Kaelen had a choice. He could show her. He could flip the oilcloth, reveal the elf, and claim he was transporting her for the authorities. But Rella would check with the Thornwall quarantine. They’d have no record of a transfer. Then he’d be in a cell, or on a gallows. Smuggling elves across the border carried a sentence that involved hot irons and slow cutting.
Or he could do something stupid.
“I’m a smuggler. I don’t abandon cargo.” He picked up his fallen knife, wiped it on his sleeve. “Also, you owe me for the garron.” seeds of chaos elf smuggler new