Page 12

Chapter 12

Elliot

E lliot stepped up to the stall, curious for a closer look at the stall holder more than her wares. He had traveled for years, but people didn’t recognize him the way this woman had recognized Avery. Did she have interactions like that everywhere she went? Being a roving merchant was obviously quite different from being a simple traveler.

The woman groaned, resettling herself on a stool behind her wares.

“I’m getting too old for this,” she grumbled, and Elliot looked up, catching the slight hint of a burr in her words that he associated with certain regions of Oakden.

“Have you come from across the river to the market?” he asked, curious.

“Aye.” The woman gave him a weary smile. “Quite a few of the stall holders do, but it’s a young person’s game, or should be. Sometimes I feel so weary the entire time I’m across the border I can barely lift my arms.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Elliot said politely, his eyes dropping to the sweets again as he caught a faint scent he hadn’t noticed before.

“Wait.” His eyes flew back to hers. “So these aren’t just sweets?”

She chuckled. “Bless you, no. We’re herbalists, not confectioners. We used to make sleeping potions in the same way all the other Oakdenian herbalists do, but then our son got sick, and the doctor had the worst time trying to get him to swallow the stuff! That’s how we came up with this idea.” She gestured proudly at the sweets. “We didn’t predict how much demand there would be. Doctors across Oakden and Sovar are clamoring for them, so it’s all we make now. I’m hoping Avery might want to take some stock with her and share them with doctors in the other kingdoms.” She smiled in a satisfied way.

Elliot’s eyebrows rose. “They look like sweets, though. Don’t people worry the children might get into them and eat a dangerous number?”

The stall holder laughed. “It’s a small dose, so we have to make it potent. Don’t worry, no one gets the chance to eat a second one.” She chuckled again.

Elliot glanced over to Avery to see if she was interested, but she had stepped away and clearly wasn’t listening. She had unwrapped the sweet to examine it, and as he watched, she raised it toward her face to smell it.

But instead of lifting it to her nose, she popped it in her mouth, her gaze distant and distracted.

“Avery!” he shouted, almost knocking someone over as he rushed toward her. “Don’t eat that!”

She looked up and met his eyes, clearly confused by his words and the panic on his face.

“Spit it out!” he ordered, but her eyes had already lost their focus, her limbs going weak.

He lunged forward, scooping her up just as she collapsed. He pulled her against his chest.

“Avery! Avery!” He shook her slightly, but she didn’t wake. Instead, she gave a soft sigh and snuggled against him, laying her cheek against his chest.

He froze, his heart beating painfully as he gazed down at her peaceful face. Several strands of her dark hair lay across her full lips, and he wanted to brush them aside, but both of his hands were already occupied holding her close.

He tried not to think about how it felt to hold her warm body against his chest. There were much more urgent issues to consider.

He strode back toward the stall holder who had leaped to her feet, a hand over her mouth and her eyes wide.

“What did she go and eat it for?” she cried.

“Are you sure she knew you were from Oakden?” Elliot asked. “Oakden is the only place that grows sleeping herbs, so if she thought you were Sovaran, she would have assumed they were ordinary sweets.”

“Oh dear!” The stall holder wrung her hands together. “I assumed she recognized me! Her parents used to buy my sleeping potions, and she even stayed at my house as a child.”

Elliot sighed. He might not know as many people as Avery, but he had experienced meeting adults who knew him from childhood but who he didn’t remember at all. Avery must have been too polite to let on that she didn’t know the woman.

“Silly girl,” he murmured, gazing down at her. “Oakden is only across the river. You should have been more cautious of anything you found in this market.”

He should have felt triumphant to have the tables turned after all the times he’d embarrassed himself around her so far, but he only felt concern.

“How long will it last?” he asked the woman.

She winced. “The sweet will have dissolved in her mouth by now, so she’ll have had the full dose. Of course it’s intended for children not adults, so I’d guess only a couple of hours.”

Elliot frowned, but at least it was only a sleeping potion. She might be as good as unconscious, but the experience wouldn’t harm her. At least not as long as he got her somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep it off. If he hadn’t been there to catch her, she could have hit her head when she fell.

He gave the stall holder a stern look. “I recommend you warn anyone who takes one of your sweets in the future. Don’t go making assumptions.”

“Of course, sir,” she said quickly. “It was an honest mistake. Usually we only sell to doctors or to merchants who supply doctors, so they all know what they’re buying.” She looked at Avery in his arms. “She’ll be all right in a couple of hours, though.” She glanced uneasily at the small space behind the stall and then at the setting sun. “Did you want to lay her down back here?” she asked reluctantly.

Elliot shook his head. The stall holder would be packing up soon, eager to get back across the border to her own kingdom, and it wouldn’t be a comfortable space for Avery anyway.

