55
For a moment, there was silence in the throne room.
Then, apparently unable to stop himself, Ian said, “You speak English?”
Ariadne nudged him sharply at this, but Lucinda laughed, a sweet sound that echoed around the room and seemed to brighten it a little, no matter how stony-faced all the other elves were.
“Of course, I can,” she said. “My English is not as good as Ariadne’s, I’m afraid, because I’ve never gotten the chance to practice it with real humans before. I’m glad you can understand it.”
“It’s very good,” said Ash. “It’s very easy to understand, uh, sire.”
Lucinda c****d her head. “What does ‘sire’ mean?”
“Oh, uh…” Ash blushed. “It’s a way of addressing a monarch.”
“I see. Well, we have specific terms in Elvish that we use to address certain people, but since they do
