In Other Lands

by Sarah Rees Brennan

“Hi there,” she said. “I was wondering where you’d all got to.” “I’m here,” Elliot told her, perhaps unnecessarily. “They stole my bed. They have perfectly good beds of their own.” Rachel seemed unmoved by her son’s thieving ways. “Little rascals, all tuckered out. And what are you up to?” “I’ve decided to put an end to all war,” Elliot announced. Rachel blinked. “That might take a while.” “I know. I probably won’t be done by the time we’re out of school,” said Elliot. “That’s why I figured I should get started right away.”

“Tell my boy to take care of himself. See you this summer, funny face?” “I don’t know,” Elliot said awkwardly. Rachel tweaked his nose and departed. “See you there.” As the door banged shut behind her, Elliot glanced to the others, wondering if the noise had woken them. He saw Luke had his eyes open, watching the door. There was a certain expression on his face which made Elliot remember that he must have watched his mother leave to go somewhere dangerous hundreds of times. “You can come if you want,” Luke said. “We’re having a big thing. I mean, whatever.” “Yeah,” Elliot said. “Okay.” “Okay,” murmured Luke. He sighed and turned his face into the pillow, covered with Serene’s dark hair. He burrowed against her, and she said something indistinct with Luke’s name in it, and they both fell back asleep. Elliot felt a little Iago-ish, but mainly he was so terribly glad they were alive. And the school year was almost over, with so much work left to be done.

Luke tried to save them both and ended up tripping over his mother, and then everyone was on the floor but Serene, who leaned somewhat smugly against the wooden counter. “Elves have a certain natural grace,” she added. Elliot glanced at Luke, who nodded, and Elliot held up three fingers, then folded them quickly down one by one, counting down until the moment each of them grabbed one of her legs and brought her crashing to the ground. Everyone was laughing by then.

“I wish you would not start a revolution,” Luke contributed. “Don’t tell me what to do, loser, I’m going to and it’s going to be awesome,” said Elliot firmly.

“Not that I wish to question or shame you. You should wear whatever clothing you feel most comfortable in. Being comfortable in yourself is the best way to be attractive to others.” “Firstly: thank you, you’re as wise as you are totally gorgeous. Secondly: I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I will not be lectured on my fashion choices by a pair of fetish-gear enthusiasts.” Elliot added to the severity of this proclamation by pulling Luke’s hair. Luke batted his hand gently away. “You’re in a good mood,” he said, smiling. “I love revolution,” said Elliot, instead of saying something embarrassing like that he was happy to be there.

He had crept up on Elliot somehow: Elliot hated all people with warrior training. “Wow, you’ve changed.” “I haven’t,” Elliot said flatly. “Just taller. Still extremely annoying.”

Adam offered to fetch Elliot a drink, as if Elliot had not got wise to the whole spitting in a drink and handing it to someone when he was five. Elliot called in reinforcements and beckoned Luke over. “Come sit,” he ordered. “Protect me from your cousin.” “He’s not exactly fearsome,” said Luke, but he sat willingly enough and kicked up his legs, boots propped against the other side of the frame, so his whole body formed a barrier between Elliot and possible Sunborn cousin incursions.

“Oh, it’s like a trial?” said Luke. “For Sunborns? It’s a family thing. We have obstacle courses and tourneys, and there’s banners, and afterwards there’s a big celebration.” “Ugh,” said Elliot. “I know, parties,” Luke commiserated.

“Well, I’m sad your cousins are here. Your cousins are the worst.” “They’re not the best,” said Luke, which Elliot decided meant he agreed and he hated them too.

“You are wrong and stupid and wrong about everything,” Elliot said. “Someone save me from this conversation.” “Hi,” said Adam. “Do you mind?” said Luke. “Get lost,” Elliot told him. “Oh, hey, reading again?” asked Adam, as if a) he knew Elliot at all, b) it was a funny hobby like compulsively making papier-mache rabbits, and c) Adam was being indulgent about it. “What’s the book?” Elliot smiled at him charmingly. “Oh, it’s a great book, it’s called None of Your Business by I’m Not Going To Tell You.” “This is a private conversation,” Luke added. Elliot tapped Luke approvingly on the knee with his ballpoint pen.

