The Prince's Mark

Chapter Three

"I see..." Pendaer inclined his head towards Tracou, eyebrows knit together. "I'm sorry he was mean to you."

The expression on Pendaer made Tracou feel unpleasant, uncomfortable. He needed to stop making that face.

"He was leaving the inn, so hopefully he had a bad time finding a place to sleep. That would serve him right."

Pendaer's expression got more severe, not less. This was backfiring on Tracou. Maybe a smile was too much to ask for, but Pendaer could have at least gone back to neutral.

"He was at our inn?"

"Mm-hm."

"If you see him again, please let me know."

"Why?" Tracou tilted his head. "Are you going to tell him off?"

This finally broke that expression on Pendaer's face. He laughed.

"Maybe. We'll see."

They continued wandering around, mostly in silence. Tracou became absorbed in a few trinkets and stayed in one place for so long that he didn't notice when Pendaer slipped away from him. It wasn't until he set the trinkets down without buying them that he realized he was alone.

Panic nipping at the bottom of his heart, Tracou scanned the crowd for anyone with pointy ears. Because Pendaer towered over most people, he should have been easy to spot. But no matter many times Tracou dragged his eyes over the crowd, there was no Pendaer to be found. He had disappeared.

Where could he have gone? Shalen was huge. Pendaer was not the least bit familiar with Shalen and likely didn't even know where the inn was. Maybe he had gone to find it to try and go back to sleep?

Tracou spent a few hours searching for the lost elf. He wasn't anywhere near the inn, the general market, or even the food market. When he asked passersby if they had seen an elf, several of them had seen both elves. Even so, no one could tell him where Pendaer had gone. He was stuck walking anywhere and everywhere, keeping an eye out for long blond hair and pointy ears.

Somehow he had lost Pendaer. So much for him knowing what he was doing—he couldn't even keep a huge elf within his line of sight. Anything could happen to Pendaer here. The Elven Kingdom was the wealthiest country on the continent so Pendaer would be an appealing target for thieves and con-men. If something happened to him, it would be Tracou's fault for letting him wander off.

Tracou decided to do one more circuit around the places they had already been. The combination of dashing around everywhere and anxiety was exhausting and, if he couldn't find him, maybe he should give up. Maybe Pendaer didn't want to hang around him because he was interested in boring things like shopping.

As he approached the market, he spotted pointy ears waiting just outside the entrance to the area. It was Pendaer, looking rather serene compared to how Tracou felt.

Tracou ran over to him, already yelling.

"Where did you go?! I was looking all over for you!"

Pendaer turned towards him in time to see him skid to a stop in front of him. His expression turned sheepish.

"I, um... I got distracted. Then I couldn't find you. You're rather small, you know."

Distracted! This elf had the absolute gall to have gotten lost because he had gotten distracted and then blame Tracou's height on getting lost. Tracou felt like he was going to erupt he was so angry.

"Are you stupid?! Do I need to tie a rope around you so you won't wander off like a dumb animal?!"

"I'm not stupid," Pendaer said softly.

"No? Disappearing because of a distraction sounds pretty stupid to me!"

Pendaer grunted, glaring down at the ground. "I saw the blue-haired elf. If he sees me, it will... be a problem for me, so I left."

That was at least a better explanation than just leaving for nothing. That blue-haired elf was obnoxious to say the least, so it was understandable that Pendaer wouldn't want to see him. Tracou huffed. A portion of his anger had vanished, allowing his physical fatigue show itself.

"You can't just leave without telling me. Shalen's gigantic! You could have been anywhere! I was worried!"

Pendaer nodded slowly.

They stared at each other, both unsure of how to proceed, until Tracou decided he had had enough.

The physical capability of a dezmek was lower than that of other races. Tracou, being a minor lord, engaged in physical activity even less than other dezmek, so his tolerance of it was abysmal. He had been running around for hours and it had finally caught up to him.

"I need to sit down. Do you still have food in that bag of yours?"

"Ah, yes."

Unwilling to walk far, Tracou settled for a spot just outside the walkway to sit down. Pendaer joined him, moving stiffly.