A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [48]
“I’m sorry that Jayden is missing,” Solie told Mace. She’d always made it a point to remember everyone’s name that she could, and for that, the humans of Sylph Valley loved her nearly as much as the sylphs did. Mace nodded back, pleased at her concern, but even more annoyed at the boy for doing anything to upset her. Solie just shook her head. Thanks to her status, as long as she was close enough, she could feel his emotions as easily as a sylph, and she could feel his ambivalence. A moment later, he knew she could feel his ambivalence turn into something else entirely.
“I want you to be very careful in Eferem, Mace. You know how tenuous our peace treaties are. I want Eferem to be more than just our neighbors—I want them to be our friends.”
Both sylphs stared at her, Heyou’s mouth turning down into a frown. “You’re about to take all the fun out of this for him, aren’t you?”
Solie ignored him, eyeing Mace, and he felt the lack of compromise in what she was saying. “I’m not telling you to hide what you are or why you’re there, but I don’t want you to be obvious about it.”
“Meaning?” he asked slowly.
“Meaning no going to your natural shape unless you absolutely have to. Don’t flaunt being there to Eferem’s troops.”
“You really are taking all the fun out of it!” Heyou wailed.
“And no killing,” Lily added. Mace turned to look at her, sitting at the fire with the light of the flame flickering on her wrinkled face. “You’re only going to retrieve a single boy. You won’t have any need to kill anyone.”
Mace looked at his master, wanting to argue, wanting to protest, wanting to point out that, treaty or not, Eferem wasn’t their friend and he didn’t know what he was going to face. He wanted to say that he was one of the most powerful sylphs in the entire Valley and it was beneath his dignity to skulk on the ground and chase a child who meant nothing to him anyway. He wanted all of that and he looked into her eyes, those eyes that had ruled him for so many years, and then he looked down.
“Yes, Lily,” he agreed.
“Well, crap,” Heyou muttered. “Now I’m not going to ask if I can go along.”
At least Ruffles didn’t mind the style of their journey. She ran at his side happily, tongue hanging out and tail wagging, even as the snow fell around them and turned her into a white caricature of herself. Since the shale was sharp enough to cut her pads, they kept to the road through the plains. She seemed tireless.
“Seemed” was all it was, though, and Mace made his pace match hers. She was happy just to be out with him, and curled against him when they stopped to rest well shy of the forests of Eferem. Her emotions were peaceful and happy, calming without being demanding, and Mace nuzzled her, wondering why Lily hadn’t suggested this solution for him for when she passed away. Many sylphs who’d had the strongest bonds now took anchor animals when their masters passed, not wanting to face the pain of potentially losing another human again so soon. Dogs didn’t live as long, but there was no risk of a true soul tie with them.
He supposed that in the long run, Lily knew it wouldn’t work. Ruffles could give him energy, and she loved him with all the doggy fervor in her soul, but she couldn’t give him the deeper connection for which he’d come through the gate from his world. He needed companionship, equality, conversation. He needed a sentient lover to feel complete, not a pet, and though he’d long since given up on finding it, part of him needed the deeper-still soul tie like the one Heyou had with their queen. Still, for all that he’d only taken her on for the sake of this journey, Ruffles was his for life, for the bond between them could only be broken by going back through the gate—which he would never do—or by death.
Mace licked the dog’s ear until she fell asleep, warm against him despite the snow that covered them both. She had a home with him, and he wouldn’t risk her safety any more than he’d risk Lily’s. They’d find the boy and they’d go home, and that would be the end of it.
He lay beside the