Page 2 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

“It has to be me,” Perian insisted. “I swore I’d do it.”

He did not have a more cogent argument as to why it needed to be done by him, and the two of them didn’t look totally convinced by his story.

Then the door behind them opened.

“I thought I heard voices.”

Perian nearly melted with relief when he saw who it was.

“You’re back!” Molun said, smiling at him.

“I’m back,” Perian agreed and repeated his story, holding up the bottle as if it were evidence. “So here I am to deliver the tonic.”

Molun looked like he was not even a little bit convinced by this transparent excuse, but fortunately, he was an excellent friend.

“Come on in,” he declared.

The two Warriors acquiesced immediately, and Perian was reminded that Molun was third-in-command of the Mage Warriors. He normally never thought of Molun as Tertius, but he was extremely grateful for that fact at the moment.

Perian followed the man into the room, and one of the Warriors closed the door behind him. He was in a sitting room much bigger and fancier than Brannal’s, and the Princess was not in it.

Molun crossed the room and tapped on a partially open door to the right, where another Warrior was waiting.

Wow. Two Warriors by her bedroom and two at the door. Was this how they normally protected her, or was this so that it felt like they were doing something ?

Or maybe someone was trying to make sure she didn’t go out the window.

“Princess, your tonic is here.”

A very cross-sounding but weak voice said, “I don’t want it!”

Molun opened the door all the way and ushered Perian in.

“I think you do,” Molun told her cheerfully.

“I told you,” Renny said, sounding more cross than ever, “I don’t—”

This was the point at which Perian became visible in the doorway, and her words cut off abruptly. Her face lit up.

“Perian, you’re back!”

He held up the tonic. “I’m here to bring you your tonic because the doctor is busy. Because you’re not supposed to have visitors. ”

Renny nodded, a little furrow in her brow. “I’m not going to drink it.”

Perian frowned. “But—”

“It tastes terrible. I don’t want it. I suppose someone had better supervise .”

Oh, right, an anvil-shaped hint.

“Yes,” Perian agreed, clearing his throat. “The doctor said I’d better make sure you take it.”

They both looked at Molun, who rolled his eyes.

“You need to work on your delivery,” he told them, before he winked and pulled the door mostly closed again.

Perian hurried across the room, and since Renny was struggling to sit up, he perched on the side of the bed and leaned in so he could wrap her up in a hug. She clung to him, but she definitely didn’t feel as strong as she usually was.

“Oh, Renny, I’m so sorry.”

A sob welled up, then another, and a moment later, she was crying in his arms, and he shifted higher onto the bed and just held her, letting her cry it all out.

He could only imagine how scary and upsetting it was to have your body not work the way you wanted it to.

It tugged at his heart to hear her crying like this, but he wasn’t about to force her to keep these emotions inside.

“I can’t ride anymore,” she sobbed into his chest.

He patted her back, running his hand up and down it, trying to soothe her.

“We couldn’t bear it if something happened to you,” he said gently. “Right now, there’s a risk that you’ll have a spell while riding. That doesn’t mean you won’t get well and be able to ride again.”

Perian was sure he wasn’t the only one imagining what would have happened if she’d had a dizzy spell while on her horse. He suspected the Queen wasn’t going to let her daughter ride anytime soon.

Renny sniffed loudly, and he was sure she was getting snot all over his coat. He smiled to himself and just patted her back some more.

“Do you think so?” she asked.

“You’ve gotten well before,” he pointed out.

She scoffed. “Do I ever get well?”

Perian grimaced. “Well, we don’t know what the future will hold, but you’ve seemed very well in the weeks I’ve known you, and while this is a setback, it doesn’t mean you’re back to zero.

You’ve been healthier than you said you were in months, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you recovered from this even faster than usual. ”

She tilted her face up to meet his gaze. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face covered in tears.

“Do you really think so?”

And Perian, who didn’t know anything of the sort, poured every ounce of belief that he possessed into his words.

“I’m sure of it,” he told her. “Why wouldn’t you?

It took you a long time to recover when you were very unwell.

But you’re only a little unwell now, so it should only take you a little while to recover.

I know it’s a terrible blow, but that happens in life sometimes; things seem to be going so well, and then something happens that makes you question everything.

The important thing is what you do with that challenge.

