Lysandra paced her room anxiously, wringing her hands as rain lashed the windows outside. Evangeline was downstairs, taking her usual reading and writing lessons with Ren. The two of them had taken to each other right away, perhaps because of their twin formidable tempers, and Ren doted on the new heir to Allsbrook. To Lysandra's surprise, he hadn't resented her in the slightest for essentially stealing his title. In fact, when she cornered him once in the hallway and offered the ghost leopard seal ring, he had told her that he never really wanted it anyway.
Whether he wanted it or not, he would still have made an excellent Lord. In the first few days since Lysandra had made her way to the new home, half mad with nerves, he had gently guided her through what was expected and what the people needed.
It had pleased her immensely when he told her that the people didn't need a pretty little figurehead. They needed someone to protect them. And with that blessing from Temis, God of wild things, thrumming in her veins... Lysandra felt like she was home at long last.
Still. Aelin couldn't get here fast enough, in her opinion.
There was a dungeon underneath the handsome manor house, but Lysandra would never, ever be tempted to use it. Not in a million years. Not after the tiny punishment room in Clarisse's home. Not after the scars that littered Aelin's body and the vacant look that sometimes entered her eyes. So the girl - Elly - was being held in one of the guest rooms, with vigilant guards at the door and under the balcony.
She'd gone half feral when they tried to help her up. Screaming threats and insults, brandishing a knife in each hand. It was evident she wasn't particularly skilled at using them but nonetheless, Danton was still in the infirmary with a deep slice in his arm.
The girl threatened to throttle anyone that entered her room, but what with her ruined ankle, she couldn't bring herself to refuse the healer. The last time Lysandra checked up on her, standing in the doorway, flanked by two guards, the swelling had gone down and Elly was standing on her own two feet, only listing very slightly to one side.
Ren kept insisting that there was something achingly familiar about the girl, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Lysandra had no idea - perhaps she was a survivor of the war. But if she came from a village near Morath, then it was most likely she was Adarlanian. Definitely not Eyllwe. Her skin had an almost disturbing paleness to it, as if she'd spent half her life underground.
A gentle knock at the door woke Lysandra from her brooding.
"Yes?" She asked, straightening her spine.
A guard opened the door and inclined his head. No bows. That had been the first rule she set upon her arrival.
"Lysandra,"
No titles, either.
"Princess Aelin has arrived. She's downstairs."
She couldn't cross the room fast enough. In just two long strides, Lysandra was pushing past the guard and hurtling down the stairs, jumping the last five and racing for the front door. Aelin turned at the last second and let out an oomph as Lysandra collided with her, wrapping her arms around Aelin's neck.
"Good morning to you, too." She said wryly, hugging Lysandra back. Her sodden sleeves dampened the back of Lysandra's shirt.
"What took you so long?!" Lysandra spluttered. It had been five days since she flew to Orynth with the letter in her beak.
"I ran into a few ghost leopards in Oakwald, and thought I'd take the long way round. Just in case." Aelin drew back and squeezed out her sopping wet hair with a hand. "Is the girl still here?"
"Oh - yes." Lysandra had almost forgotten what, exactly, she'd contacted Aelin about.
At that exact moment, the door to the left opened, and Evangeline's auburn head peered out. She grinned wildly at the sight of Aelin and flung the door open, running forward to hug her around the torso. Aelin laughed lightly and hugged her back.
Evangeline was ecstatic at Aelin's presence, and took her by the hand, pulling her into the side room to show her the progress she'd made with her lessons. Lysandra opened her mouth, but Aelin expertly extricated herself from Evangeline's grasp and said she would love to see how she was doing, but Lysandra had to show her something.
Evangeline groaned emphatically, "Why are you two so bad at telling me things?"
Aelin and Lysandra burst out laughing.
Lysandra led the way to the girl's room, filling Aelin in on the details as they walked.
"She won't talk to anyone. She'll let the healer in for her leg, but she still doesn't say anything then, either. I think the only times she's opened her mouth is to make threats."
"My kind of girl," Aelin said quietly, and Lysandra snorted, but there was little humour behind it.
"She's got something in her hand," she continued, "But there's no way in Hell she's going to show it to us. And she had two knives when we found her. We found a third one in her boot."
Aelin let out a murmur of understanding, her brow furrowing as she thought.
"Where did she say she lived?"
"A village near Morath."
"Maybe she knows something."
"Maybe."
They paused in front of the door, and Lysandra nodded to the guards, grasping the handle of the door and stepping aside as it swung open.
"What do you want?" The girl demanded. She was sitting in the armchair by the window, and her eyes gleamed with ire as she stared at the two of them standing in the doorway. But her anger vanished as soon as she laid eyes on Aelin, and the water rolling off her golden hair.
"Enjoy," Lysandra said with a smirk as she stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
Aelin could only stare.
"Elide?" she whispered in awe.