He had tried to share his awesome stash of office supplies from the other world, but Serene claimed she had an allergy to plastic, Myra had poked herself in the eye with a Sharpie, and the one time Elliot had felt pleased enough with Luke to award him a pen, Luke kept it like a souvenir rather than ever actually trying to use it.

“Take him away,” Elliot said when Adam invited himself along to an outing with Luke, Elliot, and the dogs. “Play a sport with him!” “Play a sport?” Luke repeated. “Yes!” said Elliot. “You know you love a sport.” “Why are you sending me away? How is that fair?” Luke demanded. Elliot stared at him. “Send you away from what? You big baby,” he said severely. “What’s so great about this grove? Let me tell you, you can get trees and grass literally anywhere. Take him to another grove, it will be just as good.”

Elliot raised his arms in victory, king of all the grove he surveyed and not bothered by the annoying and unwelcome. “Concussions are hilarious! Concussions are the best!”

Elliot was sure Luke was lurking somewhere in the equipment room, being very conscientious about his gear or something. Luke was good at dealing with people, but he was also truly excellent at receding from them. Sometimes Elliot thought about Rachel calling Luke her shy boy.

“Hey,” he said, looking over at Elliot with a small smile and continuing to strap weapons on. “You know I hate violence in all its forms,” Elliot announced. “And if you wanted to sit out this stupid contest, I would be supportive.” Luke tilted his head inquiringly. “What would you being supportive even look like? I’ll pass. It would be too much of a shock to my system.” “Okay, that token protest made,” said Elliot. “You’re better than Adam at everything, right?” “I’m better than Adam at some things,” said Luke. “Though I don’t feel the need to boast about it all the time.” “I know, we hate him,” said Elliot, delighted. “Also when you say some things, can you name anything that Adam is better at?” Luke was modestly silent. “Great!” Elliot declared. “Can you beat him in this stupid contest so that we don’t have to hear about it for the rest of time? By an embarrassing margin, if you can manage it. Please and thank you.” “Yeah,” said Luke, still smiling. “I think I can do that.”

“I was in Louise Sunborn’s troop. I loved your letters,” she told him. “They were hilarious.” “Oh were they, hey, that’s great, kill me,” Elliot added urgently to Serene. She patted him on the back.

“Hey,” said Luke. “Did you see—” “No, wasn’t watching, don’t tell me about it, don’t want to know,” Elliot said hastily. “Oh, but—good job.” “Right,” said Luke.

“Have you known Luke long?” she asked as Elliot spun her and the sparks from the fire flew upward. “Two years.” “That must be amazing,” said the girl. “Every day a gift,” said Elliot. “He’s so brave and strong. And so good and kind.” “Also his hair,” Elliot commented. “Very shiny.” The girl glared. “Are you making fun of me?” “Can you blame me?” said Elliot. Apparently she could: she pulled her hand away and stomped off to her friends.

“So, it’s been cool to get to know you better this summer,” said Adam. “But imagine how fun it would be to do something new and different,” suggested Elliot. “Next summer, we could not see each other at all.”

Rachel gave him a small, worried smile. “Sorry if I upset you, kid. I don’t know how they do things in your world. Probably all a bit more civilized there.” “No,” said Elliot. “I’m okay. I don’t mind. I . . . like it here. I like you.”

“Hey, I was looking for you,” Elliot said. “Yeah?” Luke smiled. “Here I am.”

“Wait,” Luke said. “What? Who was . . . getting sexually harassed?” “Me!” said Elliot. “What,” said Luke. “I know!” said Elliot. “I was surprised too! It was Adam! Can you believe it! That was what all his hanging around annoying me was about, apparently. He is such a smug blond idiot. He kissed me, and I could barely manage to stop myself from laughing in his face.” “Yeah,” said Luke. “I’m amazed that you had that much restraint myself.”

