Page 17 of Potions & Pints
“He was also my friend,” Tan added quietly.
“You convinced him to leave with you!” Pili shouted. “You took my brother and he married one of your princesses. Then he died. You never even bothered to send a note, and I find out that you worked for one of the royal houses who had him killed. Some friend.”
“Pili—”
Tan didn’t have time to finish his sentence as Pili lunged for him. Valar was out of his seat and between them. In an instant they were surrounded by soldiers. The next thing he knew, he and Pili were dragged apart.
Tan tried to express his remorse with his eyes. Pili stared back with murderous rage.
“Idrulo,” Valar said and snapped his fingers. “My dear sister Namys, the assassination. Do I have it right?’
“Two people died,” Pili said.
“Hmph,” Valar said. He waved his hand in the air dismissively. “Details. Royal blood spilled would be a tragedy. Others…”
“Why, you,” Pili snarled.
He tried to grab the Prince. The soldiers tightened their loose hold on Pili and wrestled him to the ground. Then a few more piled onto him for good measure.
“Oh, no,” cried Vir. “Don’t hurt him.”
“Stop,” Tan said. He put as much pleading as he could muster into his next word. “Your Grace, please.”
“Get off him,” Valar said. He sounded bored but Tan suspected he was enjoying this. “Get him up,” he ordered his men.
Pili was dragged to his feet and shoved between Vir and Tan.
“Chain them all,” Valar said.
“And the muzzle?” one of his soldiers said hopefully.
“I don’t think it will be necessary. Ankles and wrists though.”
He turned and started walking away.
“Where are you going?” Tan asked.
“To get some sleep. I’ll deal with you scrapes in the morning.”
Tan resisted, verbally, when the guards went to cuff them together. Tan complained that it was too hard to be cuffed to Vir, because of the immense difference in their size. The guards came up with a — what they thought was brilliant — idea, namely, to put Vir in the middle.
That was exactly what Tan had hoped for. Fond as he was getting of the orc, he hadn’t made himself very useful so far. Tan figured Vir would make a good buffer. Pili would have to get across Vir if he decided to strangle Tan in his sleep, for example. Tan didn’t think Vir would let that happen.
As it turned out, Tan didn’t get much sleep. Every time Tan started to doze off, he got a kick from one of the soldiers who had drawn the first shift to watch them.
“What is the problem?” Tan finally asked.
“You’re my responsibility,” the soldier told him. “Got to make sure you aren’t dead or something.”
Tan suspected it was less about that and more about them having someone to blame for having to stay up all night. The soldiers left Pili alone. Tan supposed that even though Pili was a prisoner now too, the soldiers weren’t too sure if that would still be the case when Valar returned.
They did try to harass Vir, but the orc seemed impermeable to their attempts to rouse him. After the soldiers all took turns kicking him in the calf as hard as they could with no reaction, they decided to try tickling him.
One soldier scratched under Vir’s ear and was swatted away. The half-hearted, fully asleep blow sent the elf flying several feet. He landed on his ass to the jeers of his colleagues. After that Vir was left alone.
As a result, when Valar came back, fully rested and — as he told them immediately — just having finished a very large, very satisfying meal, Tan was barely able to focus on the words coming out of the prince’s mouth.
“Am I boring you?” Valar said, when Tan yawned for the fourth or fifth time.
