Thankfully, Let sat down not far from them and asked if the fog was normal and how long it lasted, and Tahlen surprised him by answering her. Maybe they shared a guard captain bond, if that existed. Not that Tahlen was the guard captain. Not yet.
Zelli listened to the description of how the coastal fog rolled in nightly from the sea, faster than the fog here but not as thick or as lasting, then sat back to observe them all, Let, Wain, Fy, Tern, Nari, and Vint. Vint, like Tahlen, did not say much. He also had a piece of one ear missing, though the wound looked very old, and he scowled at Fy a lot.
People were so very interesting, guards like these even more so. They might have families but they alsowerea family, in a way, to live and work so closely together, to consider possibly dying together someday. Zelli couldn’t sit and stare at his own guards, they would complain to Grandmother, but he could study these ones.
They didn’t seem to object to Tahlen, either, as the hours went by and the day turned to evening, although, if necessary, they would all do their best to kill each other.
“What are you frowning over, Zelli of the Tialttyrin?” Fy wondered from over by the stewpot. He was very friendly and forward, even though some of his cheer was likely false. Zelli did not ask where the stewpot had come from; the guards had traveled enough from their home that it was just possible they’d purchased one somewhere. The firepit had been in this spot already, according to Fy. The field workers probably sometimes camped beneath the trees after long days.
“I am debating what is to be done with you all,” Zelli answered seriously.
The conversations around him fell to silence. Zelli straightened, grateful that though he’d chosen a larger root for a seat, his feet could touch the earth below.
“You can’t stay here.” He gestured to the firepit, then the road. “You’ve already been seen.” He held his hands up as though imitating a scale and weighed each point. “Lyralinah or Villucatto or both, they have offered the Tialttyrin insult by coming here without asking or informing us. But if they will do this to their own guards, they will likely seek us out as well the moment they are able. The Tialttyrin have a responsibility to the people in this valley, and a family that has abandoned its oaths will not care for its people as they should be cared for.”
“Then, of course, the Tialttyrin also have a duty to those in need, and lost travelers. The—I will say Villucatto until I know better—would likely not see it that way. Right now, they’re distracted with several conflicts. Even attempting to find you all takes some of their strength, but they felt it important enough.” Still puzzled by this, Zelli paused. “It can only be to appear stronger than they are. But if they are successful at that, they will win others to their side and then it will no longer be a matter of appearances.”
Zelli noticed Fy had lost his smile.
“To send you on your way quickly seems best,” Zelli concluded, then paused again, rubbing his chest. “On the surface. Yet… if the Tialttyrin cannot honor even one duty, then do we have any business sitting in our fortress anymore?”
“Zelli,” sighed Tahlen from above and behind him.
“I know, Tahlen,” Zelli acknowledged without turning. “You’ll say that honoring that duty matters only to us and will still end with us all dead. You have good reason to say that, a better reason than anyone else in the country, I think. But there is the possibility that the Villucatto might be reasonable or be called back to other concerns and let these guards go for now. Many things might happen. The fae might direct a real ruler to the palace.”
He said that hopefully, in case this meeting had unseen witnesses, but then returned the rest of his attention to the listening guards. “We have force enough to take care of you, should we need to. But… several families acting against us? We do not have force enough for that.”
“I thought you weren’t The Tialttyrin.” Let almost made it a question.
“He’s near enough.” Tahlen started in with that again. “But he does get ahead of himself in his mind.”
Zelli hunched his shoulders, then twisted around to let Tahlen know the remark had stung. Though then Zelli had to nod in acceptance because it was also true. “For example,” Zelli began slowly because Tahlen’s warm pride struck him silent for several moments, “we can pretend you are our prisoners.” He finally got his attention back on the others, wary when several of them frowned. Hehadsaid ‘pretend.’ “Though who will look at you all and believe that? Hmm. We’d have to take your weapons and you’d all have to learn to stop acting so… like sworn guards. And then, if the Villucatto did come to us, prisoners would have to be handed over. Normally, you could appeal to the throne, but by then, Tye might be on it. So, it’s a problem we will have to handle ourselves.”
The only sound to follow that was a long exhale from Tahlen. He understood what Zelli meant, and he wasn’t arguing, but he didn’t like it.
Let didn’t even glance to Tahlen. “You would be at war for us?”
Zelli had avoided that word. The Tialttyrin were not prepared for one, though others were.
“I would protect the reputation of my family and our valley.” That, he would say. “And you. I’m so sorry, Tahlen. I think it’s unavoidable now if they’ve come this far into the valley. But I will ask for help. As far as I know, the fae still protect us here.”
“If only the other beat-of-fours had your ideas, Zelli.” Tahlen must have crouched down to be closer to Zelli, because the ache within Zelli eased slightly, and then Tahlen put a hand on Zelli’s shoulder and the ache vanished altogether. Zelli put his hand over Tahlen’s and tried not to hold it too tightly.
“Is this how the Tialttyrin are?” Wain asked the others. “I thought… if people say anything about them at all, it’s that this is the place to get the best wine. Or, begging your pardon, rumors. About the other world and the fae and… the things the fae can get up to.”
Fy snickered. “You mean in bed.”
“They might be listening to you,” Zelli informed Fy and Wain helpfully. “And you both have just all but asked them to bed you.” Wain looked frozen, as if unsure whether or not he ought to be frightened. Fy started searching the canopy above them as if seeking his fae audience. Zelli leaned forward. “But, um, what is it they say about the bed sport of the fae, exactly? No one’s ever told me.”
Fy lowered his head to direct a desperate look behind Zelli to Tahlen, who didn’t offer whatever aid Fy had hoped for. “Oh, you know,” Fy finally attempted to be dismissive, “that a good time should be had. Or that you might end up with a baby, one way or the other, so you’d better make the fuck worth it.”
“That’s true of many couplings.” Vint sneered a little. “Don’t be daft, Fy.”
“Oh.” Zelli did not pout in his disappointment. “Is that all?”
Fy seemed intrigued now. “What did you think it would be?”
Unprepared, Zelli floundered, then shrugged as diffidently as he could. “I expected talk of their wildness, or something along those lines. They are not human.” Surely that much was obvious. “Even if they can choose to seem human, or mostly human. I assumed they may not… do things… as humans do them. Or that they do them differently. I mean, the claws,” he swallowed, “the teeth. I thought people would have stories of biting… or some such thing.”