Elliot suspected he had gone wrong somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where. He knew Luke could be kind of prudish about these sort of things, and wondered if he was being judged as a floozy, which seemed massively unfair. “I never liked him,” Elliot said uncertainly. “I always made that very clear.” “Oh, you always do,” Luke said. His voice was savage. “What?” Elliot asked. “I should have taken it as a compliment?” He got up and walked away, back to the house. He didn’t have to deal with Sunborns and their monstrous egos for a moment longer. Luke probably thought it had been a compliment. Just because Adam was a Sunborn, and at the last, when their loyalties were tested, Sunborns were loyal to each other. Sunborns thought they were all so much better than everybody else, and their attention must be an honor. “Yeah!” Luke said, coming after him, shouting the word at his back. “Maybe! It would’ve been better than acting the way you always do!” “Wow, sorry that everything I ever do offends you.” The Sunborns were so stupid, and Elliot was done with it. They were so stupid they thought having a champion just turned fifteen was a glorious thing, instead of a target painted on Luke’s back. Now he was the Sunborn, instead of just a Sunborn, he was going to be someone people looked for in a war: his death would now be someone else’s trophy. Luke and all the other Sunborns seemed too stupid to realise that or too stupid to care. Luke’s own mother had cheered for something that was like...

“That kid is a weirdo,” Elliot heard Michael mutter as Luke’s parents both walked away from the balcony and back toward their bedroom. “I know, I’m crazy about him,” Rachel returned.

Rachel might like him, but she loved Luke. Nobody had ever loved Elliot, but he was really smart. He was smart enough to know the difference.

Good-bye to the stupid dog, good-bye to the tower and the nice, grumbling, easy, warm ways of a family. He couldn’t come back. He had been stupid, he supposed: just because he’d decided he was Luke’s friend didn’t mean that Luke was his.

Luke kept glaring at his porridge. Serene ate dried apricots and continued to be a lovely mystery. Elliot wanted to be back at school, very badly.

The one bright spot of the day was that Adam was sitting at another breakfast table with a broken nose. Elliot disapproved of violence, but obviously Adam had decided to sexually harass someone else, someone who was totally okay with violence. That was what you got for having wandering hands, Elliot thought with satisfaction. Not everybody was as kind and forbearing as he was. He beamed at Adam. Adam flinched away as if he were about to be hit again. Whoever had hit him, Elliot thought cruelly, it served Adam right.

“Do you want to go to the Elven Tavern with me?” Serene looked up from her task, gray eyes like the dawn. “Absolutely,” she said. “What a good idea.” “Oh,” said Elliot, stunned by his good fortune. Maybe Serene had been trying to do things the human way, he thought, as he sometimes tried to do things the elven way. Maybe she had been waiting for him to ask her. “Luke could really do with some cheering up,” Serene continued. “Let me go fetch him.” “Oh,” said Elliot.

“Why are you mad at me?” Luke asked abruptly. Elliot stared. “I’m not mad at you,” Elliot said. “Why would you think such a stupid thing, loser? Now I’m mad at you.”

“There is a statue in the bathrooms that I have strong objections about,” said Serene, returning. “Will you come and examine it with me, and then come and speak to the tavern keeper?” “Sure,” said Elliot. “No, we will not go into the bathroom in a weird group!” said Luke.

“Sorry in advance for my insolence and lack of cooperation in class, but you phrased that question incorrectly,” said Elliot, and noticed Luke had his hand up. “Luke, put your hand down. This question insults your intelligence.” Luke kept his hand up.

