He moved farther down the road, stopping again at the edge of the crowd. He should learn something of weaponry, he decided, and in the meantime, glanced down at the ground, looking for a decent-sized rock. Tahlen had suggested a rock, and though it was improbable that Zelli might need it, it wasn’t a complete impossibility either.
“What are you doing here?”
Zelli brought his head up guiltily at the pointed question.
Sworn guard Ivey, about the age of Zelli’s parent, with oddly shaped ears that suggestedsomefae blood, even if only a trickle, and close-cut brown hair, was looking around them almost furiously. “If you’re not with The Tialttyrin, then you should be in one of the towers. Not gawping like the rest of these fools.”
He tugged on Tahlen’s cloak, pulling Zelli with him for several steps before it must have occurred to him that the person he was pulling was rather small for a sworn guard.
Zelli said, “I can wait in the tower, Ivey, if you don’t mind me there.” Then he hurried forward in the direction Ivey had been pulling him, toward the tower without the gate mechanism.
“Zelli?” Ivey hissed, following close.
“This is a better place for me to be, I think. Thank you. I’ll keep out of your way,” Zelli promised, glad the gate was beginning to open so no one around Grandmother would think to look his way.
Inside the base of the tower was an exhausted-looking Bree. She frowned in confusion when Zelli appeared, but said nothing because Ivey grunted, “It’s not our place to question,” and then closed the tower door and lowered the bar to seal it shut.
Bree went up the small spiral staircase and Zelli followed, with Ivey probably glowering at his back. Gurn waited for them all in the room at the top. Bree went immediately to the narrow window. Zelli imagined she knew some of those out there if Lyralinah guards had accompanied the Villucatto.
“Who is this?” Gurn demanded, then yelped and flailed and fell against Bree when Zelli pulled his hood down. “Please be gracious!” he begged, only to pull himself up and regard Zelli in scowling amazement. “Zelli?”
“Oh,” Bree whispered, wide-eyed. “You didn’t look like… that… before. Like this, I mean.”
Zelli ducked his head, peering up at each of them in turn after Ivey came around to study him. “I usually hide when I’m more fae. But I wanted to see.” He gestured toward the window, then looked at each of them again. “I’m still just me. As far as I know, I can’t grant your wishes. That would be too useful of a skill for me to have.”
It shouldn’t have surprised him that Ivey would recover first. “The Tialttyrin are of the fae and we should remember that. But, uh, I’ve never actually seen one. Just the rest of your relatives and a bard or two. Don’t mean to stare. Sorry.”
“You still haven’t seen one.” Zelli gave him a distracted smile. “I’ve no idea how I compare to the real thing.” He looked away. “Bree, are you all right?”
Bree seemed uncomfortable with the attention on her. “I’m well enough. Thank you for asking. How are the others?”
“I haven’t seen them yet today.” Zelli gestured over his horns and ears. “This happened. They aren’t prisoners, but I imagine Grandmother wouldn’t encourage them to be here.” Much like Zelli. Which made him wonder if Fy and the others were in the crowd. “We never promised them safety, but we’ll do what’s right. It’s why I think the fae liked us in the first place. Well, I hope it is.”
“That why you’re here?” Gurn grunted again. Guards of all kinds did love to communicate with noises.
Zelli crossed his arms. “I am staying back,” he told them all insistently. “If Tahlen asks you later—I stayed back.”
Bree stared at him incredulously. Ivey widened, then narrowed, his eyes.
Gurn turned back to the window. “Yes, Zelli,” he agreed, with words and everything. He did not sound like he believed Zelli, but he wasn’t going to question a beat-of-four, not even one in a borrowed guard’s cloak, who happened to have horns and fur.
Zelli chose not to say anything else and pulled his hood back up. The guards wanted, and needed, to watch the scene and he did not, and they’d been touchingly kind about his appearance. He gave them all a smile, then crept to the other window.
Beyond the gate, between and in front of the two rowan trees, fifteen riders waited. Fifteen, not ten. There must have been a separate group in the valley who had met up with the first. That was a big group for one family to spare if they were truly fighting on other fronts. Some of the riders must have been Lyralinah guards or more members of the Villucatto family instead of just their guards. They wore swords and the lighter sort of armor Tahlen had worn for traveling. A few had bows and quivers of arrows at their backs. Those seemed to be only the Villucatto guards. Perhaps the Lyralinah did not need or use archers.
The rider in the center of the hunting party must have been the brother of Tye of the Villucatto. Zelli didn’t remember his name, if he’d ever learned it.
He was sizable. Possibly Tahlen’s height but broader in the shoulders, though he had nothing on Mil the outguard. His cloak was off one shoulder and crimson in color. His hair was enviably straight and fell nearly to his waist, with small braids at his temples. He looked a little travel-weary, as anyone would in his place, but his mail and braces were clean enough.
This Villucatto was probably older than Tahlen by one or two years, and either didn’t want to conceal his impatience or didn’t bother to. He was decent-looking, but not as pretty as Mil, nor as compelling as Arden. He didn’t compare to Tahlen’s beauty, either, but few would.
If Zelli leaned in as close to the window ledge as possible without sticking his head out, he might see the faces of some of the Tialttyrin family and guards lined up in front of the open gate. But for the most part, he could see only their backs and their profiles if they turned. Grandmother hadn’t brought all of the family or even all of the guards with her, but there really were not that many more to spare. He wondered if the Villucatto knew that. If their leader looked at Cousin Ona and Uncle Rou and Grandmother and saw representatives of an ancient family connected to the fae, or three older people in out-of-style clothing making a show with their guards to seem stronger than they were. A wise person might see both.
“…An arduous journey,” Grandmother said, “even by river.”
Not every word made its way to Zelli’s tower and Zelli had missed the exchange of greetings while he’d been considering the Villucatto leader. The riders hadn’t traveled by river, but that might have been his grandmother’s subtle comment on the way the riders hadn’t sent her word before carrying on through her valley.
Despite the remark, she didn’t offer them welcome the way she would have offered it to invited guests, not even to their leader alone.
