Her father frowned at him. “It appears there’s a lot more explaining that needs to go on, more than just her leaving to take care of a mission.”

  Her mother laughed. “It looks to me like you’ve already found your match. The question is are you staying with us or returning to Castle Grande?”

  Rina turned to see what Artur had to say.

  Her father put his arm over Artur’s shoulder and pulled him away from Rina before Artur could say whether he was staying with the shadow elves for good. She suspected Artur was going to get her father’s lecture, tons of questions, and the king’s champion might just decide it was safer to return to Castle Grande.

  Rina glanced in the direction her father and Artur had gone, and she said to her mother, sister, brother, her cousin, and Persephonice, “Excuse me.” She had it in mind that Artur might just need her protection again. But when she reached the location where her father and Artur were, they were sitting on bamboo chairs at the pond, drinking mead and talking about their many adventures.

  Rina smiled. “I thought you were going to question Artur all about himself.”

  “He has no family, he’s very much intrigued with your skill as a warrior and had to remove his armor to fight as a warrior like we do. He protected you and you protected him. What’s more to say?” her father said.

  Rina let out a relieved breath.

  “What? Is there more he’s not telling me?” her father asked sternly, but with a smile in his expression.

  She sat beside Artur and patted his leg. “No.” She was just glad no one had mentioned she had slipped away from the bedchamber after she had been wounded to help Artur and her cousin fight their enemy.

  Before long, her mother, siblings, cousin, and Persephonice joined them.

  “When you tell King Leogane that you are working with our family and courting Rina, how do you think he’ll react?” her father asked Artur.

  Artur smiled. “King Leogane is wise in all things, and he would only have said I could leave there to accompany Rina here, if he’d been willing to let me go permanently.”

  Dracolin said, “Aye, he knew where this was going from the beginning. Just like he said you knew where things would go between him and Mirabella.”

  “That seemed so long ago,” Artur said.

  18

  “We have a new outsider here. But this time, he’s a warrior,” Rina’s father said.

  “We heard,” Rina said. “Is he going to try and take Persephonice back to her father’s ship?” That had been the reason for Eloria’s coming here. She was supposed to convince Persephonice to go with her back to her ship. But Eloria had married instead and remained with the elves.

  “We don’t know. We heard he escaped the blue elves and then ended up in our territory. Would you like to meet him?” her father asked.

  “Aye,” Rina said.

  “I do,” Persephonice said. “I have to know if it’s someone I recognize.”

  “Here I thought you wanted to be with a handsome langolar warrior type if a male ever showed up,” Artur said.

  “He’s truly a warrior?” Rina asked.

  Artur smiled at her.

  “He was armed, if that indicates that he is,” Rina’s father said.

  They all went to the town square where shadow elves were checking out the langolar.

  As soon as Artur saw him, he frowned and drew closer to Rina, even taking hold of her hand. She glanced at him and smiled warmly. “What? You’re not worried I’d be interested in the blond-haired, blue-eyed stranger, are you?”

  Artur released the breath he’d been holding. “Of course not.” But as soon as they walked over to meet him, Artur said, “Rina is with me.”

  Rina laughed and squeezed his hand. “Once I met you, no one else fascinates me like you do.”

  “Good.”

  “So are you going to try and convince Persephonice to return to the ship to her father?” Rina asked the langolar.

  “No. I’m Orion,” he said. “I came here because I had to know what the elves’ world is like since she and her friend Eloria never returned to the ship. It sounded like a world worth visiting.”

  “Do you have the bracelet to return to your ship? The transporter bracelet?” Rina asked.

  Orion smiled. “No. I ditched it in the ocean, hoping it wasn’t a bad idea if the people here were hostile.”

  “Oh, we’re hostile,” Rina said, wrapping her arm around Artur’s waist. “We’re always ready for any battle, great or small.”

  Dracolin and Persephonice joined them then and Persephonice said to Orion, “So exactly why did you come here?”

  “Your father sent me to forcibly take you from here and return you to the ship, which I willingly volunteered to do. But of course I had nothing of the sort in mind. My father and grandfather were great explorers and that’s what I want to be,” Orion said.

  “Good. You will have many different creatures to meet and much land and diversity to explore. Just do not make any enemies of those I have befriended,” Persephonice said.

  Then Rina and her family left the square to have a meal together. Rina asked Persephonice, “Do you trust Orion?”

  She gave Rina a smile that said she didn’t. If he had one of those wristbands, he could transport Persephonice to the ship without her approval. Rina noticed then a couple of armed guards were watching Orion.

  “Dracolin is taking Orion for a dragon ride tomorrow.” Persephonice didn’t say any further.

  Rina wondered if he planned to leave him off somewhere far away from the shadow elf kingdom to explore to his heart’s content. It could be dangerous, but if Orion’s father and grandfather were explorers, Orion would know that better than anyone.

  “Do you know him?” Artur asked.

  “No. We could live on a spaceship for years and not meet everyone. People get off to do assignments at different planets and sometimes never return to the ship or leave on others.” Persephonice looked at Rina. “So what about you and Artur?”

