The Wild Swans (15 page)

“We’re not your broth—
,”

“
But when you claim to be in
love
with me and think that you have conducted yourself perfectly true to me?” Elise laughed and again started plowing through the darkening forest. “What a joke. Besides, look at you! Look at both of you! Matching me with you would be like a duck and a swan pairing up.”

“Technical
ly right now it would be a human girl and a swan—,”

“
That was supposed to be a metaphor, Falk,” Elise said as she climbed over a log. “Both of you will marry someone beautiful and enchanting, like Gabrielle. Not a penny-pincher accountant with wild hair, like me.”

“You underestimate your beauty
, Elise,” Rune said.

“Besides
, the decision is ours. And why would I
want
someone beautiful and enchanting?” Falk scoffed.

Rune looked at his brother. “I know we’re rivals
, but do you really not notice how you accidentally insult Elise with every compliment you mean to give?”

“What do you mean?”

“By asking why you want someone beautiful and enchanting you are implying that Elise is neither.”

“What? No
, I didn’t. Obviously I was asking why I would want someone whose only recommendation is being beautiful. Beauty alone makes a poor companion. Elise is obviously superior because not only is she beautiful, but she can hold a proper conversation and calculate compounding interest at the same time.”

Rune sighed as he followed the mute Elise. “I’
m not much inclined to help you with Elise
ever
—why are you so antisocial anyway? But just this once, I shall offer this kernel of wisdom. Women think a great deal about words that have been spoken. It would behoove you to think carefully before blasting Elise with an injurious compliment. If you must say it, at least properly explain it.”

As the brothers argued
, Elise increased her pace. She could see the glow of the campfire just ahead. If she reached the rest of the Arcainian princes, perhaps they would make Rune and Falk be quiet.

“
Not only are you a flirt, but you are also an insufferable know-it-all,” Falk said.

“I am
neither
of those things,” Rune said. “And I am the only brother out of the lot of us who wasn’t good at school.”

“
That does not mean you are not an insufferable know-it-all,
Court Favorite
.”

“Stop
that,” Rune growled.

Elise burst through the last layer of trees.

Brida, Steffen, Erick, Mikk, and Nick all looked up from the fire where they were roasting fish. (Gerhart’s location was unknown.)

“Steffen
, tell Rune and Falk to stop making fun of me,” Elise sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye with her wrist.

Steffen pushed off the tree he
was leaning against and hugged Elise. “There, there, dear sister. I will protect you from the ugly thugs,” he said before turning to his brothers. “Your stupidity has reached new heights. Do you
enjoy making women cry?”

Rune puffed up in anger. “This is your fault
. If you had let me tell Elise last year, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“No
, you would probably be dead,” Mikk said. “What? Assassinations happen, and Father
does
love Elise best even if she isn’t really his,” he shrugged when everyone stared at him.

Falk rubbed a piece of his
goldenrod hair between his fingers. “She doesn’t believe us,” he said.

“You on
ly have yourselves to blame for that,” Steffen said.

“Poor Elise
,” Erick said, drawing Elise’s attention to him. When she saw the devious slant of his smile, she froze like a frightened rabbit. For the first time since Clotilde appeared, Erick looked
intrigued.
An intrigued Erick was not necessarily a bad thing, unless he was intrigued with
you
.

“Isn’t this great
? We’ve all made up,” Nick happily said, turning the fish on the spit.

“What?” Mikk said.

“Elise is talking to us again,” Nick said.

“On
ly because she’s mad at Rune and me,” Falk said.

“And
that should matter to us because…?” Steffen asked.

“Welcome back
, Elise,” Nick said, also throwing his arms around Elise—nearly knocking heads with Steffen. “So, you’re probably going to choose Rune or Falk, right? That means you really will be my sister then, just as Mother planned.”

“W-what?” Elise asked
, wide-eyed and sandwiched between the princes.

“Would anyone care to place a bet on which one she’ll choose?” Erick asked
, rubbing his chin as he appraised Rune and Falk.

“Normal
ly, Rune would be the best candidate, but she has stood next to him for all of his adult life and watched him dance, compliment, talk to, flatter, and flirt with every lady in the kingdom,” Steffen said.

“You aren’t help
ing, brother,” Rune said.

“Who said I
was trying to?” Steffen sweetly asked.

“What do you think
, Brida? Who will Elise go for?” Nick asked, abandoning the group hug to sit down next to the silent captain.

“I think I am glad I am an on
ly child, if you will excuse my frankness, Prince Nickolas,” Brida said.

Elise pushed her head into Steffen’s shoulder. “This is so embarrass
ing,” she muttered.

“It’s all in good fun
, sister,” Steffen said, patting the top of her head.

“Right now
, the odds for either brother aren’t good,” Erick said, drawing out numbers and figures on the ground with a stick.

Mikk glanced over at Rune and Falk. “
Pray a foreign prince doesn’t sweep into her heart while we are exiled,” he said.