“No, I’ll take her back to the inn,” he said, and the woman instantly brightened.

He barely refrained from rolling his eyes, saving his energy for navigating the crowd. Thankfully, most people parted before him, whispers following him as he strode from the square.

He smiled grimly. He must look a dramatic sight, striding along with a beautiful woman asleep in his arms.

Thankfully, Avery had taken them to an inn near the market square. He could never have carried her all the way back to the inn where he usually stayed. As it was, his arms were shaking with the strain by the time he made it into the inn’s courtyard.

The groom exclaimed in horror at the sight of them and hurried over.

“Has something happened to Mistress Avery?” he asked, staring down at her just in time for her to give a little snoring grunt.

He blinked as Elliot chuckled tiredly. “She ate a sweet from the market without checking what it was first.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up. “One of the Oakdenian sweets, I take it.” He examined Elliot from under bushy brows. “You’re the young man who arrived with her.”

Elliot nodded. His arms felt like they were about to give way, but he couldn’t bring himself to brush off the man’s concerned scrutiny. He was glad someone cared enough to check that Avery was safe.

“Well,” the man said at last, “if she was traveling with you and skipping around markets with you, she must trust you.”

Elliot smiled weakly. He wasn’t so sure the man was right. He didn’t know what had pushed Avery into accepting his company. But in this context it didn’t matter. Whether Avery believed it or not, she was safe with him.

“I passed on her message,” the man continued. “You’ll find two rooms waiting for you.”

Elliot nodded his thanks and finally continued into the inn. If Avery was awake, he knew she would want to check on Nutmeg, but that was beyond his ability in the moment. He needed to deposit her in her room and see the door safely locked behind him.

The innkeeper bustled forward as he walked into the main room of the inn, exclaiming over Avery. But like the groom outside, he seemed to accept that any traveling companion of Avery’s was worthy of trust.

“We’ve got two rooms already prepared for you,” he said, gesturing to a young woman. “She’ll show you the way.”

Elliot gritted his teeth and locked his arms as he carried Avery up the staircase behind the woman. He only had to make it a short way further.

When they reached the top, the girl gestured at the second door on their left.

“That’s one of them,” she said before pointing down the corridor. “The other is the last door on the right.”

Elliot stared down the long corridor. “The rooms aren’t next to each other,” he said blankly.

The woman gave him an odd look. “It’s market day, so we’re almost full. We don’t have two free rooms next to each other. Does it matter?”

“I—” Elliot fell silent. It did matter, but he couldn’t explain why to this stranger. “Never mind,” he said instead. The important thing was putting Avery down before his arms and shoulders gave way. “Would you mind opening the door for me?”

The woman complied, watching him curiously as he walked inside. He glanced back at her, still standing there staring at them, and used his foot to close the door behind him.

Grunting, he almost fell forward to the bed and dropped Avery onto its surface. She bounced slightly, lying in an awkward position. Immediately repentant, he straightened her out on top of the covers, tucking a spare blanket over her.

Gazing down at her, he saw that her hair had fallen across her face again. This time his hands were free, so he smoothed it out of the way.

When he finally stepped back, he shook out his arms, stretching first one and then the other and groaning as he did. When he’d finished, he collapsed into the chair beside the small fireplace.

What was he supposed to do now?

He looked across at Avery, taking in the peaceful stillness of her features. It was all fine for her—dreaming away without a care in the world—but that just left him to make the difficult decisions.

For some reason it had never occurred to him that their rooms might be so far apart. In the past—when he was still tied to the candelabra—it might not have made too much of a difference. But the bond had become more potent since the brass had been melted down and reformed. He couldn’t spend a whole night so far from the lamp.

He gazed over at Avery again, noting the lump of her satchel beneath the blanket. She always kept it strapped to her and even kept it at her side while she slept. But knocked out by the sleeping potion, she wouldn’t notice if he removed the lamp or even took the entire satchel. If he had the lamp with him, he could go sleep in his own room.

But staring at her peaceful face, he was haunted by the thought of how she would feel when she woke up. If she awoke alone in the room with the lamp gone, she would assume he had taken the opportunity to steal it and run. Just imagining her panic and horror made him sick to his stomach. Such potent feelings of betrayal would likely linger even after she discovered the truth.

Better to intrude on her privacy by remaining at her side than to leave her to panic when she woke. And it would make him more comfortable as well. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone in the room while she was under an enchanted sleep. Even when doctors were the ones to administer a sleeping potion, the patient usually had a trusted caregiver sitting with them at all times to monitor their health. Avery might not have been sick, but he wasn’t leaving her alone.

Elliot leaned his head back against his chair and sighed. He just hoped Avery woke up sooner rather than later.