Page 17

Chapter Sixteen

W aking up in the morning was a bit like it had been yesterday. They were both hard, but there was less concern that either of them thought they should be doing something about it. Brannal stayed wrapped around Perian for a few minutes even when it was evident they were both awake.

Then it was time to get ready for the day. Perian was a bit sore. He’d really hoped his body would remember all the riding he usually did, but it seemed that was not the case. The gallop to end all gallops probably hadn’t helped.

“Plans for the morning?” Brannal asked once they settled at the breakfast table.

“I usually just see what happens,” Perian admitted, which made Brannal laugh.

“Picnic lunch,” Brannal prompted.

Perian nodded. “As often as Renny wants. Hopefully no surprise audiences with the Queen.”

Brannal laughed again. “I’ve got some training with the Mage Warriors in the late afternoon, which you are welcome to attend.”

“Will it involve me getting covered in mud?” Perian asked suspiciously.

An eyebrow rose. “Would that change your answer about attending?”

Grinning, Perian admitted, “Probably not.”

“That’s what I thought,” Brannal said with satisfaction. “It’s at four. Shall we meet here?”

“Yes, that sounds good,” Perian agreed.

“And then perhaps a ride in the evening?” he proposed.

“Yes, please.”

And like that, their day was sorted, and they went their separate ways. Perian could get used to this. Without him totally realizing, Brannal had kind of… become his person. He liked him so much, and he couldn’t imagine being with anyone else like this. Perian hadn’t expected that. He thought of his father, who’d always told Perian how much he loved his mother, and who had chosen to raise his son alone. He’d still found companionship in the city, but Perian had known his feelings were not involved. His father had been nothing but honest with him.

Perian was quite sure his connection to Brannal had veered well past the physical. He wasn’t totally sure how you got from that feeling to anything else. He knew his father had loved him, and Perian loved him back. Perian had read novels, and his father had explained the concept of romantic love. But Perian was pretty sure it wasn’t until now that he actually understood what romantic love was. He might not be there yet, but it felt like that’s what it could turn into. He’d come to the city expecting he’d have new experiences, but he had not imagined anything like this.

It was a little bit scary and entirely awesome.

Before he knew it, it was time for his picnic with Renny. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite so obvious today in the kitchen that everyone was looking at him. He thanked Alona who brought the basket again, and headed out to the quadrangle. It was a bit overcast today, and he hoped it wasn’t going to rain. The now-expected Warriors were waiting. It was Delana today, with a Warrior Perian didn’t recognize, and he inclined his head at them.

“How’s it going?” he asked Delana.

She nodded. “Well. And you?”

He hefted the basket. “Ready for a picnic.”

“Enjoy.”

He passed them, slipped through the bushes, and found Renny waiting for him. She was looking at him a little anxiously, which he didn’t understand until she spoke.

“Mother said the meeting was fine, and she liked you, but are you fine? I mean, really all right? She didn’t do anything mean?”

Perian laughed and recounted much of his meeting with the Queen to reassure Renny that her mother hadn’t scared him off.

It was even more natural today than it had been yesterday to leave that space for Renny’s brother. Perian asked after both of them and learned that lessons had been boring but probably necessary because it was important that anyone who was going to rule the country knew geography and math and languages.

Perian laughed. “That’s very true. In fact, yours might be the most important education in the entire country.”

Renny stuck her tongue out at him, and this just made Perian laugh harder.

“Oh,” he said, as he remembered. “Uh, I’m not sure if anyone told you. I ended up riding Prince Horsey yesterday.”

Renny perked up immediately, looking intrigued.

He explained, “Prince Horsey decided he liked me and sort of insisted I ride him. But I don’t want to upset anyone.” He turned to look at that blank space where the Prince was apparently sitting. “Is it all right if I ride your horse, or would you prefer I didn’t? I’m fine either way. I mean, he’s a magnificent animal and I loved it, but I’m sure I can find another horse.”

If he went to another stable and didn’t let Prince Horsey see him ever again.

But Renny was smiling.

“Kee would love if you rode Prince Horsey. Truly, it’s so much better if he’s happy with someone riding him.” Her expression went sad. “Because you can’t ride a horse if you can’t touch anything.”

Perian was silent for a moment before asking carefully, “Did you try?”

