Chapter Four
Cormal
In retrospect, Cormal should probably not have taken the grumblings as more than people expressing a bit of frustration. But he was responsible for these Mage Warriors, and hearing that disrespect had been infuriating.
“I don’t care if it’s boring and you think you have better things to do!” Cormal roared at the collected group of Mage Warriors who were supposed to be searching for a cure for the Prince. They all goggled at him, wide-eyed.
“You’re Mage Warriors, and it’s your duty to protect the royal family and the country.
We have never had a more clear duty, so you will just have to deal with the fact it’s not as exciting as a demon attack!
I don’t care if you need to brush up on your Old Tongue or if it’s giving you a headache or if you never want to read a page of any book ever again.
You will read these books in every spare minute that you have, do you understand me? ”
“You’re not speaking in the Old Tongue like these long-winded books, so I’m pretty sure they all understood you, yes.”
Cormal whirled on Molun, who was standing there, leaning on his cane, looking slightly amused.
Molun addressed the others. “It sounds to me like we’re all a little out of sorts and could use some food. Why don’t you take a short break?”
The other Mage Warriors instantly took the excuse to flee, and as soon as the room was empty, Cormal whirled on Molun, “Don’t you ever do that in front of the other Mage Warriors again!”
“What,” Molun asked, still sounding amused, “calm down a situation?”
“Undermine me!” Cormal snapped. “You’re supposed to be my Secundus. Don’t you forget it!”
Molun’s expression went flat, his voice tight. “If you think I can forget for a single second that I’m your Secundus, then you’re not paying attention.”
Cormal had just enough presence of mind to turn and walk away instead of lighting the man on fire.
Cormal raged to Delana about it when she came to see him after dinner. She sat down in the chair in front of his desk and crossed her long legs leisurely, like he wasn’t spitting mad.
“Does no one understand what we’re trying to do? Does making jokes make everyone take the situation more seriously?”
Dryly, she said, “Well I don’t think threatening to light them on fire has been helping, so maybe Molun was trying something different.”
Cormal whirled on her. “It’s not funny! They wanted to give up searching for a solution for the Prince.
What, it’s too much of an inconvenience to need to do more reading than normal when the man hasn’t been able to touch anything in seven years?
When for more than six years, he couldn’t speak to or be seen by anyone but his sister?
I’m sorry, but I will absolutely not tolerate anyone suggesting for so much as an instant that they can’t sit on their asses and read every single book that we have in the whole entire castle, is that clear? ”
“Very clear,” Delana said, eying him with an expression he couldn’t figure out. “Do you really think that any of them were suggesting giving up? Or were they simply expressing frustration for a difficult task?”
“I’m frustrated, too!” Cormal snapped.
“And of all the possible reactions to this frustration, I think Molun’s is the most useful so far. You know, they all went back to reading once they’d had a snack. They’re all doing exactly what they need to be doing, Cormal.”
“What?” he snarled. “And it’s just me who’s behaving badly?”
“Well, I can’t truthfully say that I’ve seen you behaving well recently.”
This hurt more than he expected it to, and he snapped, “I’m trying! It’s a lot to ask of anyone.”
“I know it is,” she agreed.
“I just want some support,” he groaned. “Is that so much to ask?”
“You have a lot of people who support the cause of protecting the royal family and the country. If you’re feeling that you aren’t very supported right now, then perhaps you should be asking yourself why that is.”
“Because I can’t seduce people the way he could?”
Delana rose smoothly to her feet, her expression exasperated. “You know, Cormal, I think this might all go a little easier if you at least didn’t lie to yourself, even if you insist on lying to everyone else.”
And then she left before Cormal could come up with a snappy comeback. There was nothing worse than being left to stew like this. Even if he came up with something to say now, it wasn’t like he could go yell it at Delana an hour later.
“That was nice of you.”
Cormal startled badly, but although the fire ball appeared in his hand, he didn’t throw it.
“You’re really quiet,” he managed to say after a moment.
The Prince smiled faintly, even as Cormal realized that the words might have been harmful. The Prince hadn’t asked to be quiet.
“Sorry,” he muttered, and the fireball winked out.
“It’s good that you’re able to defend yourself,” the Prince said, coming to sit on the edge of Cormal’s desk.
