glad you are safe at last. I’m glad
all
of you are safe.”

“Thank you, Queen Taryn,” Zora said.

We all repeated Zora’s words soon after.

“I know you all must be tired, so I will make this brief. While what Ramsey and my daughter did was foolish, reckless, and extremely dangerous, it was well worth it. You not only rescued Zora, but you also captured an air fairy, killed a dangerous water fairy, and managed to scare off a highly trained Element fairy general,” she said.

I noticed how Queen Taryn failed to mention it was Brielle who had killed Wynter. Maybe Brielle hadn’t told her. I wondered who Queen Taryn thought had killed her. But I wouldn’t mention anything. Brielle had taken it pretty hard, and I didn’t want her feeling worse about the situation.

Queen Taryn started to speak once more, so I focused back on her words. “You also did this all without one bit of disturbance from humans. Well done.” She waited a moment before continuing. “As for the trials of Addison, Stellan, and Ramsey herself, consider them nonexistent. You have proven that bringing Ramsey from the Human Realm was the right thing to do. You will always be remembered for your courage. Now, I know you are all tired, so, goodnight.”

We all said goodnight to Queen Taryn and the others and left them to discuss Lura’s fate. Stellan was considerate enough to teleport to his room and leave us alone. It was better that way. Zora, Addison, and I walked slowly down the stairs to our rooms.

“Will you be staying in my room?” I asked Zora as we went down the hall, trying to push the eerie occurrence with Eder to the back of my mind.

“Of course I will. Anyway, no one gave me a room of my own,” she reminded me.

“Good,” I said.

Once again, I didn’t want to be alone.

Addison’s room came before ours, so we said goodnight to her there.

“I’m glad you two are safe. I’m sorry about all the pain my brother has caused. Believe me, I had no idea about any of it.”

“We kept the relationship a secret because we had no idea whether it would work or not. We didn’t want anyone hurt if we decided to break things off, so we decided to wait until we were more serious. That never happened, as Stellan said. Don’t think I will ever hold what happened against you. I know Ramsey won’t either. You will always be my best friend,” Zora said, hugging Addison tightly.

“She’s right, Addison,” I agreed, and gave her a hug as well.

“Goodnight,” she said, walking into her room.

“Goodnight,” we both replied before she shut the door.

“Let’s get some sleep, all right?” Zora suggested.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” I agreed.

I walked with her into our room. Zora took a shower, something she hadn’t done since she was taken, and I prepared to go to bed. I gave Zora my nightgown and changed into my navy sundress. It would be all right to sleep in for now. Throwing down my tattered shoulder bag, I went to the nightstand. I picked up Zora’s journal and handed it to her when she was done showering.

“I believe this is yours,” I said.

“Thank you. I’m glad it helped,” she said as she took it.

“It did.”

Before we got into bed, I noticed something.

“Zora, you might want to take that Mood Diamond off your neck,” I said with a slight smile.

“That’s probably a good idea.” She unclasped the necklace and tossed it onto my shoulder bag. “I hope I never have to use that again.”

“Me too,” I agreed.

We were too tired to do or say anything else, so we climbed into bed and blew out the candles.

“Zora?”

“Yes?” she replied.

“Outside…with that guard…why were you acting so…harsh?”

I heard Zora take a sharp breath and then slowly exhale. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to get inside the palace. I can’t explain it, but I felt like I wasn’t really safe until I was inside.”

I nodded, understanding her reasoning completely. However, I had one more question for my sister before we fell asleep.

“What he said, about you never telling me my secret…it’s not true, is it?” I inquired.

“Let’s leave those things for another time,” she told me quietly. “Right now, we both need rest.”

Not satisfied, but knowing I shouldn’t push her, I said, “Okay. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she replied, turning away from me.

A few minutes later her breathing became even, and I was left alone with my thoughts.

Zora’s homecoming should have been a happy one. It wasn’t in the least, no matter how grateful I was that she was safe.

It wasn’t enough to celebrate yet.

