Girl of Iron and Magic

35.

35.

PRESENT DAY

Enchantress Yuralar, the Yomi enchantress employed by the dragon king, was a formidable woman.

Lotte had never met a fully grown Yomi elf before. She didn't know if they were all eight feet tall. Yuralar's plaits piled on her head, thick and heavy, falling all the way down to her lower back. They were beaded with enchantments that sparkled when she moved. Her skin was a tapestry of tattoos—like all elven warriors.

She wore a traditional elven tunic dress with a golden sash and her shoulders exposed. Everything about her screamed Lasuran elf, and yet she was here in Serades serving the Dragon King.

Lotte didn't really have time to wonder what someone like this was doing here, because the woman greeted her with an unmistakable scowl.

"They say that you're an enchantress." She spoke human with a heavy elven accent. "A Leilan Lotte."

"What do you want?" Lotte asked in elvish. Perhaps she could've done more to win over this person, but Lotte was tired, anxious and not completely herself.

Yuralar stepped towards her, bending down so that her face was inches from Lotte's. "Leave," she hissed. "I don't care where you go, just leave this place."

It was hard not to flinch under the intensity of that gaze. Lotte felt herself cringing. It wasn't that the Yomi enchantress was threatening, but she was angry and there was a push to her anger.

"I can't," Lotte said.

"You can't?" the Enchantress asked, straightening. "Or you won't?"

"I can't," Lotte repeated, and sighed because, despite her better judgment, the kiss from last night was still fresh on her lips. "And I won't."

Yuralar huffed in annoyance. "Who made you? How do you speak our tongue? Where did you even learn how to enchant?"

"I don't know who made me," Lotte said, going for the portion of the truth that could never reach Poe.
Yuralar rolled her eyes.

"Why did you call me here?" Lotte asked before the Enchantress could say anything more.

"They want me to give you a healing tattoo," Yuralar replied cooly. "King's orders."

It was Lotte's turn to roll her eyes. "How do they know I don't already have one?" she asked.

"You couldn't possibly have created one yourse—"

"Thank you for your kind offer," Lotte said. "But no thank you."

Yuralar's eyes narrowed into a steely glare.

Lotte bowed her head slightly. "If that's all, then I'll..."

"Whatever you're hiding on your skin," the Yomi enchantress said. "You won't be able to hide it for long."

"We'll see."

When she returned to the suite, she found Maloru pacing the sitting room.

"Any sign of Rowan?" he asked the moment she came in through the door.

She shook her head. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Maybe she's gone to search for her brother?"

Lotte wrung her hands together and hoped that Rowan would appear soon.

Morning turned to noon and then the afternoon slowly wasted away. It was a terribly idle day. She did what she knew best to pass the time and calm her nervous hands—she made enchantments.