“Three years,” Eli said. “I read about it. They stopped the practice when squires started stealing food from farms and killing people to take their houses.”
“Yes, very human of them. What happens if you try?”
“Food turns to ash, so do drinks. Any shelter someone gives me tends to collapse.”
Rey thought of the fallen Blanchet house, burning brightly in the dark Starian countryside as young Eli huddled in his cart. “That house you came from, when we first met…”
Eli’s expression shuttered like a door slamming closed. “It wasn’t much of a shelter.” He hunched his shoulders a little and hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “Thank you, though. For taking me part of the way.”
“I have a soft spot for de Valoises, I suppose, even the scraggly ones who abduct perfectly innocent foxes and eat fruit off the ground.”
Eli almost smiled.
The fields of southern Staria were full of people, some on walks through the countryside, some harvesting, others shepherding flocks of geese and sheep. Eli kept his head down, hiding around Unicorn when the occasional passer-by stopped to examine the cart, and eventually put up the hood of his cloak.
“You’re the first dominant I’ve ever met who doesn’t look people in the eye,” Rey said.
“That can’t be true.”
Rey shrugged. Admittedly, he rarely spent long enough around one mortal to notice these days. “Do you think people will recognize you? I didn’t, and you did leave an impression the first time we met.”
Eli rubbed Unicorn’s neck. Rey’s horse had taken a liking to him immediately, nuzzling up to him as though he were the one who fed her. “It’s part of the curse. I tend to be followed by hunters.”
“Like with a bow and arrow?” Rey smiled at the absurdity of it, but Eli’s expression was as closed off as before.
“Not that kind of hunter. You know, people who…hurt people. The ones you hear about, who poison villages or you find basements full of…” Something flashed in his eyes. “...things. Monsters who throw children down wells. Those are the hunterswho find me. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing or where we are. If they see me, it’s like theywantme. They want me more than they want to stay hidden, so they seek me out. I tried to run from them for a while, but I stopped a few years ago. The first thing that I do when I go to a new town is find out where the hunter is. It stops them from hurting anyone else.”
Rey thought of the rumors the elder Gerakians had bandied about—Eli being strangled, hanged, dragging himself out of the grave in Staria. “There was a rumor that you killed a man who drowned a little boy.”
“Oh, yeah.” Eli hunched his shoulders further. “Not just one boy, though.”
Rey wondered what that had to do to someone, being hunted by the worst of humanity just because his ancestor had helped steal a sword hundreds of years ago. “Spirits. Were you really hanged, then? I’m sorry, that’s too much to ask.”
“It’s fine.” Eli sighed heavily. “I was, but that was before the curse. I wasn’t the best person, before all this. But look, I’ll keep my head down while we’re together. That way you won’t be in danger, or Unicorn,” he added, patting Rey’s horse. “I’m not sure if you can be hurt, really.”
“Let’s not examine that too closely,” Rey said. He could get injured, even if his injuries tended to fade, and he preferred to avoid getting into scrapes if necessary. “Is that why you helped that girl back there? Was her attacker a hunter?”
“He wanted to be, but no. That was just…I don’t know, people give you a reputation sometimes and…she was crying, I couldn’t just…” Eli waved his arms about, as though with enough gesturing, he could explain away the fact that he had done an absolute stranger a favor for free.
Rey raised his brows. “Very knight-like of you.”
“Knights weren’t real, not the kind you mean. They were just people in armor who butchered other people in armor over borders we don’t have anymore.”
Rey whistled, and Eli turned to stare. “Aren’t we knowledgeable for a man who wasn’t there when it happened? Some people did live by a code, you know. Not all of them, but some. It was a trend, like wearing velvet after sunset. And some people still do live like that. You, for example.”
Eli’s expression was wan. “I don’t, I’m just cursed. Or maybe I’m someone who got lucky. It’s hard to tell, sometimes.”
“Lucky?”
Eli pulled back his hood and tugged at his collar. A ragged ring of scars circled his neck, barely visible in the shadow of his cloak. “I was hanged, remember? I know you’re an ancient spirit or what have you, but surely people don’t just get up and walk after they’ve been hanged.”
“Not usually.” Rey tucked his hands in his pockets, sidling closer. “You could have told me all this to begin with, you know.”
“Would you have believed me?” Eli asked.
“Maybe. I’ve heard stranger things.”
“Name one.” Rey opened his mouth to object, and Eli smiled ruefully. “There you go.”
