Fy was a few feet from Zelli, giving Zelli a strange look instead of running to his friends.
“Did Bree come here first and you all followed?” Zelli asked, glancing from Fy to the older woman. “How many lands have you fled across?”
“Bree?” Fy echoed, astonished. “Bree is here?”
Zelli was just as astonished. “How many guards fled?” If they’d scattered so widely that even they didn’t know, the number must have been considerable. “Are you all Lyralinah?”
“I didn’t tell him anything, Let,” Fy shouted. “He just seems to know things!”
“We do not serve the Lyralinah,” answered Let, and dropped her hand to her sword hilt.
Zelli pursed his lips. “Do you mean you no longer serve them? Or do you mean you broke your oath to a different family?”
“Do you see what I mean?” Fy stood there goggling at Zelli. “He justknows.”
Zelli briefly frowned at him. “If it is the Lyralinah or some other family, it does not overly matter, except that the people in this valley might like to know who is attacking them as the guards of this other family search for you.”
“What sort of fae curse is this?” swore the guard leaning on a crutch.
“Are people searching for us here?” Let drew Zelli’s focus to her. “If so, I’m sorry. We hoped they were gone.”
But had stayed hidden, suspecting they were not gone at all. Zelli kept that in and hoped Tahlen appreciated it. Tahlen was going to be vexed with him, but Zelli was not going to leave him to take risks alone, and certainly not without at least doing something useful.
Let looked about the age of Zelli’s parent, although Zelli’s parent took pains to seem younger that Zelli doubted Let bothered with. Let’s face was not lined with age, but it had a stillness that spoke of experience and leadership, like Ric’s. Perhaps she had been the Captain of the Guard once. Her hair was short and gray-white, with streaks of dark brown.
Zelli addressed only her. “I think you should tell us why they’ve chased you this far and also who is doing the chasing.”
“Why should we tell you anything, tiny beat-of-four with your one guard?” Let raised her head in challenge, although her tone wasn’t angry or even irritated. Sworn guards really were remarkable.
Zelli tipped his head to the side to consider that. “If these other riders don’t find you and kill each of you in your hiding place here, the frightened people in this valley might do it for them. But even if neither of those things were to happen, none of you will last the winter without food. So you will have to act soon, if not by talking with me, then by leaving this spot.” He glanced to the two injured guards. “If you can. And harvest is coming. You won’t be able to skulk through the fields without being seen.”
“Nobody was skulking,” Fy objected, then coughed. “He probably already knows, Let. I think he’s making it a question to be polite.”
Let observed Zelli for several moments while Zelli did his best to look both mysterious and knowing. Then she said, “As far as we know, it is the Villucatto who ride after us, though whether it is guards only or guards and members of that family, I couldn’t say. There might also be Lyralinah with them, and if so, I’d like to face them before I die.”
“Guards. So willing to speak of their own deaths,” Zelli complained, loud enough for Tahlen and perhaps Fy to hear. He raised his voice. “If I understand the situation: the Lyralinah chose to use their guards to further the ambitions of the Villucatto, and some of the Lyralinah guards objected and were forced to flee. Breaking their oaths,” he added after a pause, because they were thinking of it so it might as well be said. “But why pursue you this far, risking more conflict with every family whose land they entered?”
“To be honest,” the guard with their arm in a sling spoke up, “I don’t think they care much who they offend. Not anymore. If some other noble family objects, they’d better object strongly or Tye and her allies will come for them too.”
Zelli did not like the sound of that. Destroy or decimate enough families and the remaining families would stay out of the way.
It required a lot of force to make it work, though. Or patience and time. Even with allies, since the other families would also have allies and…. Zelli tossed his head to be rid of all that for now. “Tye has made herself head of the Villucatto and chosen this action, but they aren’t a family with ties to a crown.” He thought so; he might have fallen asleep and forgotten a history lesson. But he was reasonably sure the Villucatto had only tried for the crown because so many others had already been killed and cleared a path for them. “They have more to prove, and more ground to make up than, say, the Tyrabalith. In that case, I suppose they couldn’t let it be known that their allies were losing their guards, and so many of them.”
That was, if Let spoke the truth. But that would mean she and Bree had coordinated a lie without ever meeting Zelli.
“So,” Zelli began again, sharply, “are you staying here or are you passing through? Because it is a matter of weeks until you will be in the way, if these riders don’t find you first.”
“How were we to know that?” Fy scoffed. “We’re not farmers.”
“It is farmers who feed you!” Zelli snapped, then lowered his shoulders. “And they are afraid of you. You’re strangers, and armed, and they are aware of the violence going on outside this valley. You have also brought more armed strangers to their door, and none of you have approached them in peace or asked for help, leaving them to make up stories.”
“We did wonder if we ought to find the family who rules this valley,” Let admitted cautiously. “But we weren’t sure if they were also allies of the Villucatto, and, as you said, we have broken our oaths.”
Zelli heaved an annoyed breath. “How is it that so many of you grow up with these families and promise to protect them with your bodies and your lives, and yet none of you expect these families to do the same for you? If they took your oath and gave none in return, then you owe them nothing.”
Not a single one of them had relaxed their posture and Let was not the only one now staring hard at Zelli while keeping a hand near a weapon. “What is your name, tiny beat-of-four?”
Zelli did not back up although he suspected Tahlen wanted him to.
