Page 3 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)
She nodded, but her eyes were sad. “I’m glad.”
He realized that maybe she didn’t ever feel like that, or at least not right now. He reached out and covered her hand, and she clutched at it, trying to give him a smile, but it wobbled a little.
“How’s Kee doing?” Perian asked, thinking a change of subject was called for.
According to Renny, her brother Prince Kinan had been trapped with his sister from the age of sixteen to his present age of twenty-two.
When wraiths had attacked the castle, Kee’s was one of the bodies that had been found in the aftermath.
Everyone else believed he was dead, and they’d thought that the then six-year-old Renny was simply grieving when she kept talking to her brother like he was there.
She’d stopped talking about it, but Kee was still here with her.
He couldn’t touch anyone, no one but his sister could see or hear him, and he couldn’t move very far from her without extreme discomfort.
But that wasn’t something that happened after death.
Individual life energy rejoined the collective life energy—or at least that was what they’d always believed .
Unlike everyone else, Perian had just sort of…
found himself believing Renny and Kee. He’d offered to talk to Brannal about it, sure they could prove it now, but Renny had refused.
Partly, he thought she was just annoyed with all of them over the years of dismissal and disbelief.
But Kee had made it clear he thought he’d be a liability to the crown like this.
Even if Perian and Renny disagreed, there was no denying it would be awkward—and ultimately, that it was Kee and Renny’s decision, not his.
At the very least, though, Perian could make sure that he included Kee in conversation, such as it was.
Renny sniffed. “He’s very bored. He liked being able to get around more, too.”
She looked to the end of the bed across from her, and Perian realized that Kee must be sitting on the bed with them. For some reason, he’d imagined him across the room, but that was silly. Of course, he’d be close to his sister.
She huffed. “Kee says the most important thing is me getting well, and it’s not that boring. He’s being polite. It is that boring.”
Perian laughed. “What if I read to the two of you for a little while? I know that Kee can’t turn the pages, and the strain of reading might be a little much for you right now, but I’d be happy to do it.”
Renny nodded, and he admonished her to have another drink of tonic while he went to browse through the options on her bookshelf before selecting one of the books in the Old Tongue. He held it up.
“Too much for your brain right now?”
She laughed. “Let’s try it. Kee will understand even if I don’t. It’ll give me something to try to concentrate on.”
Not everyone learned the Old Tongue anymore, but the royal family certainly did.
Renny wasn’t as far along in her learning as her brother, though, and Kee had expressed a hope that she would improve so he could read more complex books with her.
Perian’s father had arranged for tutors on their estate, allowing Perian to read books in the Old Tongue.
There had been a lot of time to read at home, so Perian was reasonably good.
He settled next to Renny back on the bed, leaning up against the headboard. He hoped he wasn’t occupying any of the same space as Kee. Renny had told him her brother said it felt weird, but he figured the man would move if needed.
“Have you finished the tonic?” Perian asked .
“Not yet.”
He made a face. “I’m not actually sure you’re supposed to have it in small sips, so maybe you’d better finish it off now. I’ll ask the doctor for next time.”
With a sigh, Renny did as he suggested, and he set the empty bottle aside and made sure she was comfortable.
Then he opened the book and started to read.
This was a history of water magic, which Perian had thought would be interesting, but maybe Renny hadn’t been totally wrong when she’d claimed that the people who wrote books in the Old Tongue were a bit full of themselves.
The author used at least ten words where Perian thought one would have been sufficient, and had long-winded introductions that never seemed to quite make it to the point before a tangent interrupted and they were off again.
It was a pretty terrible book, really, even if it turned out there could be some interesting content by the end of it.
Renny made a lot of scoffing noises, and the two of them periodically devolved into rants about how this person should never, ever write books, with Renny adding her brother’s agreement.
After a while, it grew quiet, and a glance over at Renny showed that she’d fallen asleep.
Her breathing looked easy, though, and there was a faint smile on her lips.
He thought she looked better than she had when he’d first come in, and he hoped that he’d helped improve her mood.
A bad mood was only going to make things worse, but who could be blamed for a bad mood under these circumstances?
He really hoped she was feeling better.
He kept reading the book aloud—not that he thought Kee was getting a lot out of it, either, but he really must have been bored stuck in here with Renny all the time, neither of them knowing if this was going to be the new normal once more.
Perian refused to believe it. He thought what he’d told Renny sounded entirely possible. He didn’t see how it would do any good to dwell on the negative. He remembered when hope had crept back into Renny’s eyes, and he didn’t want to see it extinguished again.
One dizzy spell was not a good thing, but it wasn’t the end of the world, either.
Perian was going to believe the best, and he was going to believe it on behalf of everyone who needed it. He would bolster Renny up until she was able to hold herself up. That was what friends did.
Perian was still reading when there was a soft tap on the door and it opened to reveal…
Brannal. Perian wasn’t sure which one of them was more taken aback, but as Brannal st epped into the room, Perian saw that he wasn’t alone.
Cormal was there, too, and where Brannal looked surprised, Cormal looked displeased.
“What are you doing here?” the redhead demanded angrily.