“And humans came from across the Border,” Elliot said. “Did we invade?” He leaned forward. “Tell me right now, are we engaged in a system of colonial oppression?”
The boy’s happy smile melted away, like ice-cream in relentless verbal sunshine.
“I don’t know . . .,” said Surfer Dude helplessly, “what most of the words you just used mean.”
“There are small communities of humans all over the Borderlands,” said Serene. “They call the communities villages. And the Border guard established a law that must be kept throughout the land, and enforce that law. Elves consider the humans useful allies. Certainly more to be trusted than the dwarves. Or the trolls.” A dark look crossed her face. “Do not get me started on the trolls.”
“I want you to talk to me about trolls at length, but perhaps another time,” said Elliot. “So elves call this country the Borderlands as well?”
A small smile, almost imperceptible, passed across Serene’s face. “Not in elvish.”
Elliot thought it was possible she was messing with him. What a babe.
“And this is a training camp for the Border guard, the people who made up all the laws and enforce them. This Border guard is partly kids from across the wall and partly kids from the Borderlands villages, but mostly . . . ?”
Surfer Dude’s smile resurrected itself. “The backbone of the Border guard are the families who settled in the fortresses built along the Border itself centuries ago, and have protected it ever since, raising their sons in the tradition.”
He buffed his nails on his leather jerkin. He and Captain Woodsinger and Luke Apparently-Not-Sunburn and many of the other humans were dressed like that, in a lot of leather and straps. It looked pretty ridiculous to Elliot, especially compared to Serene’s form-fitting clothes, soft and green as moss.
Especially if all the leather-clad people were colonial oppressors.
“I’m a Wavechaser, you know,” Surfer Dude added proudly. “Dale Wavechaser.”
“Ha!”
Dale Wavechaser frowned. “Sorry?”
“Nothing,” said Elliot. Mocking people who didn’t get it was kind of pointless, like throwing sharp weapons into pudding.
Dale returned to his favorite subject.
“Of course, the Wavechasers aren’t anything compared to the Sunborns,” he said. “They were the first family. They held the Border on their own for a generation. There are songs about them: the shining ones, the golden guard, the laughing warriors. The Sunborn family is an army unto itself. Even their women are all soldiers, and a Sunborn woman is as good as any man.”
“Cool, no video games and outdated gender politics,” Elliot muttered.
Serene looked totally perplexed.
Dale continued making cheerful oblivion an art form. “Whenever there is a Sunborn acting as Commander of the Border guard, we cannot lose. Luke is the great Trigon champion Eleanor Sunborn’s nephew, you know. He was taken to his father Michael Sunborn’s last post with him and trained by him personally for three years. They say he’s shaping up to be the best Sunborn of his generation. I was so excited to meet him today!”
Elliot raised his eyebrows. “Congratulations. I’m sure you will be very happy together.”
So Blondie was basically the scary warrior equivalent of a trust-fund kid, the kind who had their pictures in the paper on the regular. One of life’s born winners, with golden luck to go with the hair. No wonder he was glaring over at Elliot, looking betrayed and unhappy as a wet cat, as if nothing like being laughed at had ever happened to him before.
“The elven clans do not pay much heed to the brief fame and even briefer lives of men,” remarked Serene.
She was a stone-cold elven fox.
“Tell me about your clan,” Elliot invited her.
Elves apparently lived in the four woods that stretched across the otherlands, in linked family groups never more than a day’s ride from another clan. Of all these clans in all the woods, if you believed Serene—and Elliot absolutely did—the Chaos clan was the most notorious.
Serene launched into a long tale of bloodshed, kidnapping gentlemen, highwaywomen, and foresworn oaths. The Chaos clan were rogues. Elliot was so into it. Dale Wavechaser wandered off at some point early on, which was his loss.
Serene was actually laughing at one of Elliot’s jokes, h er pale face bright as sun on snow and her dark hair swinging into her face, when Captain Woodsinger approached them and said, her voice very dry: “Schafer. Chaos-of-Battle. Have you made any decisions about whether you are staying or going?”
Elliot looked around the clearing, which was largely empty. Most of the kids in jeans and hoodies like him were long gone. He vaguely recalled seeing the kid who had cried over video games leading the way. Sadly, a group of kids Elliot’s age remained, mostly the ones wearing leather, with Luke Sunborn at the head of the group and Dale Wavechaser circling him like an excited moon.
“It is a very different world to the one you are accustomed to,” Captain Woodsinger observed. Elliot thought she was talking to him until she added, “We have never had a female elf wish to join the Border camp, though of course we have heard of the elves’ legendary prowess in battle. You may be surprised and dismayed by the reactions of those around you, which you will consider unnatural. And your lady mother has expressed serious reservations about your behaviour in joining up.”
Serene tossed her dark hair. “My mother was the wildest elf in the woods until she met my father,” she said. “I can have an adventure of my own. Anyone who thinks I am not equal and more than equal to any human challenge will soon realize their mistake.”
Elliot regarded her with his chin propped on his fist and sighed dreamily.
“And you, Schafer?”
Phones exploded here, and there was way more nature than Elliot was comfortable with, but there were mermaids and harpies and also true love.
Besides, it wasn’t like there was much to go back to.
“I’m in,” said Elliot. “For the non-fighting course. I want to read books and never, ever to fight. I’m a pacifist.”
“A what?” asked Dale Wavechaser.
Elliot stared at him, then over at Blondie. “What I am attempting to communicate,” he explained to the captain, “is that I want to be anywhere that guy is not.”
He pointed to Blondie, who he felt was a helpful illustration of everything Elliot did not like in human form. Luke Sunborn stared at him in outrage, and Elliot used his pointing hand to give him a little wave.
“I think that can be arranged,” Captain Woodsinger said dryly. “Welcome to the Border camp, Cadet Schafer.”
“Cadet?” Elliot repeated. “Ahahaha. Okay.”