“Can I speak now?” Luke asked. “It’s not so much of an answer to a question as a personal announcement.” Elliot glanced over at him. Luke looked a little pale under his tan. Elliot wondered if perhaps Luke needed to go to the infirmary and felt guilty about talking so much. People’s stupidity could always be corrected another time. “I’m—I like guys,” said Luke, staring at his desk. “Romantically.” Elliot put his hand up so fast he almost dislocated his arm. Captain Whiteleaf was staring and nodded, possibly on stunned autopilot. “Since when?” Elliot demanded. Luke put his hand back up. “Since always.” Elliot put his hand up in retaliation. “That’s absurd.” Luke put his hand up and waited for Captain Whiteleaf to nod and say apprehensively: “Er . . . Cadet Sunborn . . . is this going to be a question?” “Yes,” said Luke. “What is wrong with you? Not you, sir. Cadet Schafer, sir.” “I don’t understand your question, and I have one of my own,” said Elliot, putting his hand back up as a formality and not looking at Captain Whiteleaf. “If that’s true then why don’t I know?” Luke looked mulish about the face. “You do know because I just told you!” “Excuse me,” Dale Wavechaser said. “Excuse me, sir.” Everybody turned to look at him. He had apparently been waving his hand in the air for some time. He was very flushed. “Yes?” Captain Whiteleaf gazed upon Dale as a shipwreck survivor seeing rescue in view. “Me too, sir!” said Dale. “I like boys romantically too.”

Elliot didn’t know why he had assumed Luke would’ve told him. He was such an idiot: he kept forgetting that Luke wasn’t his friend.

“So you didn’t know?” Peter asked slowly. “Isn’t that a bit weird?” “No,” said Elliot. “Seems totally reasonable to me. Did you know?” “Well, I, well, no,” said Peter. “But that’s different. I would have thought you would know.” “Why?” asked Elliot. “He’s your classmate too. I cannot be expected to know every little detail about every one of my classmates, Peter. Surely you see that.” He fixed Peter with a severe gaze. Peter nodded humbly. “People get to choose who to tell their secrets to,” said Elliot. “You know—people whom they trust and feel comfortable with. That’s all right. That’s fine. I understand that. Nobody’s owed anyone else’s secrets.” “That’s true,” Myra said, and favoured him with a smile. “I think that’s very mature of you, Elliot.” Elliot smiled, comforted, and made Myra his favorite between Myra and Peter for the rest of the day.

And the fight he’d had with Luke about Adam looked different now, when Elliot was not just a guest who was behaving badly but someone who Luke might’ve thought was judging and condemning Adam for something Adam and Luke had in common.

Elliot was slow to learn, that was all: he always had been, well before he ever came to the Border camp, when he kept hoping that his dad would start liking him and kept doing everything wrong so his dad never did. Serene might hate him too. Perhaps that was why there had been no repeat of the kissing incident, even though Elliot had waited and watched and hoped and tried. Perhaps they had both decided he was worthless. It didn’t matter what they thought. It was no use Elliot sitting around making himself wretched over it. This wasn’t even about Elliot feeling bad: if Elliot had been the one to make Luke feel bad, it was his responsibility, and it was Luke’s feelings that mattered. Elliot had to do something. Elliot had to make it up to Luke.

“Hi,” said Elliot. “Hello,” said Serene. “Why do you walk inside when nobody’s told you to come in?” asked Luke. “I don’t want to spend my whole life waiting outside closed doors,” said Elliot. “I wanted to . . . talk to you. I might have been taken by surprise and expressed myself in ways I did not exactly intend.” “Is that so?” said Luke. “I might have not shown enough consideration for your feelings,” said Elliot. “Sorry,” said Luke. “Are we just talking about today?”

“I’m terrible at feelings, it’s like they’re knives, I don’t really know what to do with them and I end up throwing them with too much force,” said Elliot, advancing. “But I have strong views on having a more accepting society, and everyone getting to be who they really are, and so it’s excellent that you made your class announcement, and if anyone else had been insensitive about it I would have been extremely vexed and plotted vengeance.” He paused. “I don’t suppose anyone was insensitive about it later?” he asked hopefully. Luke shrugged, the last of the tension going out of his shoulders. Serene looked relieved. Elliot knew that she lived in the constant fear that one of them was going to go off into hysterics. “Just the one guy at first,” said Luke, and smirked. Such a secret jerk: it was unbelievable that nobody else had caught on. “I can’t plot vengeance against myself, you must see that,” said Elliot. “But I can plot something else! I love plots, you know that.” Luke, grinning a little, looked up at Serene: she looked fondly down at him, and smiled. “How many times have the words ‘I love plots’ been followed by good consequences?” “Statistically it has to be very few,” said Serene. “So little faith,” Elliot said mournfully.