She nodded. “I didn’t try to ride him myself. Kee said I was too little. But I sneaked out, just to see if Prince Horsey could tell that Kee was there. He didn’t make a fuss the way I hear he does for everyone, but he didn’t react like Kee was there, either.” She got that mutinous look on her face. “But just because he couldn’t see him doesn’t mean he’s not here. Other people don’t see him either!”

Perian could only nod. “That’s very true. And the fact he didn’t get upset might mean he recognized something about you or your brother. He really does make a fuss with everyone, apparently.”

Her head tilted to one side. “But he doesn’t make a fuss with you. Do you think it’s because you spend time here with me and Kee?”

Perian shrugged. “I don’t know. There must be other people that spend time with you, even if they don’t know Prince Kinan is here.”

She made a face. “I don’t know if they ever go to the stable or how Prince Horsey might react to them. And maybe Prince Horsey just found a second person he likes.” She tilted her head in her listening pose. And then snorted. “Or maybe he just got really bored and decided that someone would be better than no one.”

Perian made a face and said theatrically, “Ouch.”

This made Renny laugh, and Perian had the feeling the Prince was laughing too. Each day he spent time with them, it seemed more possible that the Prince was really here. Renny’s belief didn’t make it true, but the way her belief was sustained through every interaction… well, it was easy for Perian to believe it was possible.

“Do you have horses at home?” Renny asked.

Perian told them all about his stables, which still contained all the horses they’d had when his father was alive. It would probably make more sense to let some of them go now that it was only him, but Perian hadn’t been able to do it.

The expression on Renny’s face said she completely understood. It might have made more sense to get rid of Prince Horsey, after all.

It began to rain, but only speckles. They carefully tugged the blanket a bit off-center so they were no longer directly under the opening at the top of the bush.

“None of my horses are as temperamental as Prince Horsey,” Perian said with a smile. “They’re all quite good-natured. There are several people who will ride them while I’m gone and turn them out into the spring paddock to let them get fat on plenty of grass and oats. We don’t have too complicated a life there.”

“You miss it?” Renny said.

“Sometimes,” Perian admitted, much like he had with Brannal. He wondered if he seemed homesick, that they were both asking that. “There are aspects of it I enjoy very much, but also parts that are lonely and just so very different from here. I would certainly miss the people here if I were there.”

“But it’s your home,” she pointed out.

He nodded. “It is. I have a ton of fond memories, and I really enjoyed the time I spent with my father.”

Renny had lost her father when she was six, he remembered, and maybe this wasn’t the sentiment he should be sharing with her, but she just nodded.

“I’ll never get to make more,” Renny said quietly, “but the memories I do have are mine.”

Perian nodded. “Yes, exactly. Home definitely makes me think of my father, and it’s near trees and water and fields, and oh, it’s just wonderful. I love riding. But feeling at home isn’t just about a place. It’s also about people and maybe how you feel about yourself. I can’t quite envision never going back to it, but it’s also hard to imagine never seeing any of you again and spending the rest of my life there.”

“Does it have to be one or the other?” she asked with a frown.

“I genuinely hope not!” he answered promptly, and she grinned at him.

He continued, “I don’t know what the future will bring. I’m going to enjoy everything I can here, but the rest of my life has taught me that I definitely can’t anticipate what will come.”

She nodded again, that too-wise look in her eyes.

With a sigh, Perian admitted, “But one day, I’m sure I’ll go home again. That’s just how it works, right? And if I’m lucky, I can hopefully keep coming back here to visit.”

Though Perian couldn’t envision facing with any grace the prospect of coming back here at some future point and Brannal being involved with someone else. But hopefully by then, he’d have the distance he needed.

“And maybe we could visit you?” Renny proposed brightly.

“You’re welcome any time,” Perian promised.

He doubted this was a practical invitation, but he meant it. Renny immediately peppered him with more questions, wanting to know exactly what they’d do when they were there and how big the house was and what room she would stay in and what horse she would ride and what food she would eat.

Perian answered as best he could. Renny’s life was very constrained. Even now, there were Warriors right outside the bushes. What was the harm in imagining a rosy future?

She seemed happy, overall, and Perian thought she looked less tired than she had before. She was still too skinny, and she wasn’t exactly brimming full of energy, but it was better. Right now, things were good. The future would come.

Sure enough, it was soon time for Renny to go off to her lessons, and they agreed to meet again tomorrow.

There were no extra Warriors waiting for him when he emerged from the bushes, allowing him to relax, and Renny went off with her escort while Perian ran by the kitchen to return the basket and then up to Brannal’s room to drop off the blankets.

