She didn’t need to speak the words. Cymrian would be thinking the same thing. Arling had been given over to their enemies, to the ones who had brought the assassin and the mutants.
“Have they lifted off yet?” Cymrian asked, moving a step closer. “Have they left?”
The man shrugged. “They were still on the ground when we started back. That was maybe ten, fifteen minutes ago.”
The Elven Hunter took Aphen’s arm and pulled her ahead. “Quickly, now. Maybe we can still reach her in time.”
They charged past the man and the woman and went down the trail in a rush. They did not look back.
Sora and Aquinel started walking again, neither looking at the other. The rains had diminished to a few scattered drops, and the windblown mists had begun to re-form and thicken once more.
“Elves,” Sora said after a time. “Dangerous look to them, too. Did you see their clothes? All torn up and bloodied. The man was hurt. You could tell by the way he was holding himself.”
He waited for Aquinel to say something, but she wouldn’t even look at him.
“I did what I thought was right,” he said again.
But he knew that wasn’t entirely so. He’d done what he hoped was right and what he knew would net him a profit. He’d been right about the men on the airship. They’d been quick to reward him for his efforts in retrieving the girl, and they hadn’t looked anywhere near as questionable as the Elves. Of course, the injured girl was an Elf, too, and she looked the same as these two. But who was to say what the real relationship was between them? Maybe the two women were sisters, but maybe not. How could anyone tell? Those Elves all looked the same to him, anyway.
He tightened his jaw. Come right down to it, this wasn’t his business. His or Aquinel’s. None of it. They were well out of it. Let the others sort it out. He glanced at his wife, marching along at his side, stone-faced. She was angry now, but she would get over it.
Even after she did though, he didn’t think he would say anything about the silvery white stone he had found in the girl’s clothing. A beautiful thing, it was. He had never seen anything like it.
Now it was his. He would keep it, sell it later on the sly, and pocket the money.
After all, he deserved something for his trouble.
Here Ends Book Two of The Dark Legacy of Shannara