The sound of agitated voices yelling at one another woke me from a fitful sleep. Then came a slamming of the jail’s door. Startled, I sat myself upright. The orc in the cell beside me did similarly. I looked over to him.

  “If these cell walls break down, I’m going to eat your tasty human flesh,” the orc snarled.

  Great. Just what I needed after smelling his breath all night. I ignored my fellow prisoner and narrowed my eyes to focus down the dark corridor where they’d left us.

  Two elves trudged forward, boots thudding on the ground with each step. They carried some kind of glowing ball that looked like it contained fireflies, lighting their way into the prison. The two passed the other prisoners and came right to my cell.

  “This is the one,” one of the elves said.

  The second peered at me. He was an older elf who appeared to be middle-aged, wearing clothes with gold trim finery that gave him an air of importance, far more than the soldiers who had captured me. “Human,” he said.

  “Yes, I am well aware,” I said in a wry tone. I’m not sure where my defiance came from. I supposed that after losing sleep and having been in a crash, I was exhausted and didn’t want to deal with any of these pretentious creatures any longer. It almost made me miss five o’clock traffic, sitting in a car, listening to the radio, and getting irritated with the cars barely moving before me. That simplicity had a nostalgia to it as I remained in this strange world.

  “You led them to Princess Lyrielle,” the elf said. “You’ll tell us who you’re working for, or we will remove each limb from your body one at a time.”

  This was no longer a joking matter. I stood, facing my jailer. I stood taller than both of the elves in front of me, and with the muscular physique I’d cultivated in my astronaut training, I had to have been imposing to them. I wanted to be defiant, to tell them I’d like to see them try, but I held myself back, reserved even as I balled a fist at my side. No, talking back to them would only make these stuffy elves angrier, and they already blamed me for something that happened with Lyrielle.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I crashed here. Your princess saved me from asphyxiating on smoke. I woke up having no idea where the hell I was, and you threw me into a prison. Whatever’s happening with Lyrielle, it’s not my doing.”

  The middle-aged elf produced a key, opening the door to my cell before stepping inside. He circled around me as if to get a look at me.

  “Satisfied with the goods?” I asked, unable to help but return to the biting humor. I could only take so much.

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  The elf sniffed the air and then huffed. “The smell in here is foul.”

  “It’s the orc,” I said.

  The orc grunted from his cell.

  The middle-aged elf glanced over at the orc, made a disgusted look, and then turned his attention back to me. “So it seems. I am Rowin, Elder of the Clan of Steel, protector of the sacred Blade Rune, and loyal courtier of Princess Lyrielle.” He spoke the words as if they should have impressed me.

  “Right. Lt. Colonel John Robinson, Space Force,” I replied.

  Rowin shot me a quizzical expression but then continued, “Princess Lyrielle disappeared, and Torven seemed to be under the impression you might have had something to do with it.”

  “Torven is a dick,” I said.

  “Pardon?” Rowin blinked.

  “You heard me.”

  The elf shook his head. “He wants me to interrogate you, though Lyrielle spoke fondly of you before her disappearance. I don’t believe harm should come to you. Our princess is wanted by a number of clans as a hostage, and there is also the Dark Sorcerer of Needlin Forest, who has been pursuing our dear Lyrielle since she came of age. You’re not an agent of any of these?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I have no idea about any of what you’re talking about.”

  The other elf who had accompanied Rowin, wearing the warrior’s leather garb I’d seen when I was captured, stepped forward then. He’d been quiet so far, but he opened the cell. “Elder, you can’t allow this foul human to speak to you like this. I’m going to show him some manners.”

  He pulled out a sword from his scabbard, and Rowin didn’t move to stop him. So, this was how they treated their prisoners.

  Something triggered within me like a rocket igniting upon countdown. Before I even knew what I was doing, I had the elf by the wrist, much like I had done with Torven when I’d brawled with him. Only this time, I applied enough force that I made this elf drop the sword.

  I crept low, grabbed the sword, and spun it in my hands, the blade whirling in front of me in a fan-like motion. The move astonished the elves, who froze in place, but it surprised me as well. I’d never used a sword before, but it felt as natural to me now as if I’d been a fencing champion my whole life.

  Confident now, I held my arm out with the tip of the sword pressing against the leather chest piece on the elf in front of me, the point right where his heart would be. I held it there.

  “Let’s stop with the threats, okay?” I asked.

  “Incredible,” Rowin said, sounding more impressed than afraid.

  “I wish someone would tell me what’s going on. I hate being in the dark,” I said.

  Rowin stepped into the cell, pushing the soldier elf aside, getting a closer look at me. He held a hand up to my forehead and began chanting much like Lyrielle had before.

  I recoiled backward. “This isn’t helping.”

  Rowin’s eyes went wide. “She bestowed upon you the Blessing of the Rune,” he said.

  “I still don’t have any idea what you’re saying.”

  “Lyrielle has given you some of our magic. Each tribe of elves has one Rune with a specialty that bestows a blessing upon those who receive it from the Rune Bearer. You’ve received the Blade Rune, which she must have done with foreknowledge of this. This is truly astonishing.” The elf looked like he was about to fall over himself for all of his talk.

  “It sounds like you’ve gone from accusing me of kidnapping your princess to wanting me to rescue her, is that it?” I asked.

  Rowin looked me in the eye, suddenly very serious. “Yes, that is exactly what I’m trying to impart upon you. Lyrielle is in grave danger. Will you help?”