***

I slept undisturbed, and I was glad to see Zora safe and sound when I woke up later. It was five on Monday morning in the Elf Realm. Feeling rejuvenated, I got out of bed and took the much-needed shower I hadn’t been able to do last night. I redressed in my navy dress and went to wake up Zora.

“Time to get up already?” she asked.

“Yep, we should get down for breakfast. We don’t want anyone worrying about us, do we?”

“No,” she agreed. “What am I supposed to wear?”

“Uh, I have no idea. Maybe we can borrow something from Brielle. Let’s go and see her now,” I suggested.

“Sure, let’s go.”

We hurried up to Brielle’s room. I hoped she was still there and hadn’t left for breakfast yet. Thankfully, when we knocked on her door, she opened it quickly.

“Hey! Come on in,” she invited.

We stepped inside and sat down with her on the couch.

“Zora needs fresh clothing, and come to think of it, so do I. Can we borrow something?”

“Certainly. I have just the things for you,” Brielle told us.

She went to her wardrobe. After fishing through it for a few moments, she came back with two sundresses. One was green and the other brown. I took the green one and Zora changed into the brown one. The dresses were simple yet pretty, with embroidered vines at the bottom of each.

“Thank you so much, Brielle,” I said, once we were dressed.

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.”

“We should really get down for breakfast,” Zora reminded us.

“Right, let’s go,” I agreed.

We ran down the stairs and into the dining hall. We sat down at just past five thirty. We made sure to sit far away from Stellan, who was with Addison and the ten guards a few chairs down. I felt bad for ignoring Addison, but I knew she would understand.

I didn’t look at Stellan. Instead, I kept my eyes on Zora and Brielle, who were silently comforting me.

I didn’t want Zora to pity me, because Stellan had hurt her too. But she told me that things had changed for her after she was taken, were put into a different perspective. Being alive was all she truly cared about, at least right now. She would grieve for her lost relationship, but it wasn’t what most concerned her at the moment.

I wasn’t hungry, but I forced myself to eat something. I knew I needed the nourishment, no matter how bad I felt about Stellan. Breakfast passed quickly. I was ready to return to my room when I saw Addison approaching. I smiled as she walked over to me.

“We’re leaving at noon,” she said.

“So soon?” I asked, taken aback.

“Queen Taryn says it’s for the best. She is expecting a great deal of company from around the Realm in three days for the summer, and they need to prepare.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Meet us on the bridge at noon,” she confirmed.

“All right, see you then,” I told her.

I watched Addison go and then joined Zora and Brielle, just in time to avoid Stellan’s gaze as he walked by.

“We are leaving at noon, Zora. We need to meet Addison on the bridge.”

“No! You can’t go so soon!” Brielle shouted in protest.

“Queen Taryn has guests arriving in three days. She needs our rooms for them,” I explained.

“Oh, yes, I remember now. I’m sorry we are making you leave,” Brielle apologized.

“Don’t be. We need to get home anyway,” I told her.

“Yes, I miss Birchwood City too much to stay away any longer,” Zora agreed.

I nodded. “But let’s not talk about leaving for another couple of hours or so, okay?”

Brielle and Zora agreed, so we put leaving out of our minds. Brielle told us she had a surprise and dragged us up to her room.

Once inside, she brought out two large baskets with shiny green bows. She handed one to each of us and sat down on her brown couch. They were very heavy. We stared at them for a moment, not sure of what to say.

“Open them!” she cried.

“Brielle, you didn’t have to,” I protested.

“Just open them,” she demanded.

I sighed. “Fine.”

I sat down and pulled the bow off the top of the basket. Then I carefully took off the lid and peered inside. Sitting delicately in a nest of dried grass was a large egg. It was silver with blue spots. The blue spots shone like jewels. It took me a minute to realize they
were
jewels. They were sapphires! I placed my hand over the egg; it felt warm to the touch. My mouth hanging open, I looked up at Brielle, who was grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear.

“Is this what I think it is?” I asked.

“It depends on what you think it is,” she said sweetly.

