Chapter Thirty-Two
Cormal
The trip back to the castle was anxiety-inducing in a lot of ways, but, fortunately, there was no demon attack.
Cormal hoped that meant Yannoma and Trill were wrong about Kinan’s vulnerability, but he suspected it meant they’d been lucky—and that the Warriors, Mage Warriors, and District Wardens were doing their jobs.
The main thoroughfares and towns were inspected regularly to keep everyone safe.
Thankfully, that had paid off for Kinan on this trip.
Cormal knew he wasn’t the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when they crossed the drawbridge and made it to the stables unscathed. He also noticed that not everyone was as delighted—but then he couldn’t really expect that from those who might have walked into a death sentence.
The thought of waiting for such sentencing made Cormal antsy, and he could only imagine now what he’d put Perian through when he’d been locked in the dungeon for days and then dragged before the Queen as soon as he regained consciousness.
Cormal was glad that he’d apologized, but he wasn’t sure anything would ever be enough.
Cormal would have been inclined to hustle them all into rooms and get them out of the public eye as quickly as possible, but that plan was immediately derailed by the fact that Prince Horsey would permit no one but Perian to take care of him.
Cormal had forgotten about that. It had seemed natural enough on the road.
Even in the inns, where it was a strange stable and strange stable hands, that kind of made sense.
But here, in the royal stable, where Prince Horsey had lived for years…
It should have been utterly unnecessary—if the horse wasn’t as opinionated as the person who’d named him.
Once Perian started grooming Prince Horsey, Brannal went to work on Warrior.
And then Cormal felt like an entitled idiot if he left Fireball to someone else.
There was a weird moment where all the other Warriors and Mage Warriors stared at Summus—Brannal—caring for his horse and wondered if they all needed to do it, but then Onadal snapped at them to stop dragging their feet.
The captain of the guard shot them a stern glare.
“Her Majesty will make an announcement when she’s ready to do so. I wouldn’t like to be the person who gossiped about anything she might say before then. Understood?”
There was a chorus of “Yes, sir” from every mouth. Cormal hoped that would at least slow the rumor mill down a bit.
Brannal was staring at him, and after a moment, Cormal realized it was because he was still Summus, and there were a bunch of Mage Warriors in the crowd, too. He repeated the message, and then they were all sent off to clean up and find dinner.
Onadal, Bennan, and Chamis stayed behind along with the others from the estate.
“These two are going to stay outside your door,” Onadal told Brannal and Perian.
Brannal opened his mouth, no doubt to protest, but Onadal raised his hand palm up.
“I’m well aware you can take care of yourself,” he assured Brannal. “You must know that it would be much better for Perian if you didn’t have to.”
Brannal huffed a breath but nodded.
Onadal continued, “Delana and I already drew up a schedule with Mages and Mage Warriors. We’ll also need—”
“Yannoma will stay with us,” Molun said firmly.
Trill shot him a grateful look. Yannoma rolled her eyes, but Cormal was pretty sure she was grateful, too. The alternative, if not the dungeon outright, would definitely have been something more… confined.
Onadal inclined his head like that didn’t surprise him.
“Delana and I have assigned Mage Warriors and Warriors to watch over your room.” He eyed Molun sternly. “No tricks. This is truly to protect you as much as anything else. There’s no way rumors aren’t spreading through the castle as we speak, and it only takes one person to do something stupid.”
Molun laughed, though Cormal thought he wasn’t quite as relaxed as he appeared. “I get it. We’ll behave.”
“Have Warriors always been this stupid?” Yannoma asked. “I think I’m a bit embarrassed.”
Cormal was glad there weren’t very many Warriors left.
The rest of them knew that she was joking—probably—but he realized anew how fraught this situation was.
There was no way they were going to get through it without tempers flaring—something that had never worried him overmuch, since the temper was usually his.
But it was suddenly obvious how quickly the situation could escalate out of control.
But for now, they had a plan, and—
“Perian!”
The word was shrieked at the top of her lungs, and a projectile in the form of a thirteen-year-old princess burst into the stables and launched itself at Perian, who caught her and yelled back, “Renny!”
Cormal sighed. If anyone hadn’t realized Perian was back, they would now.
Well, he supposed it hadn’t been likely they could have hidden it for very long.