He still had time until he was meant to meet Brannal, so Perian grabbed a book and settled by the fire. He’d thought it would be a good one to learn more about demons, but Among Us: Carnalions in Our Midst turned out to be a lurid novel with a carnalion who went round seducing and killing people for no discernible reason. The author hadn’t even gone to the trouble of suggesting it was the only way for him to survive. He just seemed to methodically kill people. A flip to the back showed that it ended in flames, and Perian hastily snapped the book shut, feeling a bit queasy. Definitely not.

He still remembered the burnt-out shell of the building where his father had died. It hadn’t made Perian afraid of flames, thank goodness, but it had definitely cured him of any desire to read about gratuitous death by fire. (He was glad his father had been so fond of fires and had often had one crackling in the hearth back home. His father had said as long as you respected it, fire was a wondrous element, and Perian had taken that to heart.)

He was firmly entrenched in the much safer history of the castle when Brannal arrived.

He smiled when he saw Perian.

“How was the picnic?”

“Lovely,” Perian said. “How was the morning?”

“Good. The Queen is happy to loan you Prince Horsey while you’re here.”

“Oh, wonderful, thank you.” When he’d gotten permission from Renny and her brother, he’d considered the matter to be closed. He was glad that the two decisions aligned.

“Ready for the training?” Brannal asked cheerfully.

Perian eyed him. “I don’t know. Am I?”

Brannal just continued to look pleased, and Perian didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him with that expression.

Well, it wasn’t like there was any real harm if he ended up covered in mud again.

Brannal led Perian swiftly up to one of the largest training rooms in the Mage Warrior wing, which proved to be crowded with people, and explained the afternoon activity to everyone. There were two civilians—Perian and a non-binary staff member named Winnal—a whole bunch of Warriors, and finally, a group of Mage Warriors.

“You’re being split in two teams, and the goal is for each side to protect their civilian while trying to capture the person on the other side. You may use restraint force.”

Perian made a face. That meant they’d likely all wind up muddy by the end of this.

Brannal continued, “Hand-to-hand is permitted, no actual weapons, and no shields. The team that captures the other team’s civilian first wins.”

This was going to be a free-for-all, but Perian supposed it made sense as a training exercise. These people probably spent most of their time needing to protect someone who didn’t have any magic and might not have any ability to defend themselves. (Perian was thinking of Renny, but it applied to ordinary citizens too.)

Perian shrugged out of his coat and set it to the side by the door; he was sure he was going to be a mess in no time.

Brannal was going to supervise and call people out if things got totally out of hand, which Perian thought was great because Cormal was here and on the opposing team. But Perian had Molun and Arvus, as well as the whole rest of the team, protecting him.

Brannal gave a countdown.

“Three, two, one, go!”

Perian imagined it was rather a lot like watching a battle in days gone by, when someone yelled a war cry and the fighting suddenly commenced. People crashed together with a tremendous amount of noise, the air was suddenly filled with water and earth, and gusts of wind whipped this way and that. It was a lot fiercer than working with the training Mage Warriors had been.

Arvus and another Mage Warrior stationed themselves in front of Perian. Molun waded a bit further into the fray, clearly going with offense instead of defense.

It was almost impossible to follow, especially with the elements in the mix. Everyone was moving so fast, and then a stream of water or dirt would obliterate everything in sight. Periodically, Arvus would raise a wall of earth to block anything from reaching Perian.

After a moment’s indecision, Perian just tried to keep track of those three people, to move with them when they moved.

For not actually being able to do much of anything except hope his team outlasted the opposing one, it was remarkably stressful. While it hadn’t bothered him the first time, knowing that half the room of fiercely trained Warriors and Mage Warriors was after him made his stomach churn and his breath short.

Perian got startled a lot and ended up jumping, yelping, and gasping more than he would like to admit. His heart was in his throat, pulse thrumming louder than he expected. He yelled out warnings whenever he could—and occasionally yelled out things that were less polite.

It turned out that all Perian should have been doing was tracking Cormal and making sure he didn’t get close. But Perian hadn’t been doing that, which meant that when Molun yelled out and Arvus turned to him, and the other Mage Warrior protecting Perian got buffeted by a strong gust of wind, it was a complete shock when Cormal appeared right in front of him and basically threw a ball of fire in his face.

Perian barely got his arm up to block it, the burst of incinerating heat shocking. A moment later, Perian and Cormal were suddenly drenched in water, and Brannal was yelling at everyone to stop. Perian threw a punch at Cormal’s face anyway.