Anyone else, and Cormal would have told them to get off, but it wasn’t like the Prince could disturb anything—and it wasn’t like Cormal got very far trying to tell the Prince or Princess to do anything.
Weirdly, it hadn’t sounded like the Prince was insulting him. Cormal conjured a fireball deliberately this time, holding it in his hand.
“Do you think so?” he asked. “I do wonder sometimes.”
The Prince made a considering noise. “Is that a crack in your armor?”
Cormal looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s very frustrating working with someone who never admits that they’re wrong.”
Cormal digested this. “But what if someone isn’t wrong?”
The Prince looked faintly amused. “I think you’re missing the point. Let’s be hypothetical, if that makes you more comfortable.”
Cormal huffed a breath. “Are you saying that my father would admit that he was wrong? That Brannal would? They were the strongest Summuses that I know, and I can tell you right now, my father didn’t believe in being wrong. Ever.”
The Prince nodded.
“No, I don’t suppose he did. And I think he tried to pass that on to both you and Brannal.
So think about that for a moment. You were both raised learning all the same warning stories, both dedicated to protecting my family and the country.
You fought the same demons. Literally. Do you truly believe, in your heart, that it’s just his cock that made Brannal decide that his past learning was wrong and Perian was more than a demon who should be destroyed? ”
Cormal stared at the Prince and his earnest gray eyes… and found that he couldn’t, quite, say so.
“Just something to think about,” the Prince added.
“Thank you again for defending the search on my behalf. How about if I stop by tomorrow and thank everyone? Do you think that might inspire them a little more? It is a lot of reading, and while I miss it dreadfully, I can see why the others are getting tired of it.”
Cormal nodded. “Yes, that’s an excellent idea. And you know, I’d be happy to flip the pages if you wanted to be involved.”
The Prince went very still. “Would you?”
“Of course.” Cormal shrugged. “I’ll be reading as well. It isn’t much work to flip a page anytime you ask. And as you say, it would probably be good for morale.” Ruefully, he admitted, “A sight better than me yelling at them. It’s like you’ve been raised to rule or something.”
The Prince’s lips tipped up, but there was a shadow in his eyes. “Can’t really rule when you can’t touch anything, can you?”
“Can’t you?” Cormal answered. “There’s no law that says you have to be able to touch to rule.”
The Prince scoffed. “Then that is solely because no one thought of a situation as absurd as this one.”
“I grant you that it’s far from ideal,” Cormal agreed. “But your brain works just fine, clearly. You can speak and be seen by everyone now. If everyone can see and hear you, what more do they need?”
Stiffly, the Prince said, “Perhaps they’re all wasting their time after all?”
Cormal winced and rose to his feet, reaching for a man whom he couldn’t touch. The Prince leaned away from him.
“No, no, I didn’t mean that, not at all!
” Cormal apologized hurriedly. “We’ll look for a solution until we find one.
You should get to feel the sun on your face, touch whoever you want, ride a horse again, and do everything that everyone else does!
I meant only that it’s not strictly necessary to rule.
The essential pieces of you are still here. They always have been.”
The Prince stared at him for a long moment, and then his lips tipped up slightly, and his shoulders unbunched.
“Thank you, Cormal.”
Cormal nodded his head, still not quite sure what to make of this man, and watched as he rose to his feet and left the room, as silent as a shadow.
He hadn’t called him Summus, Cormal realized.
He’d called him by his name, just as he always did, and it hadn’t sounded like asshole.
He sat back down behind his desk. He really hadn’t meant to upset him—but then, sometimes actions didn’t have the intended effects, did they?
Cormal was committed to searching until they came up with a solution…
and he’d never admit he was afraid there was no solution to be found.
They weren’t through all the books by any means, either here or at the Great Library. Everyone was looking. Kinan was the heir to the throne, and everyone wanted him to be well.
Cormal hadn’t liked the way the other man had seemed so discouraged. The Queen had spoken of all the accelerated learning and education that he and the Princess would need to have. Was that not progressing? Was there an impediment that Cormal wasn’t aware of? He’d check with the Queen tomorrow.
His discussion with Queen Talira was immensely frustrating.
Cormal frowned at her. “What do you mean, you think it better to proceed with caution?”
“The situation needs to be resolved,” the Queen declared. “Kinan is plenty busy right now catching up on six years of missed education.”