Lan narrowed his eyes. “So you really were sent to ensnare him for your family’s benefit.” It was not a question. Fen opened his mouth. Lan continued softly, “I saidsentand I meant it, Earl’s cub. You might have told Heni you had a choice but I wonder. Do Earls often force their young into seductions?”
Fen lowered his gaze again, at least until Lan made an irritated noise in his throat, drawing Fen’s attention back to him. “Seductions or war, these days,” Fen admitted. “And there is not much use for me otherwise.”
“Your father is counting on a great deal from you, but then, youarevery beautiful.” Lan said it plainly, the way Fen would have described the dog between them as shaggy or large. “And The Geon is already taken with you, which helps with whatever the Old Horror was going to ask from him. Assistance in hunting down the Wild Dog, no doubt.” Lan paused. “The Acana will likely be angry, very angry, with you for the defiance and for his ruined plans.”
Fen gave his most practiced graceful shrug.
“It would have been easier to charm The Geon with those manners,” Lan went on, voice still soft. “There will be consequences for you if you ally with me and I am killed or captured. Is that not also part of the risk of your noble hostage-alliance-marriages?”
Fen thought about protesting that name for their alliances but left it, in the end. “There would also have been consequences for me to live and sleep alongside The Geon,” he answered, not letting the words go farther than where Lan sat. “I would not be of use there. Not really. I would like to be of use. I would…” He stopped himself, but the man they called Wild Dog only waited for him to finish, so he did, in an even lower voice. “I would like to someday not only be the one in that song.”
“I can form an alliance with anyone,” Fen insisted a moment later when Lan did not speak. Fen was outwardly calm, although he didn’t think his gaze was. “On behalf of my family or not. It only involves living with someone and hoping to grow friendly.”
“How many alliances, friendly and unfriendly, or more than friendly, does The Acana have now?” Lan asked pointedly but then didn’t wait for an answer. “You might have found a more suitable alliance among the Lylanth or some allies of theirs. You might even have found one where you could be more than just pretty or useful.”
“Like a marriage?” Fen was astonished and didn’t think it hide it in time, although Lan didn’t seem to take offense. “Few of The Acana’s alliances have led to that, although he might be fond of some of them. The Acana can be charming when he wants to be. Quite nice, even, to a select few. But I never… thought of that. I am as they see me—as you see me, I am sure.”
Lan raised both eyebrows. “I’m not going to go easy on anyone who’s wronged me and mine simply for a well-made face.”
Unsurprised, Fen still had to fight not to twitch, but suspected that Lan knew he was unsettled. As before. As always. Fen found himself looking into the man’s eyes instead of away and the man seemed to see things in Fen’s gaze. Fen didn’t even know if that should worry him or not. It was too new for him to tell.
He managed another shrug, far less graceful. “I might have other uses.” The moment it was out of his mouth, Fen glanced up to Lan, then to the side, staring at the fire while his face heated. “I mean, the nobles will not talk to you. They might talk to me. And if they do decide to meet with you, they have a way of talking amongst themselves that they won’t expect you to know.”
“Showing me the ways of the nobles would not please those nobles, or your father, any more than anything else you might do for me.” It might have been an objection, or simply Lan reminding Fen of the danger before him.
Fen’s face remained burning hot. “It might if it means you leave him alone and he can go back to encroaching into the territories of his neighbors. He is not in your path now, is he? You are going through his lands, not staying in them to attack his holding.”
Lan said nothing to that. Instead, he remarked, “Your stew will be cold by now,” and then, when Fen took that as an order to keep eating, went on, “The Acana won’t talk to me unless he has no other choice, like so many of the others. But when they decide to, they will use all manner of trickery on the animal they believe me to be, and some trickery of my own could be helpful. In the meantime, we might find some use for you here, though I doubt it will be what you’re accustomed to.”
Fen barely swallowed before he spoke. “I’m staying?”
“And it pleases me to prick the pride of The Geon,” Lan did not answer the question, not directly or even with absent sarcasm as some of Fen’s siblings might have done. The lack of an answer meant something; Fen would discover it when his mind was sharper. “You wouldn’t have made it to the lands of your cousin, in any event. Not in this weather, with no food or protection.Flower,” Lan said the name under his breath and then gave a snort. “Maybe in the spring, you might make it there. But not now.”
It was autumn. Spring seemed both close and very far. It would not be very much time for Fen to prove himself or to have a chance to help, if he could. “Spring?” he asked uncertainly. “Another Earl might destroy you and your people by then.”
Lan shrugged. Fen couldn’t tell if it was meant to mock him or if Lan was feigning indifference to his very likely, very bloody fate. “Or they might turn on each other. Most of them hate each other more than they hate me. That’s what happens when you fuck over your neighbors to grow your own holdings.” He clucked his tongue at that, then grew serious, if he had ever stopped. “An alliance sets you on this path with me, to the same end, whatever it might be. Are you sure you want that? Making a desperate decision rather than submit to an Earl’s decree is a story I understand. But this will not be an easy life and I am not The Geon. If your loyalty is to your family after all, and your actions on their behalf lead to the harm of anyone here, I will execute you myself and no member of the Acana would find your body to use in retaliation against me.”
He didn’t look away and Fen didn’t either; he couldn’t.
“You have already done more for me than my family has ever done,” Fen told him, and wondered if the emotion that carried across Lan’s broad features was surprise or pain.
“Many have been so abandoned by the nobles,” Lan answered, suddenly sounding weary. “It makes what little I do seem a lot.”
Fen studied him openly, how the firelight hit his foreign piercings and made the shadows beneath his eyes seem larger. “Thank you for carrying me today.” He held out the bowl as steadily as he could with his hands trapped together. “Perhaps it is time you ate?”
Lan’s lips parted. “That is food you desperately need, Earl’s cub.”
“A small sacrifice for me, but a significant gift to someone who needs the strength more.” Fen dared a smile. “Everyone here looks to you. You might want them to eat first, but you will need more than whatever remains in the pot if you plan to carry them all.”
Lan stared at Fen for long, tense moments. “Seeking to influence me already?” he asked without accepting the food.
“You’ve made no official alliance with me.” Fen pulled his arms back, then resettled the bowl on his knees.
“I somehow don’t think that will stop you.” Lan tossed his head, again like a dog though again Fen did not remark on it. “Give me your hands.”
Making sure the spoon was safely in the bowl, Fen extended his arms again. He did not have time to catch his breath or to even go tense as Lan drew a knife and sliced through the knot between his wrists. “Eat, flower. And rest while you can. We set out in the morning.”
He left Fen there to finish his second bowl and lick it clean, and then, when Fen realized he ought to, cautiously take the bowl and his spoon, together with the rope still dangling from one reddened wrist, over to the stream where the others all went. He washed the bowl, then himself as best as he could, before returning to the fire and the shaggy dog, to curl up in the dirt and try to feel warm enough to sleep.