“How did you have the time?”

“I have my ways,” she explained.

By now, Zora had opened hers as well. I scooted over to her and looked inside her basket. She also had a very large egg. This one was also silver but had red spots. Zora’s egg was decorated with rubies.

“Brielle…oh my,” Zora exclaimed.

“Am I right, Zora? Are we looking at dragon eggs here?” I asked.

“Yes,” Brielle and Zora both said.

I squealed with joy and clapped my hands, careful not to drop the basket.

“Brielle, how did you get these?” Zora asked.

“Like I said, a princess has her ways.”

“Are you saying that when these eggs hatch, we will have baby dragons?” I was still trying to put things together.

“They won’t be babies very long, that’s for sure. I hope you have a big open field for them to live,” Brielle said.

“Oh, we do, but, Brielle, this is too generous. Dragons are so rare,” Zora reminded her.

“It’s all right, truly. You need something to remember me by anyway. They’re orphans. Both mothers were killed in the war.”

“That’s too bad,” I said, momentarily saddened by the thought. I felt better when I realized this was a chance for Zora and me to give them the love they deserved. “So how big are we talking here?” I asked, still admiring the beauty of my egg as it sparkled in the light. “And when are they going to hatch?”

“They get big, as in
very
big. The humans didn’t get the size wrong in their fantasy books. Dragon eggs take about two to three years to hatch. These will probably hatch by the end of summer or the beginning of fall.”

“Wow, dragons by fall. Amazing,” I whispered.

I couldn’t believe I was going to have my own dragon! It almost didn’t seem real.

“How do we take care of them? I have read only a little on dragons,” Zora said.

“Don’t worry, Zora; you have no idea how easy it is. I have a dragon myself, but he is off on a holiday at the moment.” Brielle giggled. “Just make sure they have plenty of room and enough food. Eventually they will just fly off and find their own meals, though, so make sure to tell them not to feast on any farms that provide food for the elves in your city. You must set rules right away.”

“Can we communicate with them?” I asked.

“Sort of,” she replied, “dragons are highly intelligent. They can pick up almost any language. Common is like a second nature to them. Be glad we don’t speak our own elfin language anymore like we did when our Realm was first created. That would be tough for a baby dragon to learn. At first, you won’t be able to understand the dragons. You will be able to pick up some of their body language and noises, but it takes years to fully understand Dragon Tongue. Their language is a lot more complicated and advanced than ours.”

“So they can understand us, but we can’t understand them?” Zora clarified.

“Yes. Personally, I think the system works well. I wouldn’t want to hear my dragon discuss plans to disobey me!”

We laughed and hugged Brielle, repeating “thank you” numerous times. I was so happy with my new dragon egg I nearly forgot about Stellan. I sighed and rubbed my dragon egg gently. I couldn’t wait until the end of summer.

Finally, things were looking up a bit.

~21~
Wise Goodbyes

I pushed the door open and walked down the stairs of the palace, clutching my dragon egg basket, my shoulder bag slung around my neck. Carefully setting down both the bag and the basket, I leaned my arms onto the bridge railing and looked out across the water. It was a little after eleven, and I was early for our departure, but I hadn’t wanted to remain inside the palace any longer. I didn’t want to risk seeing
him
until it was absolutely necessary.

The crystal clear water beneath me was beautiful and completely mesmerizing. I watched the water sparkle and dance as it bobbed over stones and helped tiny fish swim along the streams. The water’s gurgling soothed me. I closed my eyes and just listened to the calming sounds.

“This truly is a wonderful place,” a voice said beside me.

Left to my own thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the Queen join me until she spoke. My eyes flew open.

“Hello, Queen Taryn,” I replied.

“You’re out here quite early. You missed my formal farewell to your friends.”

“I’m sorry. I just needed some time to think before we left,” I admitted.

“I see. I thought your troubles were over. Sure, there is still your secret to think about, but that will be dealt with in due time. You rescued your sister, saved your friends from prison, made many new friends, and you are leaving with a dragon egg,” she pointed out.