Elfish by Julie Steimle (best historical fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

“No,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “There are eight of us, but only one woman—the Chosen one. The rest of us are men.”

“And who is the purple one?” She smiled, but it was pained. “Is he royalty?”

They shook their heads, yet Daniel said, “But he is extremely rich.”

She nodded with a sigh. “Is he envious of anyone?”

Daniel and Peter frowned. Peter slowly shook his head. So did Daniel.

“Of all of us?” Daniel replied with a sigh. “But that’s because he grew up on the other side of the country. He’s always felt left out.”

“But he’s not like that,” Peter retorted on Michael’s behalf. “Not envious. Besides, all of us are envious of Andy. He got the girl.”

Daniel laughed, nodding. “True.”

The Elf stared at them. She shook her head after she examined Peter and Daniel again. “I don’t think your eight has to worry.”

“And why?” Peter asked, as this entire conversation had made him worried.

She smiled with a nod for him. “I sense you are remarkably different from the Eight that became Seven. They were all about honor and glory. They were full of pride for being chosen by God. You… you two seem to carry it like a burden. A heavy responsibility. You actually understand your duty.”

They exchanged looks once more.

“And I suspect the others are much like you.” She rose up. “I will go with you. These people have destroyed the gifts I have given them. They do not deserve my blessing.”

Puck followed her. “You’re leaving?”

She nodded. “My forest is gone. But my soul is not.” She looked to Daniel. “I am to serve the Eight if I am to stay true.”

Daniel and Peter exchanged looks. Peter said, “You are not our servant. We’d rather just have you as a friend and advisor.”

She smiled at him with such a look it was like a supernova of gratitude. “Thank you. Again you are proving to be worthy as the Eight.”

“Who were you before you were Brigidt?” Daniel asked, curious. He realized that Peter had ducked out from extrapolating further.  

Peter colored, not quite sure he wanted to say what the professor had said.

Turning from teary-eyed Puck who felt like he was losing her, the Elf smiled at him. “I was an angel. I had one job. It was an important job though. I had a flaming sword, and used it to guard a very special tree. I could even carry the tree with me, and move it—so it did not have to stay in Eden if I did not want to. Eden was where it grew.”

“What tree was that?” Daniel asked, though Peter already knew and was cringing.

“The Tree of Life,” she said, blinking her elfish eyes at him with particular fondness.

Daniel stared, then looked about her. “You… you carry the Tree of Life?”

“I don’t have it anymore,” she answered him with a shrug and a sigh. She looked to Peter whom she could tell knew the story. She nodded to him with gratitude for allowing her to speak rather than taking over and informing his friend. Peter nodded back.

“Where is it?” Daniel asked, glancing to Peter now, slightly irritated this was going on. “Where did you leave it? Was it taken from you? Did you lose it?”

She shrugged again, amused with him, especially his urgency. “I forget. My memory is still quite fuzzy. But I do believe I entrusted in the hands of another faithful elf… or at least, an elf who would guard it while I was gallivanting around.”

Peter nodded, thinking of Olympus. He wondered if the tree was still there, atop that Greek mountain.

“So,” Daniel went quite pale, realizing exactly how important she was, “you’re the cherub with a flaming sword—”

“Cherubim,” she said grinning, peeking to Peter again who had stepped next to Puck to see if he knew. Puck did, shrugging. She continued, “It is a plural use, as I was a grand and important angel. I had wings of glory and fire. Not quite a fiery Seraphim, but still—it was a position of honor.”

“Why plural use of the word?” Daniel asked, noticing it all going on. “You said you were not a tri-aspect goddess.”

She grinned. “It was polite. Though I do get a giggle when people think I was more than one person. I suppose that is where the talk of Brigidt being a tri-goddess comes from. Nonsense of course. My name was once Shamsiel—which means sun of God. People often thought I was a man—as many of his great angels were.”

Peter nodded. Everything had been verified. He shivered, realizing he was standing in the presence of an angel. Elf was just a shape. He began to wonder how many other angels walked the earth unnoticed. There was this Jewish adage, after all, about taking good care of strangers, as they could be angels unawares.  

“But honestly, I like the name Rowan.” And the Elf smiled at them both. “Yet, suppose I should abandon it for a time.”

“And why?” Peter stared. The name Rowan was pretty decent name. His favorite British comedian was named Rowan.

“Because too many people know me by it.” The Elf grinned back at him. “And if I am to go with you back to the United States, as I know you want me to, I will have to go incognito.”

Daniel and Peter exchanged relieved looks. They had not even needed to convince her. She knew.

“How about we just call you Brigidt?” Peter suggested. “It’s your real name, I think.”