“Serene, you’re not helping me!” said Luke. “Neither of you is helping me.” “No, I know,” said Elliot, leaning toward him. “But I want to help you! I can help you! Tell me who it is.” “Drop it,” said Luke, and squirmed across the mattress, away from both of them. His shoulders were hunched again. This was a clear sign of guilt. “The fact that you’re not answering me makes me believe that there is a boy you like. You can’t fool me, because I’m extremely intelligent. Now tell me or I’ll keep pestering you to tell me.” “You’re supposed to be supportive of me!” said Luke. Serene nodded. “That’s what the pamphlets said. We studied them carefully.” Elliot’s pamphlets had been taken from him and used against him, and he couldn’t even be angry because this was more important. “I’m trying to be supportive of you!” he told Luke. “Then stop yelling at me!” said Luke. “I will stop yelling at you if you let me support you,” Elliot proposed. “Do we have a bargain?” Luke’s shoulders were still hunched in, but he glanced over and down at Elliot: there was a deep flush running along his cheekbones. “You’ll laugh at me.”

“I didn’t mean to smirk,” said Elliot. “That’s great. You should ask him out!” “Are you trying to make fun of me?” “Usually yes, today no,” said Elliot.

It was ridiculous, how uncomfortable and upsetting this was. Elliot glanced at Serene, but she was looking to Elliot, clearly expecting him to make things right: not only because she thought men were the ones who talked about feelings, but because Elliot was the one making Luke so tense and unhappy. Luke had trusted Serene with his secret, and that had obviously gone well. It was Elliot messing everything up. It was Elliot who always did.

“I only just decided,” Luke finished, as Serene said: “—a gentleman’s most private treasure!” “Oh, you only just decided?” Elliot inquired. “Like, you decided today? Luke.”

“Oh, men are cowards,” said Serene. “So afraid of a woman in charge that they would commit treason. They must worry that she will show the world a woman is a far more able commander than any man.” “They’re not going to take Woodsinger’s command,” said Elliot. “Let them come and try.”

There was a sound, low and startled: Serene turned to it and let go of Elliot, though he reached out a hand to keep her. His hand fell by his side when he looked where she was looking, and saw Luke. It was truly terrible luck that both Serene and Luke should make for the library as soon as the battle was over. Luke had stopped and was staring at them, blue eyes very wide. “I didn’t—” Luke began. “I’ll go. I didn’t mean to intrude.” He turned around, boots cutting furrows in the mud with the force of his turn, and left. He had hardly been there for more than an instant.

“I’ll have you know, I am dedicated to my passion for the written word,” Bright raged. “And one day, my true elven knight will come, and she will understand my love of literature and why I felt called to promote said love among human children. Moreover, I will come pure to my marriage bed, as all true gentlemen should aspire to do!” Elliot took a moment to assimilate this new information. It was only a moment. “Okay, cool, good for you,” said Elliot. “But what if . . . just for instance. . . a guy didn’t aspire to come pure to his marriage bed? Like, if he was no true gentleman, but a hussy? Is there any advice for hussies in this library? I need advice for hussies.”

“Will you leave me alone if I give you some—some, not all—of my educational literature, Elliot?” Peter asked. “Seriously, do you promise not to say anything upsetting to me for like two weeks?”

“Why are you frowning at me?” “That’s just what my face does when I look at you,” Elliot said automatically.

“Look,” Luke said, raising his voice. “I don’t know what you’re assuming, but it can’t be just—just any guy.” Elliot wanted to argue that someone who was top in mapmaking was hardly just any guy, but he could tell that Luke was about to be annoyed with him for being offensive. He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m only trying to help.” “Well, your helping is terrible,” said Luke. “Everything you do is terrible.” “Fine,” said Elliot. “I have more terrible work to do. Please leave.” Luke pushed one of Elliot’s books out of the way to uncover Peter’s instructive manuals. “Enjoy your work,” he said, and stalked out.

Myra blushed. “He’s very handsome. It’s such a pity about . . .” “Awesome luck for the guys,” Elliot said firmly.