Page 46 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

He’d seemed like he’d been on Perian’s side when he was arguing with Cormal earlier, but now the Queen was here, and it didn’t seem anything like that at all.

Had he not wanted to be the one to make the decision? Had he wanted the ease of being overruled?

“Larenia, I insist!” the Queen said.

None of them were moving closer, Perian realized, and after a moment, it finally struck him as to why.

They knew what he’d done, and they didn’t know how far his powers extended.

“I wouldn’t harm any of you even though I could in theory,” Perian said. “But Renny is a child. You know better. I can’t harm her.”

Carnalions couldn’t feed off children. Renny was getting closer to puberty, and maybe she’d be someone that he could feed off—in theory—soon, but she was still a child.

Not that there was any reason to believe him at this point, but the tension in the room did seem to go down a little bit as they were reminded of that fact .

“Then why is she standing there?” Cormal demanded.

Renny actually stamped her foot and answered before Perian had to try to come up with something diplomatic to say.

“Because he is my friend, you idiot! Because this is unacceptable! Because you’ve locked him up after he’s gone through something terrible, and it’s not right! Because you won’t let me in and this is as close as I can get to him!”

There were tears on her face again. “I’m sorry, Perian,” she told him.

“It’s all right,” he assured her. “Renny, it’s all right.”

Under any other circumstances, he would reach for her, would hold her hand, at least, because the bars would permit that. But he wasn’t sure what the watching people would do if he did that, and whatever it was, it could harm Renny, and that could not be allowed.

There was the sound of a distant door clanging, and then the sound of footsteps, and they all watched as the doctor arrived. She seemed to take in the very charged atmosphere calmly.

“I’m glad to see that you’re awake,” she told him.

“Thank you,” he said, a bit blankly, because she was one of the only people beside Renny who was treating him like he was still a person.

“I need to examine his wounds,” the doctor said.

“Absolutely not,” Cormal snapped.

The doctor shot him a scathing look. “I’m a doctor, and he’s my patient. We do not deny treatment to anyone, no matter where they reside.”

“It’s a carnalion!” Cormal hissed. “Do you know what it could do to you?”

“Thus far, he seems to have chattered a lot and helped me make salves and tonics,” the doctor said very dryly. “What do you imagine he’s going to do?”

“He could kill you!” Cormal snapped, looking a bit like he was going to burst into flames at any moment, like he couldn’t believe the people around him were so stupid.

It would have been funny if it just… wasn’t.

“I suspect he would prefer that I examine his wounds. I have more salve.” She made eye contact with Perian. “Are you going to kill me?”

Perian shook his head, a lump in his throat. “No. I won’t harm you in any way.”

“Allow me to treat the patient. Now.”

It took the Queen’s nod for Cormal to finally unlock the door to Perian’s cell.

The doctor passed through and soon had Perian sitting down so she could examine his wounds.

She gently touched his face, and he winced.

He’d somehow forgotten about the head wound, but that explained why everything hurt.

And he hadn’t had any idea how tender his neck was until the doctor carefully daubed more salve on it.

“How bad is it?” he asked.

“The bruising is quite spectacular. He tried to choke you?”

Perian nodded shortly.

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s slow to heal,” she observed.

“I hadn’t really noticed,” Perian said. “It’s been a weird day. Or two? I don’t actually know when it is.”

He’d lost all track of time.

“You were found very early yesterday. I would have expected that it would heal faster, based on your previous record,” she said.

He realized what she was saying. “I’ve been healing myself?”

“Oh, I think so,” she said.

“You don’t sound very surprised.”

“I’m not, particularly.” She looked at him. “Do you know that when I told you that the salves healed things more quickly, the salves you made healed better than any of the salves that I have ever produced?”

Perian digested this for a moment. “What?”

She nodded. “I told you that they did, and you believed it.”

“But… why would that matter?”

She smiled at him. “That’s the question, isn’t it?

” Conversationally, as she smeared more salve on him and carefully began to rewrap his wrists, she continued, “In addition to the head wound, the strangulation attempt, and various bumps and bruises, you suffered from smoke inhalation, which is particularly dangerous. I gave you several tonics, and you responded better to them than many have.”

Perian had been trying to heal himself of whatever was the most dangerous to him?

She eyed him. “Of course, for anyone to heal themselves, they need to be in an optimal state. Well-rested, not stressed, and properly fueled. ”

Oh. Oh .

Perian understood, finally, what she was trying to tell him.

Perian ate food, and he wasn’t actually sure the last time that he’d consumed anything, but that wasn’t what she meant.

Without realizing it, whenever he’d been injured, he crawled into bed with people.

When he’d been attacked and wounded with the knife while Brannal was gone, what had he done?

That was when he’d accepted Molun and Arvus’s invitation to join them in bed, wasn’t it? He was pretty sure it was.

It hadn’t seemed like a pattern to him, because it wasn’t something it would have occurred to him to track.

He was having sex so regularly for the most part, that it surely didn’t matter.

But what had he done after Molun had been injured, when he’d been so stressed and upset by what had happened, even if he hadn’t been the one physically injured?

He’d crawled into bed with Brannal. Crawled into bed with Molun and Arvus. Repeatedly.

Perian might not have known what he was, but his body seemed to have figured out what it needed.

But if that was all it was, then Perian would be trying to do it to the doctor right now, wouldn’t he?

She was right here, and Perian was injured.