She blushed, smiling, and nodded. “Ok.”

“Do you have a passport?” Daniel asked, heart thumping in his chest.

She came up to him, eyed him carefully, then kissed him on the nose. When she pulled back, taking in Daniel’s surprised expression, she said, “No. But I can become a cat—or a bird if you wish. They don’t have passports.”

“Cats will have to go into carriers, and they have to have medical records,” Peter let her know. “This is the twenty-first century.”

Looking to him, she chucked, then patted him on the head as if she found him cute like a puppy. “Indeed. It is.”

She shook off her dust, then and there, and shrank down into a lovely Egyptian Mau. She meowed at him. Both of them stared down at her beautiful cat form. It would work. They just needed the paperwork done.

Puck rolled his eyes, wiping tears from his cheeks. “Then you really are going?”

She shook off the form, rising into a human shape once more. Draping an arm around his Puckish shoulders, she nodded. “My sweet Robin. You would not be happy leaving Stratford-upon-Avon for long. You’d miss your bard.”

He hung his shoulders. “William has been gone for a while, my dear. Besides, I’ve been more in the present than you have. I can travel wherever I like.”

She laughed, hugging him.

Yet he transformed into an actual robin, fluttering to stand atop her head as she nearly fell over. She laughed then winked at Daniel as she straightened up. He flushed, as she was definitely flirting with him.

Peter and Daniel exchanged looks and said with murmurs, “We need to figure out the laws about taking pets into another country.”

Chapter Eleven

There were other formalities, of course, that they had to attend to. After a return to the White Hart for a rest, the next morning, Peter and Daniel came back to her apartment and helped the Elf get a suitcase so she could pack whatever she wanted to take with her on their journey. They also spent the day making sure all her plants had homes—as she would leave them behind. The locals of Wells were not too happy about them spending time planting and giving away her plants around the town—until they realized it was a sign the Elf was leaving for good. Then they fully supported it.

At the same time they did this, Robin had flown back to Stratford-upon-Avon to fetch his mobile tea shop where he would then later join up with them at Oxford. They still had business in Oxford and London after all.

While getting her ready for the journey, Peter and Daniel had both asked the Elf about what they could do for their vimp friend to end the curse—as the Elf had met the first vimp and she had been a destroying angel. However, her answers were not what they had hoped.

“To end most curses, you have to find the origin. At the origin of a spell was where a curse could be untangled. It is like a knot,” she explained as she packed up what clothes she wanted to bring with her. Despite being an elf, she was well equipped to live as a modern human being—including owning some tech. “You cannot pull it from the outside. You need to reach in at the core and loosen the threads from the inside.”

“Where is the inside?” Peter wondered aloud, gathering up her household things which they would sell so she would have money to carry with her—or just donate to get rid of.

“That is the question.” She nodded sagely to him. Yet she smiled fondly at him. “However, I think you are exceptionally gifted at untangling knots and getting to the root of mysteries. You see things clearer than most people.” She then looked to Daniel who was busy potting plants that had been growing in her soil-packed walls and floor. He had a stack of pots which he was filling. She murmured to Peter, “I could not tell you any more than you already know. You should stay in London and continue your work.”

“And stop the witches from following you?” Peter chuckled. He filled another box. She did not have much in regards to kitchenware. She did, however, have a stash of gold, silver, and copper coins, of which they put into one of Daniel’s magic pouches to safekeeping.

She nodded. Yet she said, “Tell me more about him. Why does he feel so damn familiar to me?”

Daniel could hear her, but ignored it. It was embarrassing how much she stared at him. It was also unsettling how easily fond she was of him.

Peter shrugged. “I don’t know why you find him familiar. I grew up with him. Same town. But… if you want to know the dirty gossip, his father married three times. His mother died in childbirth. His current stepmother is really nice lady—giving him two sisters. He has one ex-stepmother who is a witch—his father’s second wife—and three half siblings whom she raised to learn witchcraft—two brothers and a sister.”

The Elf shuddered on that. Her eyes swelled with pity on Daniel.

“His half-sister, the one just younger than him, had left her coven,” Peter shrugged. “Or so she says, though we still keep an eye on her, and she does teach him magic.”

Nodding, the Elf sighed. “Yes. I can smell it on him. But it does not quite smelt the same.”

“But Daniel is a lot older than he looks,” Peter murmured. “We told you about us getting sucked into that other world. Well, he grew up there. He already had a lifetime there, serving as a knight. Maybe that is it. Maybe that is what is familiar.”

She nodded. “Maybe that is it. He has the manner of a knight.”

Daniel peeked to them, giving it up. “I can hear you