The Exiled Elf Prince Next Door Dies on Day Seventy novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: The Cart
Mirena Holt came around the corner of the barn with a basket on her hip and saw everything at once.
The straw in Aoi's braid.
The buttons done up wrong on Aoi's shirt.
A tall grey-haired elf standing very still beside the barn door with a green scarf hung over his bare shoulder.
"Well," said Mirena.
"It's not what it looks like," said Aoi.
"It is exactly what it looks like, and I am delighted."
She handed Aoi the basket, which was warm and full of rolls, and turned to look the elf up and down.
"I'm Mirena. I keep the inn. You're the one who's been standing in that dead field for two years looking at it like it owes you money."
"Caelrin," he said stiffly.
"You don't eat enough."
"I eat sufficiently."
"You eat air and spite. Take a roll."
He took a roll.
He held it in both hands.
Aoi watched him bite into it, chew, and close his eyes for one second.
Nobody had fed him in two years.
She looked away fast, because her throat had gone tight.
"Now," said Mirena, lowering her voice though there was nobody else in the yard, "I did not come for rolls or for gossip. Although I will have the gossip later."
"What did you come for?"
"The Royal Buyers' factor is in the valley. Mister Venn. He rode into Pellmoor last night and asked after the girl with the miracle turnips."
Aoi's stomach turned over.
"Who told him?"
"Everyone. Four hundred turnips from forty plants, in three days? The whole valley's been to look at your fence." Mirena patted her arm. "He'll be here by noon. Be nice. He's rich, and he can be a lot of trouble or a lot of money."
She looked at Caelrin again, shrewdly.
"And you," she said, "might want to put a shirt on."
She sailed off down the road, and Biscuit followed her to the gate, out of what seemed like loyalty.
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