Chapter Twenty-Four
Trill
The next day, Arvus’s horse threw a shoe just before lunchtime, and they had to hobble into the next town to get it fixed.
Molun fretted like he was just imagining all the ways that Cormal could be dead by now.
The lost shoe delayed them for a couple hours, and this time, Molun insisted they press on.
“Cormal had to have arrived sometime today. We might be too late, but we have to try!”
Reluctantly, Arvus agreed. Trill was pushing energy into Molun’s leg at every opportunity. It grew dark, but they passed the town Arvus said was where they sent their letters to Perian and Brannal.
Thankfully, the road was in good repair, and they were able to follow it out to what Trill assumed was the estate. It was too dark to see much.
“It doesn’t sound like anyone’s being tortured,” Trill pointed out.
He’d meant it in jest, but Molun took his words seriously. “Brannal is too smart for there to be witnesses. We need to get inside to find out what’s going on.”
There didn’t seem to be a better idea. It was the middle of the night, it was cold, and they were hours out of town. They were able to stable their horses, but there was no one there. A large dark horse stamped and snorted his annoyance.
“Sorry, sorry,” Molun told him placatingly. “We didn’t mean to interrupt your beauty sleep. I’ll bring you lots of apples later, all right? Please don’t lead a revolt.”
The horse tossed his mane around and snorted some more, but he subsided.
“Thank all the elements,” Molun whispered. “Now, come on.”
Their plan to sneak quietly into the house suffered an immediate check.
They made it through the unlocked front door, but Molun promptly walked into what Trill thought was a table.
And then as he was reeling back from that, cursing, he knocked into Arvus, who knocked into something that went crashing to the ground and shattered.
Molun was saying, “Ow, ow, ow!” when the front hall was suddenly aglow and a menacing voice said, “Whoever you are, you just made a big mistake!”
There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Molun said, “Cormal, are you naked?”
A moment later, someone came leaping down the stairs and threw themselves into Molun’s arms with a shriek of, “Molun!” which was returned with an equally ear-splitting shriek of, “Perian!”
Cormal was definitely naked. And Trill knew that he was his uncle, but wow, he had nothing to be ashamed of, that was for sure.
Cormal’s fireballs winked out. “I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared with the Prince, presumably to put some trousers on, and the other man, who had to be Brannal, came down the stairs with his fireballs still in his hands—but he was smiling widely, so Trill assumed this was just so that Molun didn’t run into any more furniture.
“Sorry about that,” Arvus said, gesturing at what had clearly been a vase, because there were flowers and water on the floor, too.
Perian came over to hug him. “I don’t care. I can get more vases. It’s so good to see you!”
Brannal soon had lamps lit, and he ushered them all into the sitting room, giving Arvus and Molun both big hugs.
Perian smiled at Trill.
“You must be Trill. Cormal and Kee have been telling us all about you.” His expression went stern as he turned to Molun and Arvus, putting his hands on his hips. “And why, might I ask, did I have to hear about this super exciting news from Cormal and Kee?”
Molun looked very shame-faced all of a sudden, and even Arvus looked a bit abashed, which was hilarious, because Perian was about half their size.
He wasn’t tiny, but he certainly wasn’t built like they were, and yet it was obvious that they were, if not actually intimidated by him, well aware that they were in trouble.
“We were busy?” Molun tried.
Perian scoffed. “You had to have recovery periods. You could have been writing.”
“I was so glorious fucked out that my fingers couldn’t pick up a pen?” Molun tried.
Perian tried to keep a serious expression, but Trill could actually see him lose the battle with his glee.
“That good, is it?”
Molun practically melted with relief. “So good! And now that you and Brannal are gone, there’s no one for me to tell in absolutely glorious detail!”
Cormal chose that moment to walk into the room, the Prince trailing slightly behind him.
“More sex talk, really?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who was wandering around the house naked!” Molun said hotly.
Cormal’s cheeks had gone red, but he said, “We were woken in bed to crashes coming from downstairs. I thought we were under attack! Of course I didn’t stop to put clothes on.”
“But why were you naked in—”
Molun seemed finally to notice the way the Prince was hovering next to Cormal.
“Wait. What? When did this happen?”
Trill laughed. “You didn’t know about that?” A look at Arvus showed he hadn’t known either. Trill gestured at them. “But it’s so obvious.”
“How would it even work?” Molun demanded curiously.
