Chapter 227: Princelings or Ducklings?
Loraven led them to a secret tunnel in the mountain. There were many, but this one, she knew the humans would not remember the twists and turns. In the heart of it was heated pipework that acted like roots towards the palace above. Ongoing fires made the slightly rocky terrain warm beneath their feet and surroundings.
Though the mountains were covered in snow, their elven magic kept it like that. Heated floors and rooms kept those warm, but the snow and ice sculptures in the palace remained standing, never melting. Loraven could see the men trying to figure out how they were toasty inside the walls of snow and rock.
Loraven did not need to ask the princelings or King Thalinal why they were there. When a new ruler was approaching their coronation, as part of their succession, the crown prince must venture to the elven lands. It used to be tradition before the wars, and now that there was peace between the kingdoms, it had returned. Though it was not expected, the new ruler would also venture every five to ten years to dine with the elves and vice versa.
The elves had signed in the treaty they would only venture to the human realms every fifty years, to which the King’s at the time agreed. They didn’t want to see them as much as the elves didn’t want to visit the filthy kingdoms.
"*Are you going to stay, Loraven?*" Thalinal asked as he removed his gloves and threaded his fingers through his straight white hair.
"*Why? Do these tunnels scare you?*" Loraven jested with a smirk as she patted the King on the chest.
"*Not nearly as much as your parents,*" Thalinal muttered quietly with a smirk.
Loraven nodded in agreement. They scared her too sometimes, though she would not say that to someone who she was meant to be enemies with. But she could never be enemies with Thalinal. Not since the death of Lúthien, his whole world.
When she was younger, before tension began to thaw between the two elven kingdoms, Loraven used to visit the Flori palace. There she became friends with Lúthien, who had not long become Thalinal’s wife. Her parents wanted Loraven to get closer to the Queen of Flori. All to make strong connections and to gain some information on the Flori. She never did report anything they could use.