A gust of wind pushed him back far enough that the punch fell short.

“Perian, I said stop ,” Brannal snapped.

Cormal smirked, redoubling Perian’s desire to punch him in the face.

Perian whirled on Brannal, heart still hammering in his throat. “He attacked me!”

“The whole point was to capture you,” Cormal spat. “If you were too scared, you should have said no.”

“I wasn’t actually asked ,” Perian snarled back. “And that wasn’t capture, that was a fireball to my face .”

“I said restraint force,” Brannal said with a stern look at Cormal.

Cormal smirked at Perian. “Afraid you might have wound up a little less pretty?”

There were a few guffaws, and Perian would probably have launched himself at the other man, but Brannal spoke loud enough to override both of them.

“That’s enough. I award the win to Cormal and his team for the capture.”

Cormal looked delighted, setting up a cheer for the whole team. Perian was still thrumming with energy that was demanding an outlet, so he headed for the door. He came close to turning back when he heard Cormal mutter something about a sore loser, but he knew there was still no way he could get a punch in.

Perian just snatched up his coat and kept walking, and he didn’t stop even when he heard several voices call after him. He practiced his deep breathing as he angrily stuffed himself into his coat—which hurt, but at least made him feel less cold because he was no longer only in a soaking shirt—and stalked all the way back to Brannal’s room, which was probably a stupid place to go, but it was supposed to be his room too.

He suddenly wasn’t sure how that worked when the person you wanted to retreat from was the person who shared the room with you. He understood a lot better now what had driven Brannal out of the room and why he hadn’t come back. It wasn’t… Perian wasn’t traumatized , but he was upset. That had definitely not gone the way he’d expected.

Brannal hadn’t been there to protect him when Perian had needed him to be. And that… Well, he wasn’t actually sure he was all right with the fact that he’d been expecting it. He hadn’t expected the shield or Brannal rushing into the Queen’s study. He’d been doing just fine in both cases. But apparently, he’d also had that underlying expectation that Brannal would be there for him.

It had been chaos just now, and Perian recognized that. There must have been times Brannal wouldn’t even have been able to see him or know if he was in trouble. But Perian hadn’t expected it to end with Brannal acting like this was something that was completely acceptable. Cormal had been underhanded and mean, and getting a win for it just reinforced that sort of bad behavior.

Perian should clearly have asked a lot more questions about what captured meant. As if he’d had time for questions.

He really should have gone for that walk, though, because he was still pacing in the sitting room, arm throbbing in time with his racing heart, when Brannal arrived.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Perian ground to a halt and turned to look at him incredulously. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, voice tight and too high. “Didn’t you just come from the same room I did?”

Brannal was staring at him like he didn’t entirely understand what he was seeing. “You’re upset that Cormal won.”

Perian scoffed. “Seriously?”

“Look, I know you didn’t come out on top this time, and that’s exactly what needed to happen.”

Perian stared at him blankly for a moment, and then he asked, stunned, “Did you just say you sacrificed me to your Secundus’s ego?”

“You don’t want an enemy,” Brannal told him.

“I noticed that,” Perian ground out, “when he nearly threw a fireball at me in a corridor, attacked a little girl, and tried to have me thrown in the dungeon. I wasn’t expecting you to set him up to throw a fireball in my face.”

“Why are you so hung up on that?” Brannal demanded, an expression Perian couldn’t figure out on his face, intent and… unhappy?

Thrown, Perian could only demand, “Why wouldn’t I be hung up on that?”

There was a knock on the door that was immediately followed by it being opened, and Molun stuck his head in.

“Hey, I thought for sure Brannal would already have you half naked, Perian, but we wanted to check in and see if you were all right.”

And Perian lost his temper and spoke with more anger than accuracy.

“Brannal doesn’t want to touch me, and I assure you, at the moment, the feeling is entirely mutual.”

Molun came all the way into the room. “Whoa! I could see you were upset in the training room, but what’s going on? Arvus has just gone for salve, by the way, in case you don’t have any.”

Perian swallowed a lump in his throat. “Were you in on it too?”

“In on what?” Molun asked, glancing between the two of them and looking genuinely confused.

It almost hurt to unclench his jaw, but Perian managed to spit out, “The plan to make your Secundus feel better by offering him the opportunity to hurt me in a sanctioned manner and then get rewarded for it.”