“
No foreign princes. I will mobilize
any
of you to woo Elise before I will allow that to happen,” Steffen said, hardly noticing when Elise slipped away from him. “We cannot let our best department head and the official savior of Arcainia slip off to another country. You two had better shape up and start courting,” Steffen said to Falk and Rune.

“If
that is what you would like, may I recommend that you stop belittling me in front of Elise?” Rune said, his tone light and airy.

“You may recommend it
, but I will not follow it,” Steffen said.

The two princes shared light
hearted laughter, although Rune glared daggers at his older brother.

Elise sat on the ground
and took the baked fish on a stick Mikk offered her. “This is almost as bad as when they were turned into swans,” she muttered.

When Elise
was halfway through the second shirt, she knew she was knitting faster. It wasn’t that her hands hurt less—they hurt more, actually—but Elise’s pain tolerance had grown significantly. It also helped that Falk gave her a new supply of ferns to rub on her hands to ease the welts and scratches every night.

It
was still boring. Elise made the shirts as simple as possible to reduce the knitting time, so it was mind-numbingly repetitive and ugly beyond all imagination thanks to the abundance of knotting Elise had to make in order to tie in the nettle stems.

None of this changed the fact
, though, that Elise was settling in and adjusting to the process, allowing her to knit much faster.

Elise reached for another sting
ing nettle stem, only to find she had none left. She set the cape aside and took a fern, rubbing it on her hands as she stretched her legs out in front of her.

Her swan companion—Elise still didn’t know which prince it
was—cocked his head and watched her.

Elise offered him a smile
before she rolled up the shirt-in-progress and stood, carrying it to her makeshift residence. (It really wasn’t very makeshift anymore. With Brida’s axe and ability to work during daylight hours, she had significantly improved the shelter, crafting a sturdy wall and hanging a length of burlap from the entrance to block out the weather.

“HAH
,” Brida said, shouting fearsomely as she stabbed her spear forward in her daily practice routine.

When Brida looked to Elise
, Elise held up the length of burlap—which she used the carry the stinging nettles after picking them.

“Go
ing to get more nettles, Princess?”

Elise nodded.

“Take your whistle and a knife with you,” Brida said before she turned back to her exercises. “HaaRAH!”

Elise grabbed her wooden whistle and the knife—Brida gave her a real knife so she didn’t
have to use her sharp stone, which had lost much of its edge after slicing through more nettles than Elise ever wished to count.

Elise swung her arms and walked into the forest
, smiling when her swan joined her. She had to go farther into the forest than ever before to find nettles as she had plucked every last one of them within a reasonable radius of the pond.

There
was a huge patch of them that Elise had found weeks ago when she was first trying to avoid her brothers. She may as well start there.

After a ten
-minute walk, Elise found the nettles. She laid out her burlap cloth and started slicing the plants at the very base, digging into the ground to get the maximum length possible.

The swan walked around the patch
, grunting and occasionally flapping his wings. Elise thought he was eating, but she wasn’t entirely certain and concentrated on cutting the nettles. It was extremely painful, as Elise had to wrap her entire hand around the plant instead of gingerly maneuvering it like she could when knitting.

Elise bit her lip and glared at the plants
, silently snarling at the biggest ones that were the hardest to cut. Before placing each plant on the length of burlap, she stripped the leaves and tossed them aside.

It
was about an hour before Elise was satisfied with her gathered bundle. She rolled the burlap twice around her gathered nettles and held the rough cloth as she carried her cargo back, her whistle and knife wedged in the burlap wrap.

The swan padded along at Elise’s side
, occasionally zigzagging back and forth in front of her.

Elise grinned
, infected by the bird’s good mood. She would be able to finish the shirts before her predicted time of midsummer at this rate. With luck, by the end of winter they could take Arcainia back from Clotilde—if Angelique had been cleared of suspicion, that was.

Elise froze when she heard a horse neigh.

Falk’s horse and Brida’s mount were both tethered in their meadow. They were too far away for Elise to hear them so clearly. Elise’s elation left her as she abandoned her path and crept in the direction of the neigh.

She almost gave up hope of find
ing the creature when it snorted and pawed the ground.

Elise
, still holding her prickly bundle, peered at it through the trees. The swan companion hissed from behind her ankles. She relaxed when she saw the mount.

She
had been afraid Clotilde had found them and sent soldiers to kill them, but the horse was clearly Verglas bred, thick and furry with more mane and tail than a normal horse would know what to do with. Elise’s shoulders heaved, and she smiled as she studied the plainly dressed horse. It had nothing on it but a saddle, a small saddlebag, and a short bow that was hooked over its rump. It probably belonged to a hunter.

Elise dropped her bundle.

A hunter
.

Elise hurtled through the woods
, ignoring the horse that spooked at her when she burst out of the tress and the swan that flapped its wings and hissed at her.