Tahlen’s friend made a small noise in her throat as though that had surprised her. She was welcome to try being ruder; Zelli had a long memory.
She wore her hair short, which didn’t necessarily mean she was a guard of some kind, but often did. It could have meant a fieldworker or something as well, someone with a difficult job who wasn’t interested in fussing with their hair no matter what the fashion. Zelli had considered chopping his hair off once or twice, but the family would be in an uproar if he did.
She had skin touched by the sun but lightly, and freckles across her nose that, unlike Zelli’s, were striking, especially with her eyes, which were a startling golden brown. Maybe she had some fae in her bloodline. The fae did like this valley.
She did not reach even Tahlen’s shoulder, which she gently punched when Tahlen spoke to her, suggesting something Zelli didn’t catch. She shivered when Tahlen’s breath hit her neck and then smiled, pleased and warm.
Zelli found himself wondering if she and Tahlen had flirted the first time they’d met, before they had obviously gone to bed together. He’d always wanted to try flirting. It took some practice to do well, from what he understood. But as with so many things, there was no one for him to practice on.
Much like being the sort of Tialttyrin that people might want to talk to. In the village around the fortress, they knew Zelli, and fae or not, were used to him. They had grown up with him there. These people who did not know him found him… odd, perhaps disappointing, perhaps terrifying. Zelli ran his tongue over the points of his teeth, resolving to keep them hidden from now on when he smiled at strangers.
“Surely, you can’t be expected to do your dutyallthe time,” Tahlen’s friend’s coaxing voice pulled Zelli from what he had been trying hard to focus on. “I only want to talk for a moment.”
Talk. Zelli barely held back his scoff.
“I won’t leave Zelli here alone,” Tahlen said, mindful of his duty.
That wasquiteenough.
Zelli put his cup down and got to his feet. “Actually, Zelli is tired and thinks he might go to bed.” He watched Tahlen’s eyes narrow and chose not to acknowledge it. “You’ll be free to spend the evening with….”
Tahlen’s suspicious, displeased stare did not abate. “Zelli, this is Kat Ryssa.”
“Zelli?” echoed Tahlen’s friend Kat Ryssa. “I thought it was Mizel.”
Kat Ryssa. Zelli made a note to himself for all the good it did him, then shrugged with as much grace as several cups of wine gave him. “Mizel of the Tialttyrin,” he introduced himself although the entire village knew his name and so must she. Playful and bold must be qualities Tahlen liked in a lover. And lovely. Kat was lovely, if not a great beauty any more than Zelli was. “I’m pleased to meet a friend of Tahlen’s.”
“Zelli,” Tahlen said sharply, warning.
Zelli gazed at Tahlen loftily. “Really, don’t worry about me. I’ll stick to my room and lock the door again. You’ll have the whole night free.” He had to break eye contact to say that, but he did at least get it out.
“Zelli,” Tahlen said it again, softer now.
Zelli wondered if Tahlen was sorry. If he could read Zelli and felt bad because he knew that Zelli would go to his room and bury his head under his pillow. He shouldn’t. Tahlen had offered courtship to Zelli out of desperation and loneliness, and Zelli understood loneliness better than anyone else possibly ever would. Kat Ryssa was what Tahlen wanted when he had more choice and Zelli couldn’t blame him for that.
“I’ll be all right,” Zelli told the both of them, told Tahlen’s shoulder, really. He gestured vaguely toward the bar, where Stern Sar was pouring someone a drink. “I’ll ask the mayor to see me to my room so you can enjoy yourself. Good night,” he told, also to Tahlen’s shoulder, then walked slowly and carefully toward the bar, wishing people would not skip out of his way as if afraid to be near him.
Five
Zelli did not sleep well and woke early. Not bothering with relighting the fire in the fireplace, he washed up with cold water and poked his head out of his room in time to catch one of the inn’s employees going past. She brought tea with lein spice and honey, which Zelli had one sip of before his stomach turned.
He had resolved to think only of what must be done today, which had not helped him sleep peacefully and had unsettled his stomach more than two cups too many of wine had. He forced himself to drink more tea, nicely refused the offer of food made through the door a while later, and then sat on his bed to sulk and chew on the leather cord for his necklace. A childish habit that he had tried to train himself out of, mostly by keeping the length of the cord too short for him to do it unless he took the necklace off first.
The fae must lead interesting lives in the other world if biting things soothed them as it soothed Zelli—usuallysoothed Zelli. There was no calming him today.
He finally decided to get dressed, putting the necklace back around his throat where it belonged. He rewashed his face and combed his hair, swearing to himself, and then put on pants of a stormy dark blue, boots, and a clean shirt and vest of deep purple, although the coat that went over it all hid most everything but his pants from sight.
The coat, also blue, had grape vines in silver embroidered along the cuffs and the hem, but was otherwise fairly simple. The cloth was not even patterned. His ears he decorated again, putting tiny cuffs to the sides of his nose as well and hoping he would not snag the chains that connected them to his ear cuffs and which hopefully hid most of his freckles. He ought to wear the nose cuffs and chains more once he was home to get used to them and not embarrass his future intended. He wore no rings. Zelli’s hands were small even by his family’s standards and most rings fell off.
Mayor Sar knocked on the door to inform him that people were gathering downstairs. The judgments were apparently always held in the inn, being a large building with seating for so many readily available.
Zelli combed his hair again, then wasted a good half an hour trying to get it to do something more than the usual simple braids down his back. He was hot and frustrated when he got another knock on the door.
He stomped to the door, unlocked it so Tahlen would hear the sound, and swung it open.
Tahlen was dressed and in mail again, standing directly in front of the door so that when Zelli opened it, he blinked down in silent surprise at whatever red-faced mess Zelli presented.
Zelli was foolish to wear jewelry to try to make himself sparkle. Foolish to look over Tahlen’s face and neck for signs of… anything. Foolish to turn away from Tahlen without a word and go back to the mirror.