He could feel faint wisps of desire if he searched for them, but he didn’t try to pull them to him, and he’d never done so for any of the things that she felt, which they’d both ignored.

You could find someone attractive without actually being interested in them, after all, and a lot of people found Perian attractive.

(Because he was designed that way?)

The doctor finished wrapping his wounds, helped him have a drink of water, and then stepped back through the door when Cormal opened it, key in one hand, fireball in the other.

Really, they should all have seen it coming, but they were all waiting for Perian to do something, and Perian was concentrating on sitting there and not looking like he was going to do anything—and that meant that no one was paying much attention to Renny, and she darted into the cell as the doctor slipped out of it. She dove at Perian.

Perian was aware of how tricky this situation was, how his life might well be teetering on a knife edge at the moment, but he couldn’t do anything except catch Renny when she literally threw herself at him and burst into tears.

He patted her back and rocked her back and forth and told her that everything would be fine even as a furious conversation raged outside about what could be done to get Renny back without precipitating an… incident.

He rolled his eyes at them.

“Nothing is going to happen to Renny. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Then let her go!” Cormal yelled.

“I’m not constraining her,” Perian argued, frustrated beyond belief. “I’m holding her while she cries. I wouldn’t ever hurt her. And I can’t.”

Cormal’s interruption seemed to have broken through Renny’s crying jag. Still in Perian’s arms, she whirled to look out of the cell.

“Of course Perian wouldn’t hurt me! Perian would never hurt me! Perian’s so good for me! I’ve never felt better than since I met Perian! Perian is the best!”

“He could still—” Cormal began.

“I think not, in the instance,” the doctor interrupted calmly. “Look at the evidence.”

They all turned to look at her.

“When did the Princess begin to feel well?” she asked.

“In the spring,” the Queen said.

“When she met Perian,” the doctor corrected, “in the spring.”

That… was one way of looking at it, Perian supposed, but it wasn’t proof of anything, was it? She had seemed to get better and better the longer he knew her, but that was just… happenstance, wasn’t it?

“Coincidence,” Cormal said dismissively.

“And when is the one occasion that the Princess had a renewed dizzy spell?” the doctor pursued.

They all stared at her, and it was Perian who said blankly, “While I was away. When Brannal took me away for a few days.”

The doctor nodded, staring straight at him. “And when did she get better?”

Shocked, Perian said, “As soon as I got back.”

A marked change, everyone had said, but Perian had just thought she was happy to see him, that he’d been boosting her mood .

“What did you do to her?” Cormal demanded. “Are you controlling her?”

“Oh, have some common sense,” the doctor said with asperity. “The Princess has been sick for years, and the only thing Perian has done is make her feel well. ”

She’d been weak and so tired. She would sometimes be stuck in her bed, have dizzy spells when she tried to move, not have enough energy to function.

And then she’d met Perian, and she’d felt so much better, had had so much more energy, almost like—

“Fire and water,” he breathed.

“You’re feeding her energy,” the doctor said, stating baldly what Perian had been starting to think, but—

“Impossible,” Cormal said flatly.

Brannal spoke for the first time. “You said yourself that a carnalion cannot affect children.”

And they were right, weren’t they? He didn’t know all there was to know about carnalions, but everyone knew they couldn’t affect children. So that didn’t make sense, unless—

“Fire and water,” he whispered. “Renny. I’ve not… I haven’t been giving you energy.”

Her little face was tilted up to look at him.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I feel so much better with you. All the time. I promise.”

He nodded. “No, that’s true, that makes sense. But, oh, Renny, just think of it. When did you get sick?”

She was frowning at him. “Almost seven years ago.” She faltered. “When… when we were attacked.”

“Yes,” he said, staring at her. “When your brother was attacked. Renny, why is he attached to you? It makes so much sense! He’s been pulling energy from you , and that’s why you were so weak. Because you’re keeping him alive.”

She stared at him, and then the tears spilled over her cheeks.

“And then you came,” she whispered. “And you could share your energy with him. And that’s why we feel better.”

He nodded frantically. “But I didn’t know it, don’t you see? I was doing it accidentally. But now I could do it deliberately.”

He looked towards Kee, who was in a corner of the cell because of course he was in here with them. Perian still couldn’t see him, but now that he knew what to look for, he could feel something, almost a bit of a tug in that direction.

“Kee,” he said, “I’m sorry it took me so long to figure this out. I’ll give you all the energy I can.”

“What nonsense is this?” Cormal demanded.

Perian had actually forgotten they had an audience, and he startled badly. He was stunned they’d stayed quiet as long as they had.

“Renny wasn’t making it up,” Perian told them. “The rest of us can’t see him or hear him, but the Prince has been with her for the last six—almost seven—years.”

“You’re delusional,” Cormal said flatly. “This is complete and utter nonsense! I can’t believe you would stoop this low!”

“I’m not making this up!” Perian shouted. “Why would I make this up?”

“Because you’re trying to trick us!” Cormal shouted back. “Because you have some plan that will allow you to escape, and I’m not going to let that happen! You aren’t going to be allowed to do this to anyone!”

“I’m sorry,” Brannal said, “but—”

He was going to agree with Cormal, Perian could see it. This was one step too far.

“How dare you—” the Queen started, voice shaking.

“He tried to kiss you!” Renny shouted.

They all turned to look at her, confused. She was staring at Cormal. All gazes fell on Perian.