Zelli closed his eyes. “Do not tempt me.”
“Should I have Fy distract you again?” Tahlen wondered, dryly playful.
Zelli looked at him, then at all the backs deliberately turned to them to grant the illusion of privacy. “They’re trying to be kind, even though they all know something of my situation. I think they’re wonderful. Did they bother you this morning?”
“Botherme?” Tahlen was visibly surprised, then eased his shoulders down and turned his face up to the sun for a moment, smiling faintly. “I thinkyouare wonderful, Zelli.”
Zelli stared at him, torn between demanding Tahlen explain himself and basking in the sight of Tahlen happily soaking in sunshine. He finally wrangled his hand out of Tahlen’s cloak and held it out, keeping his eyes down to conceal some of his pleasure when Tahlen took it.
“This has been a strange adventure,” Zelli mused, trying not to think of how else Tahlen’s hand might be used, “but not an altogether bad one. I might want another someday. Aside from….” He shook his head. “I might want another someday.”
“Just let me rest first,” Tahlen replied, dry like before.
Zelli was so delighted to hear Tahlen joking—twice—that it distracted him from his every other complaint for a good while.
Seventeen
The moment of ease did not last.
Zelli was too shaky to enjoy the remarks from the Lyralinah guards at their first sight of the fortress carved out of the foothills, and then too nervous to reassure them.
By the time their group was visible to the guards at the lower gate, the fog was beginning to roll along the river and the sun had not set, but was nearly hidden by the distant mountains. The gate was already shut and did not begin to open until one of the guards in one of the towers, Hari, Zelli thought, from her voice, had a shouted exchange with Tahlen, which Zelli had finally interrupted by asking if Hari had her dog with her on duty again.
It wasn’t against the rules, but Ric thought the puppy was a distraction.
Zelli supposed it was. When the gate was finally opened and they all were inside, Let, out of all of them, was the one to drop from her horse to go fuss over it.
The floppy ears were very cute. Zelli could admit, though at the moment he just stared blearily at them.
“Ah! Those puppy teeth!” Let cooed as the dog nibbled her, making Zelli swing his gaze to Tahlen, who glanced to Zelli in the same moment.
“You’ve got a poppet made of rope!” Hari scolded the puppy without real ire. “Don’t be chewing people now.”
Zelli tore his gaze from Tahlen, his face burning hot.
The guards in the second gate tower came down to study the six guards Zelli and Tahlen had dragged in with them, but did not leave their post. The guards in the first tower came down as well, three instead of two, because two, armed and ready, were possibly training the third.
The third, unarmed, in pants rolled up at the cuffs and a cloak clearly several years old, was Bree.
She was descended upon by several of the former Lyralinah guards within moments of recognition. They all had questions, and they were so obviously ecstatic to have found each other that Zelli left them to it. Tahlen said something to the tower guards. Zelli hunched into his cloak.
When he could see the torch lighters making their way down from the fortress, putting up and lighting the torches that allowed villagers, guards, and servants to walk the streets and the winding path up to the fortress without getting lost in the fog, he finally cleared his throat.
“Bree.” He smiled. “It’s good to see you. You’re thinking of staying?”
Bree immediately pulled away from her conversation with Tern and stood straighter, like a sworn guard on duty. But she smiled, smaller than Zelli’s, but still a smile. “It seemed a place to try. This is only my probationary period, and the first night at that. Thank you, and Tahlen, for this, and for bringing me some of my friends. I understand why your absence from this place has been so lamented.”
“Oh?” Zelli asked anxiously. “Really?” He coughed. “I’m sorry we can’t linger for your reunion, but we must attend to things. My grandmother will retire for the night soon and I need to catch her first.”
“I’m on duty anyway.” Bree nodded respectfully to him, then to Tahlen, then to Let, before smiling widely for the others. Hari waved her back into the tower, whistled for her puppy, then gave Zelli a look, eyebrows up, before disappearing inside as well.
“You have a funny relationship with your guards here,” Let commented after Tahlen had moved on, an act which silently told them all to do the same.
“They watched me grow up.” Zelli sighed. “And Grandmother is only formal when she chooses to be. But when she does…”
“We should all listen,” Let finished as a guess, but glanced pointedly at the others, who each gave a nod.
The way up to the fortress was never as easy as the way down and the horses were tired as well. But some of the torch lighters greeted them in between the murmurs of the Lyralinah guards about the fog.Thick as chowder, they said. He didn’t ask what they meant.