There was a lot of hugging, some tears, and a great deal of babble that Cormal didn’t try to keep track of.
Perian finally managed to convince the Princess that they needed to get out of the stables and let everyone get back to their jobs.
It was clear that whatever she was supposed to be doing, none of it was going to get done while she was reuniting with Perian.
Her protection had caught up with her, and thankfully, between him and Onadal, they weren’t going to do anything rash.
With another sigh, Cormal realized that he had no idea what the actual sentiment in the castle was towards carnalions—or suspected carnalions. He’d always claimed that everyone was afraid because he had been afraid. He’d been so scared of the past that he hadn’t seen the present.
He had no idea how many people were like him and how many were like Perian’s friends.
Cormal was struck anew by the bravery and selflessness of those who’d come back. They’d voluntarily walked into a situation that could end with the Queen sentencing them to death. Knowing there were people who’d be advocating for a different outcome didn’t mean the danger wasn’t very real.
This was, naturally, when two Warriors—Cormal didn’t know them by name, and he wondered if that was deliberate—appeared to announce that the Queen would like to see Kinan now, and everyone else was expected to go to their rooms before they attended an audience with the Queen tomorrow morning.
The Princess began to protest immediately, but with that consummate skill that he possessed, Perian managed to talk her down.
“Do you wish to make this as difficult as possible for us, or as easy as possible?” he asked.
She huffed out an aggrieved sigh and muttered, “Easy.”
Perian smiled at her. “That’s what I thought. There’s a lot going on, and of course your mother doesn’t wish anything to happen to you.”
She crossed her arms. “What are you going to do? Keep me up all night talking to me?”
Perian laughed. “If we wound up staying together, probably. But there will be lots of time for catching up, and some of us have been riding all day. There’s no doubt going to be a lot going on tomorrow, and we should be at our best to ensure this goes well, shouldn’t we?”
“Fine,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “But nothing better happen to you! Or else!”
Perian managed not to laugh. “I’ll be with Brannal, and Bennan and Chamis have been kind enough to agree to stay with us and make sure that we’re not subject to a steady stream of visitors all night.”
The Princess looked like she wasn’t entirely buying what he was selling, but she let him get away with it.
She gave him another hug and then finally allowed herself to be escorted back to wherever she was supposed to be—after she made Perian solemnly promise that he would see her tomorrow and he wouldn’t, under any circumstances, leave without telling her.
(She shot a poisonous glare at Cormal at that, so it turned out she had noticed he was there.)
Perian solemnly promised, though he had to know that he couldn’t guarantee any such thing. But it was clear there’d only been one possible answer that would appease the Princess.
Reluctantly, everyone went their separate ways until it was just Cormal and Kinan. Cormal realized he should probably be going somewhere, too—he had a lot of explaining to do with Delana—only then Kinan said, “Come on. We shouldn’t keep my mother waiting.”
Oh. Apparently, Kinan expected them to stick together. The time at Perian’s estate already seemed a bit like a dream, but… maybe it wasn’t going to all disappear just because they were back at the castle.
They made their way to the royal wing, and Cormal was pleased when they were directed to the Queen’s study rather than her receiving room or throne room. He took it as a good sign.
The Queen was busy when they entered, but she presently finished what she was writing and tucked it away. She raised an eyebrow at Cormal but didn’t object to his presence.
Her expression for Kinan was stern but thankfully not angry. “Sit down.”
They sat.
“This wasn’t a particularly wise thing to do,” she said.
Kinan was sitting with his back ramrod straight.
He didn’t look cowed by her in the slightest, although…
yes, his hands were splayed a little too wide to be natural, so Cormal was pretty sure he was very carefully not clenching his hands into fists—though whether he was angry or nervous or both, Cormal wasn’t quite sure.
Smoothly, Kinan said, “It rather depends on the outcome I desired, Mother.”
“And if demons had attacked?” she challenged.
“It would have been terrible,” he agreed readily. “I didn’t realize that was a risk before I left; none of us did. But it’s why everyone agreed to escort me back, to ensure I was safe, even though it was my own fault.”
“You didn’t know!” Cormal couldn’t help but interject.
The Queen shot him a look, and Cormal subsided reluctantly.
“And you believe that you’re out of danger now?” the Queen asked.