Molun scoffed. “That’s a stupid plan, why would we do that?”

Perian shot Brannal a triumphant look.

“It’s my job to make sure the Mage Warriors function smoothly,” Brannal said stiffly. “The situation with Cormal was becoming a problem.”

Molun looked at Brannal and then back at Perian, his eyes wide.

“Absolutely,” Perian agreed, suddenly feeling so very, very tired. And his arm hurt. Kind of a lot. “That is definitely your job. Fortunately for me, it’s not my job to be a pawn in that game, so I’ll decline for the future.”

He went over to the blankets and picked them up. Then he turned to Molun. “Do you have anywhere but here that I can sleep, please?”

“Of course,” Molun said at the same time that Brannal said, “Perian, don’t over—”

Arvus interrupted, knocking and then stepping inside before Brannal could finish his sentence, which was lucky for him. Arvus was holding a tin of salve and a pile of bandages. He eyed them all.

“What’s going on?”

Molun was the one who answered. “Brannal is being an absolute ass, and Perian is in pain. It is not going well. Perian’s going to stay with us tonight, but I really think he would benefit from that salve first.”

“Perian’s not going to—!”

Brannal’s words cut off abruptly as a deluge of water splashed down on his head, drenching him completely.

“Thank you,” Perian said.

“My pleasure,” Molun said promptly.

“Now really,” Brannal began, sounding thoroughly pissed off, “that’s not—”

“Brannal, you’re breaking your own rule,” Arvus said, his matter-of-fact voice cutting across all their emotions. “Injuries first.”

“Injuries?” He actually looked confused, his gaze cutting across to Perian. “He didn’t hit you.”

Arvus reached for Perian’s coat and raised an eyebrow. Perian nodded faintly and let the other man peel it off him, wincing when he pulled off the right sleeve.

He met Brannal’s eyes. “He didn’t hit my face because I blocked him. And unlike this room full of people who can summon elements at will, I had to use my arm.”

“You were supposed to protect him!” Brannal snapped, glaring at Molun and Arvus.

“Do not even start!” Perian yelled back. “That whole exercise was aimed at people attacking me. You put me and Cormal on opposing teams deliberately . You absolutely do not get to blame anyone but yourself for this.”

Arvus was peering at his arm. “I think we’re going to have to tear the shirt.”

Perian sighed. “Go ahead.”

After some rending of fabric, Perian was mostly naked from the waist up. Arvus was still plucking bits of fabric from his arm, and Perian finally said, “Let me see.”

It hurt to bend his elbow, but Perian did it anyway to inspect the damage. He’d taken the brunt of the fireball with the back of his forearm near his elbow. It was the biggest surface area to protect his face, so at least his instincts had done that right. The skin was red and blistered.

Brannal made a sound that Perian had never heard before, and when he looked at him, he had an absolutely gutted expression on his face.

“I didn’t know he touched you. I swear I didn’t know.”

Perian sniffed. He told himself it was because Arvus was still plucking bits of charred fabric off his skin.

Stiffly, he said, “You might not like these consequences, but it’s the result you wanted. You had to know this could happen.”

“I never wanted you to get hurt. I swear,” Brannal assured him. “That’s why I wanted him to feel like he won!”

Perian stared him dead in the eye. “He did.”

And Brannal finally stopped talking.

Molun wet a handkerchief so that Arvus could carefully clean his skin, and then Arvus was scooping the salve out of a tin much like the one that the doctor had given Perian when he had helped out.

“This one is specifically for burns,” Arvus told him. “Even better than the all-purpose salve.”

At the first touch of the cool ointment, Perian sucked in a startled breath, and then he sagged. Molun hurried to prop him up while Arvus continued to smear on the ointment. Perian had known the wound hurt, but it was only as the searing burn abruptly muted that he realized just how tense he’d been.

“Brannal, get Perian a shirt, please,” Arvus said calmly.

Without a word, Brannal disappeared into the bedroom.

“Now,” Arvus said to Perian, his voice a low, soothing rumble as he began to wrap the wound carefully in bandages. “You have every right to be upset, and you are welcome to stay with us as long as you want. But I think you should know that after you left, Brannal concluded the lesson by rightly raking us over the coals for failing to protect you as we should have. When he pointed out that the Princess would have been in a similar situation, I think what he said struck home for everyone.”

Sounding embarrassed, Molun admitted, “We were supposed to protect you. Both of us. I didn’t listen.”