  Rina’s brother called Artur over to help them cook the boar for supper. Artur headed over there and was laughing at something her brother was telling him and her father.

  “I will be taking him on missions with me from now on, unless someone else in the family feels they need to mentor him,” Rina said.

  After a while, Artur joined her and hugged her. “I came here to be with you. I will go with you on the missions.”

  She glanced back at her father and her brother, wondering why Artur was no longer cooking the meal, but they were already serving up the boar on the outdoor table.

  On evenings like this with the moon shining brightly, a warm, mild breeze blowing, it was perfect for an outdoor celebration.

  Since Dracolin’s father was Palmoran, the advisor to the shadow elf king, Dracolin and Persephonice usually just ate with him at his place of honor at the king’s side.

  Dracolin soon joined them, and they sat down to eat. “I was making arrangements for Orion’s trip tomorrow. He is being guarded tonight at the castle and I’ll pick him up in the morning.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come along?” Persephonice asked.

  She and Dracolin were inseparable now.

  Dracolin shook his head. “I don’t want to risk it.”

  Rina didn’t blame Dracolin. He’d fallen in love with Persephonice in the very beginning. Rina had hassled him about it, but in the end, she knew that the strange outsider had been the only one for him.

  “You know Pascale is furious that you brought the knight home with you,” Rina’s brother said.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. He was seeing at least two other girls behind my back,” Rina said.

  Arthur ran his hand over Rina’s arm consolingly. “Just say the word—”

  “And you’ll fight him?” Rina asked. “We’ll have much more important missions to do than bothering with him.”

  Just then, Pascale showed up at their campfire, to Rina’s irritation. Her father was on his feet in an instant, followed by Artur—though he didn’t know who the man was—her brother, and Dracolin.

  “Leave here at once, if you know what’s good for you,” her father said.

  Rina could fight her own battles, but in this case, she loved all the men in her life for standing up for her and making sure the ex-boyfriend didn’t bother her any further.

  Pascale glowered at Artur for the longest time and then finally left.

  The conversation about other matters started up again, but Artur said to Rina, “You never told me you had issues with some former boyfriend who was dallying with other women.”

  “I didn’t feel I needed to. It was over and done with between us before I left to rescue a princess. I never expected him to be so bold as to show up here and try to, well, I don’t know what he thought he’d do.” Rina took a bite of her pork.

  “Claim you? See his competition?”

  She smiled. “He will never be your competition. A king’s champion who was there to protect me against the hordes of our enemy? No, he had lost out when he started seeing the other women before I left on my mission.”

  It was late that night as everyone had eaten and cleaned up after their family feast, regaling Artur of their wild adventures while he shared his too. Dracolin and Persephonice finally excused themselves to bid everyone a good night. As a newly married couple, they needed time to themselves.

  “We have a cabin you can use until you find a place of your own,” Rina’s father said.

  She was glad her father would offer for Artur to be there near them and not have to figure out a place to live until he knew what he wanted. Though she was certain Dracolin and Persephonice would have had him stay with them if her father had not offered the cabin.

  “We all have missions to go on tomorrow, except for Rina and Artur,” her father said. “That’ll give you both a day to rest up before you go out again, especially since you’re both recovering from your injuries.”

  She wondered if Dracolin and Persephonice had a mission too, other than Dracolin dropping Orion off in the wilderness. They had left before she had thought to ask.

  “I’ll walk you over there, Artur.” Rina and he had stabled their horses earlier in her father’s stables and they walked to the cabin that was just beyond that in a small clearing in the woods. “If you need anything, just let me know.” Then she wrapped her arms around his neck, and he settled his hands on her hips and they kissed.

  “How long do we need to court before we can stay together?” Artur asked.

  Rina laughed. “If my father had a say in it, he would tell us you would have to wait a year.”

  Artur raised his brows. “But if not?”

  “My parents were married within three weeks of meeting each other. Of course that had something to do with her being a high elf and they didn’t want anyone saying she couldn’t marry a shadow elf.”

  “Anyone?” Artur asked.

  “Her parents, the king even, but everyone came around and they’ve been happily married for twenty-three years.”

  “How did they meet?” Artur asked.

  “Oh, that’s a long story. The high elves and the shadow elves were fighting each other. It doesn’t happen very often, but it had to do with fishing rights over a mountain-fed river. The high elves live in the mountains, and they had claimed that many of the large tributaries came straight from the mountains. The shadow elves had claimed that the river ran right through their forests. Both were correct.

  “During the fight, my mother used her ability to carry an object, or person in my father’s case, and dumped him in the river. My father was leading the charge on that section of the river. When he looked to see who had done such a thing to him as he swam to shore, he saw my mother. She was smiling and he laughed. His laughing won her over. Her smile had won his heart.”

  Artur laughed. “And the fight?”

  “Oh, it went on for days, no one making any progress until they decided to call it a draw and agreed to each of them fishing there. At that point, my father started to date my mother, secretly at first, and then openly. They’ve loved each other ever since.”