I don’t mean that you should fling back the covers and scale the wall out your window. ”

Her lips tipped up into a faint smile.

He continued, “But you should believe in yourself. Maybe you won’t be back on a horse tomorrow or next week. But I’m sure we can get you back to a picnic outdoors in not too long.”

Her face fell. “Our picnics.”

“You know what the amazing thing about picnics is?”

Her brow furrowed. “What?”

He leaned closer, like he was imparting a great secret. “You can have them anywhere. Even in a princess’s sitting room. Or on her bed.”

Her eyes widened, and then a giggle escaped. She clapped her hand over her mouth, like she wasn’t supposed to be laughing when she was ill. Her eyes were dancing, and Perian was delighted to see that light in them again.

“I mean, you might need to convince your mother it’s a good idea,” he acknowledged. “Otherwise, I’ ll be the one scaling the wall outside your window, and I don’t think that’s my best skill.”

“While carrying a picnic basket,” she pointed out.

“I would like to live to see next week,” he requested.

She grinned at him. “I’ll convince Mother.”

“Tell her the food tastes better if it comes out of a basket,” he suggested.

“And if I have good company,” she added .

He grinned at her, leaning in to give her a quick hug, and she hugged him back, hard.

He pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her, and she wiped at her face.

“Let’s get you sitting up more comfortably, shall we?” he suggested.

He plopped pillows behind Renny and helped arrange her until she was fully supported but sitting up.

“If you get tired, you can still nap,” he assured her, “but I think that’s got to be a little more pleasant than lying on your back staring at the ceiling, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s so boring! But everyone says I can’t do anything . Like they’re worried I’m going to have a dizzy spell and fall over lying down in bed .”

He laughed but felt compelled to point out, “Everyone wants you to be safe.”

“I won’t be safe if I expire from boredom!” she returned promptly.

That was kind of what Perian thought, to be honest.

Now that she was upright, he did make her start drinking the tonic. To perpetuate the ruse that he wasn’t even sure they needed, she just took a sip at a time, made a face, told him it tasted terrible, and had him fetch her water.

Unless this was a tonic that was made specifically for her and especially horrible, Perian didn’t think it could possibly taste that bad, but he didn’t try to argue with her.

Although she still looked a little tired, her eyes were sparkling, and it seemed to him that a lot of life had already come back into her.

“How was your weekend?” she asked.

“You won’t mind me telling you about the most amazingly wonderful weekend that has ever existed when you weren’t having such a great one?”

She laughed. “No, I won’t mind. Tell me all about it.”

And so Perian proceeded to give her a highly edited version of his days away. She wrinkled her nose every time he talked widely around a certain topic, until she finally said, “Just how much sex did you have?”

“We didn’t actually count,” he said, grinning. “But a lot.”

She rolled her eyes. “What else did you do? Leave that part out!”

“I was trying to!” he agreed with a laugh, and tried to resume talking about all the things he and Brannal had done that weren’t having sex.

There was actually more of it than he thought, given just how much sex they’d had, but it had been all entwined nearly inextricably with the sex, so it took work to try to unpick it enough to make it an entertaining story for a twelve-year-old .

He told her about the charming inn, and he made her laugh about the horror of making people bring him bath water bucket by bucket every time he wanted to get clean.

He regaled her with the budding romance of the stable hand and the server, his well-behaved horse, and the beautiful nature surrounding them.

He told her about the picnic, though he promised her that he liked the ones with her just as much.

Renny eyed him skeptically. “ Just as much?”

“I liked them equally for very different reasons?” he tried.

She snorted, but he could see the corners of her lips tipping up, so he didn’t think she was too upset.

He described the shops they’d visited, which reminded him he would need to bring her gift once their belongings caught up to them.

And he told her all about—mostly about—the gifts Brannal had given him.

She actually “awwed” as he described how Brannal had given him one each day, and he showed her the necklace that he’d received this morning, tugging it out from beneath his shirt.

She ran her finger over the design carved into the pendant.

“It’s beautiful,” she said softly. “Oh, I’m so glad for you, Perian; really, I am.”

“Thank you.” Quietly, he confessed, “I’m so glad for me, too. I mean, I guess no one ever knows what the future will bring, but this definitely fills me with hope. It’s a world that I really want to be part of. It’s like everything seems possible.”