Fen leaned in to speak quietly. “By taking control of every territory to the north and the west of here, and then, if that is not enough, taking all of the South as well.”
He expected some doubt or perhaps more silence. Not Quan immediately turning to Lan to exclaim, “Bullshit. The Earls will run you down first.” Only once that was out did she seem to really think over what Fen had said. “Wait. Youwhat?”
Lan smiled easily, but something in it made Fen shiver. “Fen believes the smaller nobles will be on our side. And if they are not, he will get them there.”
“Youwill,” Fen corrected him. “You win people, Lan. I told you. Quan already likes you. Did you two talk while you brought her here? You must have.”
“Fenwit!” Quan protested.
“Apologies, Quan,” Fen told her sincerely. “But the terms of our alliance were that I was not to influence him in favor of the Acana, except perhaps to spare my mother if she has not already left the holding. Not for the sake of them being my family, that is. I could influence him in their favor for some other reason, I imagine, if I had one. We didn’t speak of my extended family, although he is aware of how noble families intermarry so he should have considered that. However, I still speak in his interest, and he would do well to get the Lylanth on his side. That’s a suggestion only, Lan,” he added to Lan.
“A suggestion,” Lan muttered under his breath. “As though he hasn’t been teaching me Lylanth history and ways with this in mind. Scheming flower.” He raised his head high in the next moment, ignoring Fen in favor of studying Quan. “I am inclined to mercy toward anyone who has shown Fenwit kindness. You are the only one to think to look for him for no other reason than to keep him alive.”
“He is generally inclined to mercy,” Fen said softly to his cousin although her attention was on Lan as though Lan really was a wild dog. “But not if his people are endangered.”
“I didn’t endanger your people.” Quan looked like she itched to hold a weapon. “Youbroughtushere!”
“And I can hardly let you leave without some assurances.” Lan wasn’t smiling anymore.
Quan opened her mouth, then seemed to rethink whatever she had been about to snap. “You’re not on Lylanth lands,” she began cautiously. “We have no formal alliance with anyone that would require us to immediately inform them of your presence here. And, frankly, by the time we reached The Lylanth to let her decide, you could be long gone.”
She and the others hadn’t been blindfolded before being led here, Fen realized, and glanced around in search of an explanation. Perhaps Lan had realized that she would be able to find this place again even with that, because unlike Fen, Quan and the others were used to the woods and probably skilled in tracking. And because Quan was right; this camp would have vanished by the time she went all the way to The Lylanth and back.
Or Lan wanted to make a show of trust. Fen studied him, displeased if not vexed, although he liked seeing more evidence of Lan’s cleverness.
In response to Fen’s study, Lan gave away nothing. His attention was on diplomacy. “In the meantime, Quan of the Lylanth and her people will have food and a place to rest, and Ati can see to any wounds.” He didn’t mention how those wounds had been received. Quan grunted anyway. “Then perhaps, if only to please the Flower, we might talk.”
Quan briefly met Fen’s stare. She drew in a small breath. “I cannot speak for The Lylanth.”
“You can speak for you, for now,” Lan calmly said words to shock any Earl, “which is more than enough if Fen says it is.”
“I won’t endanger Fen either,” Quan insisted, watching Lan with wary interest.
“Then we already have something in common.” Lan gave no sign that he was aware the entire camp was watching and listening, or that what he was doing was unheard of and startling. He bowed his head to Quan ever so slightly, for nothing or for saying she worried over Fen, and the streaks in his hair were almost purple again. Fae-like, or perhaps fae-touched.
“Lan,” Fen nearly could not breathe with how it felt to look at him, “may I embrace my cousin now?”
Lan sighed faintly but that was all, so Fen stepped forward to put his arms around Quan since, bound as she was, she could not crush him and lift him from his feet.
“You should have sent a message to me and I would have invented a reason to call you away from the holding,” she chided Fen quietly, her chin in his hair.
“The Acana wouldn’t have let me go once The Geon was ensnared,” Fen replied into her shoulder before stepping back. “You’re well? How’s your aunt?”
“Cranky.” Quan was clearly irritated by the whole situation. “The Acana is getting paranoid, asking things,demandingthings. Wanting his guards on our land—outrageous. Meanwhile, everyone else is much the same. Everyone wants help with protection, no one wants to offer any.”
“It might be easier to befriend a wild dog than fight one alone,” Fen remarked in a honeyed voice that only made Quan snort.
“He’s out to be rid of the Earls, Fen.”
Fen tossed his head. “Whatever his feelings toward them, that would be impossible at this moment in time and he knows that. He will have to content himself with the ones who behave horribly and have forgotten how things should be.”
“And who decides that?” The member of Quan’s party who had spoken before said it. They must have been noble as well.
“All the people running from them or hurt by them decide,” Fen explained when he shouldn’t have had to with Earls fighting and holing up in their fortresses for decades now. “Including me. Those people come to him on their own.” He inclined his head to Lan. “The Earls will too, as everyone does.”
Lan caught Fen’s gaze and held it. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, flower. I haven’t won you anything yet.”
Some distance away from them, Race began to cackle.