  “So for us how long will we court?” Artur asked.

  “Oh, we’ll have to see.”

  “I won’t be like your last boyfriend, if you’re worried about that.”

  She smiled, hating to admit that she did worry about that. All the single women here would be interested in the king’s champion. What if one of them intrigued Artur more than she did? One that suited him better? Rina didn’t have any false notions concerning that. Though she also figured if one of them approached him, batting her eyelashes at him, Rina might have to rein in her warrior elf training to avoid any complications.

  They kissed each other good night again, and then she left him alone before her father came looking for her. But when she retired to her own bed, she was thinking about just how many weeks it would be before she married the king’s champion. She didn’t think she’d be able to hold out for very long.

  Before Artur was fully awake, someone was pounding on his door that morning, and he wondered what all the fuss was about. Oh, breakfast. Maybe the family all ate breakfast together before they headed out on their missions. “Coming!”

  He hurried to dress and went to the door to find Rina standing there with their horses in tow. “Hurry up. We’ll be late.”

  “For what? Breakfast?” But he couldn’t imagine riding his horse somewhere to have breakfast.

  “You slept through breakfast. Father said to leave you be, but Dracolin came to me with a mission since everyone else already had one. And he couldn’t take it because of Persephonice.”

  “What mission?” Artur asked, grabbing his pack.

  “Orion thinks he can communicate with all the creatures in our world. He can’t. Some are just too…primitive. In any event, he’s in trouble and we have to rescue him.” She climbed onto her saddle.

  Artur didn’t like the sounds of that. What if Orion fell for the shadow elf, his Rina, who was coming to his aid?

  As soon as Artur was on his saddle, she tossed him some fresh baked bread. “Your breakfast.”

  “Thanks. I’ll get up earlier tomorrow. I thought we were off today.”

  “We always have to be ready at a minute’s notice.” She smiled at him as they rode off while he was taking another bite of the bread. “Do you like it?”

  “Yeah, it’s great.”

  “Good. I made it.”

  He was really glad he did then. “So what do we do with Orion once we rescue him?”

  “If we can rescue him, we can take him somewhere that the creatures are a bit more hospitable. Which can be a challenge, but I’m sure we can find someplace to leave him.”

  “You know, if he found an elf he couldn’t live without, that could solve our problem with him possibly wanting to steal Persephonice and take her back to her ship.”

  “Do you have anyone in mind?” Rina asked.

  “Justina?”

  “Princess Mirabella’s new maid?” Rina shook her head. “It would be good if Orion went somewhere else and met someone. Not in either the Darkland elf or shadow elf kingdoms because of Persephonice and Eloria. He might not want to try and take Eloria back with him, but what if he did and forced Persephonice to return with him so Eloria would be allowed to come back to our world? So somewhere else.”

  “You know we are perfect for each other,” Artur said.

  “Hmm.”

  “I’m serious,” Artur said.

  “You have not even met all the shadow elf girls who live here.”

  Artur laughed. “There is no one who is exactly like you and that’s what I love about you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Artur glanced at her and smiled.

  She chuckled and shook her head. “We must wait.”

  “Until you are sure about me,” Artur said with a sigh. He had not thought the girl he would fall in love with would have just ended a relationship with another guy.

  “Until we are sure about us.”

  They rode in silence for several minutes.

  “I am sure about you, us,” Artur said.

  “Okay, three weeks.”

  “Like your parents. We have already been together for a week.”

  She chuckled.

  “So that means two more weeks,” Artur said.

  “If we can make it that long…” She turned her head to the south. “Do you hear Orion yelling? For help?”

  “Aye. Let’s go save a langolar and put him on a less dangerous path, though as you say, our world can be rather hostile.”

  “That’s why we need each other to help navigate the good and the bad. I never expected to meet my mate while rescuing a princess.”

  “I never expected to meet a warrior after my own heart.”

  Epilogue

  Artur and Rina didn’t make it two more weeks before they married. Rina had nothing to fear when it came to Artur’s loyalty to her. Other girls didn’t interest him, not when he had the greatest treasure of all. He hadn’t meant to give Pascale a black eye either. It just happened. The guy shouldn’t have spouted off to Artur about Rina’s failings. Nobody was perfect, but Rina was as close as it came to that as far as Artur was concerned.

  Even King Leogane and Queen Mirabella had gladly come to their wedding, which made it even more special and awed many of the shadow elves and the shadow elf king to no end. Justina was at Mirabella’s beck and call if she needed her for anything, yet Mirabella wanted her to enjoy the festivities there too. The maid had become a whole different person now that she wasn’t working for the tyrant Inari.

  Now Rina’s sister and her brother too were hoping to find a mate on their missions like Rina and their parents had done. Before that, they had thought their parents meeting and falling love had just been a fluke.

  As to Orion, he and Rina had saved him from trolls and set him on a different path in the land of the ice giants, cautioning him to move to somewhere safe when the giants were roaming about.