“Of course,” said Swift, almost reluctantly. “Poor dear.”
Elliot nodded with conviction and felt his stupid hair wave about all over the place. “Honor’s so important,” he said wistfully. “I wish I understood this paper better. But I am such a silly thing! I need guidance.”
“What is Elliot saying,” Luke whispered to Serene, “and why does he look so weirdly upset?”
Serene, clever girl and mistress of Elliot’s heart as she was, shushed him.
“Oh,” said Swift. “I suppose we were a bit rough with you. Lot on our minds, you know? Womanly things. I’m sorry about that, little gentleman.”
“Apology accepted,” said Elliot, and tried to smile in a winsome fashion. Serene put away her bow.
Swift glanced from Serene to Elliot and back again. For a moment Elliot thought it was all over, but Swift grinned, as if Elliot being manipulative was only to be expected and a little charming.
She slung her arm around Elliot’s shoulders. “Don’t you worry your pretty head about a thing,” she said consolingly. “The women are here to take care of you. How about you sit down with me and explain this piece of paper?”
Elliot sat down on the bank with a beautiful elven warrior in the heat of the afternoon sun, and he explained the treaty as clearly and with as much detail as he could. He reminded himself to bat his eyelashes a couple of times.
The rest of the elves set up camp around them, and the blond elf, Silent-Arrow-in-a-Clash-of-Swords, after asking if Luke fancied making the meal and receiving a polite stare of incomprehension, began to prepare some food.
At one point Elliot forgot himself and told Swift that she was an idiot with no grasp of politics, but Swift rumpled his hair and told him he was a little spitfire.
“I am a rough and simple soldier,” she said eventually. “I follow my clan leader and do not become involved in such intrigues. But I can see well enough that you three have done us a signal service. My thanks to you, Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.”
“Oh wow, thanks,” Elliot muttered.
Swift smiled at him. “And to your charming companions as well. Redheads,” she murmured. “I get it now, Serene. He’s a taking little thing, in an odd way. Grows on you.”
“That was maybe my first ever compliment from a lady,” Elliot said. “Thank you for making it absolutely awful. Oh my God.”
Luke and the black-braided elf, whose name turned out to be Rushing-Waters-Bear-Away-our-Enemies, Rush for short, even had a brief spar with short swords. Luke beat her, and for a moment Elliot thought that Luke would now be honorary member of the elf-warriors-club and Elliot was going to be gently condescended to by everyone all evening.
But then Rush winked at Luke and said: “I like a boy with spirit,” and Elliot felt torn between amusement and annoyance that there was apparently nothing you could do that would make you good enough to enter the club.
The most annoying thing, perhaps, was that the elven troop were obviously good people and were being kind to them, and yet Elliot felt subtly wrong-footed at every turn. He wondered if this was how Serene felt all the time, and he promised himself to bear it as well as she did.
He sat by the campfire, warm in its flickering orange glow, even the dark trees seeming to form a sheltering shell around him. Swift had placed him protectively at her side because she said that some of the younger elves hadn’t seen a boy in weeks and their hands might wander.
Rush and Silent immediately started canoodling with each other, so their hands were wandering but not anywhere near Elliot.
“They’re swordsisters,” said Serene discreetly. “Their warrior bond is very beautiful. Some think that no bond could ever be as strong, no love ever as true, as that between two women who fight side by side.”
“Swordsisters,” was all Elliot managed to get out, in a voice strangled by jealousy. He hadn’t realized that meant—that meant Luke and Serene already—
He looked over at Luke for some confirmation of this on his stupid smug face, but Luke was busy looking away from Rush and Silent with his ears gone red.
“The bond is different for every pair,” said Serene casually.
“You definitely did not mention anything like that to me when we agreed to do it,” said Luke.
Ha! Elliot thought, and rejoiced in Luke’s disappointment.
“There are also simply some women, warriors and not, who can never be tempted by the shining hair and alluring chests of men,” said Serene.
“Sure,” said Elliot. “Guys too. I mean, by women.”
Serene frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, a guidance counselor gave me a ton of pamphlets over this guy called Simon,” said Elliot. “I’ll show you some.”
“It just seems so unlikely, given that men cannot truly feel the pulse of desi—”
“It’s true,” Luke said abruptly, “and if you two start talking like you did last night in front of strangers I will put my head in the fire.”
“The pretty blond one may dress like a harlot, but I think he is truly a modest gentleman,” remarked Silent, whose name Elliot thought was ironic. “Look at his sweet blushes.”
She shut up about Luke’s blushes when Rush tickled her. Elliot felt pleased by the success of their mission and in charity with everyone, amused by all the stories the elves had about the wild escapades of Serene’s childhood.
“She would’ve gotten away with it too if she hadn’t boasted about it to a pretty little boy who went running to tell his papa,” Rush finished.
“Golden-Hair-Scented-Like-Summer is a judgmental boring goody-two-shoes,” said Serene, flushing.
“I heard Serene tried to kiss him and he slapped her,” said Swift, and burst out laughing.
“THAT DID NOT HAPPEN,” yelped Serene, like any kid teased by her big cousin, and Elliot found himself liking the elves after all. It wasn’t just Swift. They all treated Serene like family. He wanted her to have a home where she was safe and warm and loved.
“Oh, you come by it honestly,” said Swift. “Before he met your father, your mother—Sure-Aim-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle,” she added, nodding to Elliot. “She was a devil with the gentlemen. Ruined two gentlemen in the west woods. I heard one of them was married off to a goblin! Of course Sure is settled now. The love of a good man will steady you one day too, you firebrand. Running off and joining the Border camp, of all the mad things to do! Your mother was raving about it for days. But proud too, you could see it. Of course she’d have the wildest daughter in the woods. All the careful fathers had best seal their virtuous sons in the nearest tree!”