Arvus interposed, “And I went after you when I heard you yell, and we both left Perian exposed.”

“It’s not your fault,” Perian said immediately.

Arvus’s expression was wry. “Only it kind of is, isn’t it? Not what we intended but consequences we have to accept?”

Perian blew out a breath. “I was annoyed when I said that.”

“As you have every right to be,” Arvus confirmed gently, finishing with the bandage and neatly tying it off, tucking in the ends. “We failed you. We knew as well as Brannal that Cormal was… annoyed.”

And this had seemed like a safe way to deal with him. The Queen herself had told Perian that Cormal was “wary” of him. What must he have said to her? What might Cormal have done if he’d come across Perian in an empty corridor and they’d antagonized one another? This had been in a room full of Mage Warriors, entirely supervised… it had just gone completely wrong.

“And you know what would make Cormal really happy?” Molun asked. He gestured around the room. “This right here.”

“Molun!” Arvus admonished.

Molun didn’t look very apologetic. “Just saying.”

Perian grimaced. “You hit below the belt.” His lips quirked, and he admitted, “It was well aimed, but below the belt.”

Now Molun looked smug.

“As I said, you can stay as long as you want,” Arvus assured him. “You can come with us right now, but you can also show up at any point including in the next ten minutes or the next hour or the middle of the night.”

Perian blew out a breath, nodded. He was still angry, but not nearly as angry as he had been before Arvus used that salve.

He was allowed to be angry, of course, and upset about what had happened, but he’d maybe been misdirecting at least some of that anger and pain.

He nodded to Molun and Arvus. “I make no promises I won’t wake you up in the middle of the night.”

Molun grinned at him and waggled his eyebrows. “You’re welcome to crawl into our bed at any time. That is an absolutely open invitation.”

Arvus elbowed him in the ribs, and Perian gave a tired but genuine smile. Arvus winked at him.

“He’s not wrong,” Arvus agreed, a small smile on his lips. “But we have zero expectations, all right?”

Perian nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

Brannal was taking way longer in the bedroom than was required for grabbing one shirt. What was he doing in there?

“You need anything else?” Arvus asked, nodding at the burn.

Perian shook his head. “No, it’s all right.”

Arvus nodded, but said, “We have more bandages and salve should you need it. I’ll leave this one here. The only ones who don’t get burned around here are the Fire Mages.”

Perian scoffed. “Figures.”

“Doesn’t it?” Arvus said lightly. “So, I think sometimes they forget how much damage it can do.”

Huffing a breath, Perian said, “You are annoyingly sensible, did you know that?”

Molun slipped an arm around Arvus’s waist. “That’s why we love him.”

Perian could only smile at the very real affection between the two of them. Perian wanted that, but he had to admit that he’d only seen the two of them on a handful of public occasions. He hadn’t interacted with them overly much, and he didn’t actually know what they were like when they were alone. Did they fight? You never knew a person just from seeing how they behaved in public—and Perian supposed you didn’t even know a person completely from seeing them in private. It gave you more insight, but what someone was actually thinking and feeling could be hidden and buried. There were certainly times Perian didn’t quite know what he himself was thinking or feeling, so how could he expect to fully understand another person?

But he could try. It took effort, though, because sometimes it was complicated and maybe painful, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth it.

“All right,” Perian said. “Thank you so much for coming to check on me.”

“Of course,” Molun said, like it was a given.

Like they were friends.

“Hey,” Perian added, before he could change his mind. “Did you maybe want to have dinner together? At some point?”

They both smiled at him.

“We’d like that,” Arvus agreed as Molun nodded. “With or without Brannal. We mean that.”

Perian smiled. “Great. Thanks again.”

He was pretty sure it would be awkward without Brannal, but he could imagine Molun just saying ridiculous thing after ridiculous thing until they got over it.

But given a choice, Perian was pretty sure he’d still rather it was with Brannal.

“We’d better get going,” Arvus said. “But you can come by anytime. You remember which room is ours?”

“Across and to the left?” Perian asked.

“That’s us,” Arvus confirmed.

“Just come on in,” Molun said cheerfully. “Arvus is a heavy sleeper. He might not hear you.”

Perian was totally going to knock. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Molun assured him.

Arvus raised his voice. “Brannal, we’re going.”

“Stop being an idiot!” Molun admonished.

Arvus rolled his eyes, amusement evident, grabbed Molun by the arm, and tugged him out of the room.