The Prince’s face went eerily blank, and Cormal stepped protectively in front of him.
Trill said, “Very well from the look of them,” at the same time that Perian said, “Let me tell you how the glee is not subtle.”
They looked at each other and then laughed.
Molun now looked seriously intrigued. “I have so many questions.”
Arvus intervened. “But you remember that while you like to share all the details of your sex life, not everyone else feels the same way.”
Molun pouted. He looked hopefully at Cormal and the Prince. “I’ll tell you all about my sex life.”
Cormal’s lip curled up in a sneer. “We already know more than we’d like to about your sex life, thank you. Now, what are you doing here? Is everything all right?”
“Seriously?” Molun demanded. “Are we all right? You pretend that you’re going off to inspect the watch stations, and you sneak out here instead? And you want to know if we’re all right? We were coming to try and stop a blood bath!”
Cormal looked genuinely surprised to learn that they’d shown up because they were worried about him.
The Prince said, “I guess Delana and I figured it out sooner. She helped me sneak out after him so he wouldn’t come alone.”
“I wouldn’t have let Brannal kill him,” Perian assured them.
Brannal huffed a breath. “I probably wouldn’t have killed him. It helps when he’s actually using sentences that make sense and not just yelling, ‘Demon, demon, demon must die!’”
Trill’s breath caught, and everyone froze. Perian’s smile became a little fixed.
“I guess you didn’t get all the details?” Perian said carefully. “You don’t need to be worried, I promise. I’m a—”
Trill’s breath shuddered out of him in an unsteady whoosh, because suddenly a lot of things made sense.
“—child of two worlds,” he whispered.
Most of the room froze again.
Cormal said, “What?”
Perian was looking at Trill like he’d never seen anything like him before. Then he let out a wet noise that was maybe supposed to be laughter.
“Really?” he said unsteadily.
Trill nodded, his own eyes tearing up. He knew carnalions, but he’d never met another child of two worlds.
“Can I hug you, please?” Perian asked.
Trill nodded hurriedly, holding out his arms, and Perian was soon in them, and they were clinging to one another, holding on tight.
“Oh, wow,” Perian breathed. “This is so amazing. I thought I might be the only one in the whole entire world, and you’re here.”
“Hold on,” Cormal said. “Are you saying—?”
Molun whirled on him and demanded with deadly precision, “Is he saying what?”
Cormal held up his hands. “Hey, just trying to understand the situation. What’s a child of two worlds?”
Perian gave Trill another squeeze and then pulled back, stepping in front of Trill protectively.
“We’re only half-carnalions. We each had a parent who was human.”
Cormal stared at him, looking shocked, and then slowly, he nodded. “Child of two worlds.”
Perian nodded back. “It’s part of why I didn’t always seem enough like a carnalion to tip anyone off. It’s why I didn’t know what I was. Or what I was capable of.”
Trill grimaced. “No one told you?”
Perian shook his head. “I never knew my mother. She apparently visited in secret until I was seven or so, but I didn’t know. My father wrote me a letter, which I found several years after he died—and only after things went wrong at the castle first.”
Trill peered around Perian to look at Cormal. “Is that what you’ve been apologizing for?”
Cormal swallowed and nodded, looking ashamed. “I wouldn’t accept what I actually knew about him as a person. I assumed he had to be dangerous, that he had to be tricking people. I tried to get him away from Brannal by, uh, any means necessary.”
Trill nodded again. Right. Because in the astonishment of finding another child of two worlds, Trill had kind of…
revealed himself without thinking about the possible consequences.
Not to a castle full of Mage Warriors, but still kind of a lot of Mage Warriors.
Just because they’d accepted Perian, who apparently hadn’t known what he was, that didn’t mean they would accept Trill, who absolutely had known, and—
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Molun was suddenly in front of him, enfolding him into his arms. “You know how much I hate it when you look like that. It’s all right, Trill, we’re not upset.
I’m not making species generalizations because that is prejudiced and harmful”—he was glaring at Cormal—“but we’re really fond of all the children of two worlds we’ve met so far. ”
And then Arvus was there, too, wrapped around him from the other side, and Trill sagged into them with relief, feeling warm and protected in their embrace.
“It’s all right,” Arvus said, stroking his back. “You’re all right, you’re safe.”
Because against all odds, this group of Mage Warriors already knew about children of two worlds, and they were all right with it. Well, they might mostly be all right with it?