“This is actually partially a theatrical costume,” said Elliot.
“Oi, don’t call Gregory names just because he spotted a job opening that seemed suited to him due to the long-standing alliance between elves and Sunborns, plus the, well.” Luke’s mother, Rachel, buffed her nails against her jerkin and looked proud. “The general Sunborn joie de vivre. Lust for life, if you will. Passion for . . . passion.”
Elliot, who had known Luke literally for years, raised a skeptical eyebrow.
Luke was blushing. None of the other Sunborns were doing anything of the sort. Louise pulled Elliot into the chair next to her and whispered: “Nice shirt. What’s a sex pistol?”
“Er,” said Elliot.
“Elliot,” Serene said in an awful voice. “Do not tell me that you wore that outfit on a public stage!”
“Oh, he wore a lot less than that,” said Louise. “Up top, Little Red.”
Elliot exchanged a quick high five with her.
“I am uncertain,” the older elf said, in a carrying voice, “why we have been forced to attend this absurd meeting, under the threat of your . . . men entering our territory without permission.”
“Now, we didn’t threaten anyone,” said General Lakelost.
Elliot saw how Sure, Serene, and the other elves’ eyes all travelled to Commander Woodsinger, as if to see if she agreed. The commander’s face was impassive. Then the elves looked toward Rachel Sunborn.
He understood why the Sunborns had been called in, now. Not only did public opinion always tend to go their way, the Sunborns being a law unto themselves meant their women were a law unto themselves, and they could talk to the elves with both sides assuming they were equals.
General Lakelost kept talking. “We simply stated that we, who have a paramount duty to protect the Borderlands, plan to go into a certain territory and bring peace.”
“Our territory!” snarled Sure-Aim-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle.
“Currently not your territory,” General Lakelost pointed out. “Since it has been overrun by bandits. You should be pleased to have allies who are eager to stamp out the lawlessness in your land.”
“And are we meant to believe,” Sure said icily, “that you will simply give the land back? It’s rich ground. You humans have been wanting to settle there for years.”
“We’re men of honor,” said Lakelost. “We may of course need to establish a garrison there of some selected military men and citizens to grow them food. Obviously the place is too wild and abandoned.”
“Did anyone else notice that was not an answer?” Elliot asked.
Humans and elves alike glared at him.
“I agree with General Lakelost,” Commander Woodsinger said calmly. “Our mandate is peace in the Borderlands, and our judgement as to what will bring about that peace overrules the wishes of motley groups of citizens.”
You can’t agree with him, Elliot wanted to yell at her. We supported you, Serene and me. You should agree with us.
“We have already stated that we will treat the Border guard’s incursion into our territory as trespass and an act of war,” said the older elf. “We have stated that we will fight the guard if they come.”
“You have said that,” General Lakelost agreed, even though the elf had clearly been addressing the commander. “But will you really commit yourself to fighting a war on two fronts, with the bandits and the Border guard? You elves can say whatever you like. Somehow I doubt you will do it.”
“The Border guard could help us, Mother,” Serene broke in, to Elliot’s astonishment. Elliot made a gesture for her to be quiet that she didn’t see, as she was reaching past her mother for Luke’s hand. “The bandit threat does have to be extinguished. And my swordsister and I fight much better as a pair.”
She and Luke clasped hands and looked defiant.
“Everyone can see what’s most important is defeating the bandits,” said Commander Woodsinger.
“What’s important isn’t what everyone sees,” Elliot argued.
Rachel Sunborn chipped in with: “We have proven to you that humans can be useful, haven’t we? We’re the ones who captured Bat Masterson, one of the bandit leaders, out on a raiding party.”
“You did?” Elliot demanded. “Well, then someone has to talk to him! If you can make an agreement with the bandits, nobody has to fight anymore!”
Now the elves and the humans were not yelling at each other: everybody was yelling at him.
“A dishonorable bandit—”
“No talks with terror—”
“This is pointless,” said Luke.
“I would rather die in my blood—”
“We have nothing to say to him,” stated the commander. “He can stay in the pit below my tower where he was thrown, and rot there.”
“There’s a pit where we keep captives at this center of learning for children?” Elliot threw up his hands. “Oh yes, that’s great. That’s normal!”
He took a deep breath, and the elves looked scandalized while Luke made a small horrified gesture: Elliot glanced down at the collar of his T-shirt and adjusted it so the scarlet handprint on his collarbone was hidden again, and tried to speak with unimpaired dignity.
“I’ll go down to see him. I’ll talk to him.”
“I will go with you, if you care to have my company,” said Serene.
“I’m coming too,” said Luke.
“Is it going to be a children’s tea party down there?” General Lakelost barked. “This meeting is a mockery—”
Elliot looked around at all of them, at the furious elves and raging humans, at strangers and people he loved all bent on war which could destroy them.
“I’m not mocking anyone,” said Elliot. “I want to talk to him. I’ll go in on my own.”
Commander Woodsinger was the one who showed him the way to the pit, which was under her tower but accessible through a door outside.
“I should tell you that you do not have to do this,” she said as they walked through the corridors away from the meeting room. “I fail to see how it could be of any use.”
“It might be,” said Elliot. “Bat Masterson’s not a real name. So this bandit is from the otherlands, and—”
He was about to say: maybe I could talk to him, maybe we might have something in common, but the commander interrupted him.
“So are many people in this camp. Natalie Lowlands, your classmate. Elka Pathwind, the medic. We take Border names and obey Border customs. We do not become bandits.”
“Elka?” Elliot repeated, frowning. “Wait—we?”
Elliot studied Commander Woodsinger, who he knew could cross to the other side of the Border, and remembered the graffiti he had noticed on the wall long ago. “Did you leave a name from another land at the Border?”
“If I did, I turned my back on it,” said Commander Woodsinger.
“You could choose a Border name yourself, you know. Are you very attached to your father’s name?”