Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
T heir party was tired and bedraggled by the time they reached the front gates of the royal villa. The guards recognized Leofric, and while they knew he’d been dismissed from Prince Alexios’s service, they dispatched a porter to let him know of their arrival. Cosmo sidled up to Sorex, who turned around the atrium with awe.
“This place is huge, isn’t it?” Cosmo asked him.
“Yeah,” said Sorex. “Just one family lives here? That’s crazy.”
“Well,” said Cosmo, “They have staff, too. And sometimes extended family.”
“And us?”
“Well, I dunno about living here, but yes. Us too.”
They stood in silence for a while, until Sorex broke it. “Did you forgive Uncle Leo?”
Cosmo startled. “What?”
“When he got back without you, he was really upset. We thought it was because he left you behind.”
Cosmo couldn’t help the small smile at Sorex’s words.
“But he still seems pretty miserable,” said Sorex.
“How can you even tell?” Cosmo blurted.
Sorex laughed. “Yeah, he’s kind of…”
“Uptight?”
“That’s a word for it, I suppose.” He squinted at Cosmo. “So, did you?”
“Forgive him?”
“Yes.”
“Sort of,” said Cosmo. “I mean—yes, but things are still…weird.”
Sorex nodded sagely. “I understand that,” he said. “Sometimes it takes some time for how you feel to catch up with what you know. ”
“Cosmo! Leofric! And—” Auro’s voice came echoing down the hall, and broke off into a startled cry.
Before Cosmo could formulate a response, Auro collided with him and squashed the breath from his lungs. He laughed, but then his arms were empty once again, and he turned, unsteady, to see Ozias similarly assaulted. Auro had burst into tears, and refused to release Ozias, who looked desperately uncomfortable, but eventually softened, and returned Auro’s hug. Cosmo couldn’t help it, he joined his brothers, and threw his arms around them both.
It was a simple thing, a hug. He’d been embraced by countless lovers and friends over the years, but a simple embrace amongst brothers was something he’d written off, something Cosmo assumed he’d never feel again, and the aching grief crashed through him all at once, and he found his own eyes prickling as he squashed his brothers close.
“What on earth is going on?” said a voice.
Cosmo turned to see Prince Alexios approach their party, his brown eyes wide and bemused. “They followed us home,” Cosmo said, over the top of Auro’s head. “Can we keep them?”
It took half the night for Cosmo, Ozias and Leofric to relay the details of their journey. “Good grief,” said Alexios. “You haven’t been gone that long.”
“It feels like it,” Leofric grumbled.
They sat in the sitting room in Prince Alexios’s chambers. Servants had brought them wine and supper, and Sorex was now curled up asleep on one of the settees. Cosmo felt he was seconds away from nodding off, too.
“Alright,” said Alexios, once everyone had fallen into silence, realizing they had nothing left to say. “I think…perhaps we should retire for the evening, and resume again when we are fresher.”
“Agreed,” said Cosmo, with a yawn. He rose and pulled a blanket over Sorex.
“My lady,” said Alexios graciously to Laela. “I would be honored if you would take my bed for the evening. The blankets are fresh, and there is a curtain for privacy. We can find more suitable accommodations for everyone tomorrow.”
Laela dipped her head. “Gratitude, Your Highness.” She looked uncertainly to Leofric, but held her tongue. When recounting their tale, Cosmo had skirted around certain parts of his travels with Leofric, and Leofric had taken his lead. Alexios frowned, watching their eyes flit between each other, but he’d said nothing. An awkward moment descended on the room, and then by some mutual agreement it seemed like everyone made their own sleeping arrangements.
Leofric stayed out in the sitting room, stretching his long body out on one of the other sofas. Alexios and Auro took up residence on a pile of fur rugs in front of the fire, and Ozias followed Cosmo into the chamber of servants’ quarters that Cosmo and Leofric had once shared.
It felt strange, having Ozias here. Cosmo found himself with the constant urge to turn and stare at him, as if he were afraid Ozias would suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke. He didn’t, not yet at any rate. He took the bed beside the window, bade Cosmo goodnight, and was fast asleep in seconds.
Cosmo was far too keyed up to sleep. After tossing and turning restlessly for an hour, he got up and padded across the room to the trunk where Leofric had kept his things. It was full of his extra uniforms, tunics and loincloths, and for a moment Cosmo just closed his eyes an inhaled. The clothing in the trunk was clean, but Cosmo could still detect a hint of Leofric in the folded fabrics. It soothed him immediately, and he reached for one of the undyed, rough spun tunics, lifting it out of the trunk as if it were a sacred shroud.
Leofric was just outside the chamber door, but Cosmo had no belief in his own ability to keep his touches proper and chaste, even in a suite of rooms stuffed to bursting with their families. Instead, he ran his hands over the linen, rubbing the fabric between his fingers, relishing the feel of it. He wished he was relishing of the feeling of it as the sole barrier between his hands and the heated skin of a certain surly soldier, but this would have to do for now. Cosmo usually slept naked, but without the comfort of Leofric at his side, he pulled the tunic on, pressing it close to his flesh to feel the worn fabric and inhale the scent. When he returned to his bed, he had barely placed his head upon the pillow before he was sucked down into sleep.
Leofric woke, startled, to the sound of rapping on the door. Before he’d even opened his eyes he had a blade clutched in his fist, certain the threat they’d avoided on the road was at last closing its jaws around them.
“Your Royal Highness,” came the voice from without. “Her Grace, Queen Dafina, awaits.”
“A moment,” came Alexios’s groggy reply from the rug where he’d spent the night. He looked around, his eyes lighting upon Leofric. “You can lower your blade, captain.”
“We’ll see,” Leofric muttered sourly, massaging the crick in his neck with his off hand.
Dafina swept into the chambers, her face buried in a scroll, not looking where she was going. “Alexios,” she said. “Get up. It’s midmorning, for goodness’ sake.”
“Good Morning, Your Grace,” said Alexios.
“I’ve had a notion about your idea for a standing naval force that would allow—” She broke off and looked up at last, frowning, as if she’d realized Alexios’s voice had come not from the luxurious sleeping couch but from the sitting area, where Alexios knelt in front of the fire, tucking a thick blanket around Auro, who was still asleep, as he rose.
Dafina swept her eyes over Alexios’s chambers, her confusion mounting as they lit upon each sleeping figure. Cosmo and Ozias now emerged from the adjacent chamber at all the ruckus. “Alexios, who are all these people?” She heard a dainty yawn from behind her and turned to Alexios’s bed, aghast, to see Laela sitting up and peering at her through the gauzy curtained canopy. “Why is there a woman in your bed?”
Alexios grimaced. “My lady?—”
Dafina braced a hand upon her hip. “I know there is nothing passionate between us, Alexios,” she said angrily, “And Auro is one thing, but I would have thought?—”
“Deepest Apologies, Your Grace,” said Leofric, sinking to one knee before her. “The circumstances are peculiar—but the lady is actually my wife.”
“Your…?”
“My family arrived late last night, and His Highness gallantly offered use of his bed for her to get some rest.”
Dafina narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but relented. “I thought you’d had a party without me,” she said.
“Never that, Your Grace,” said Alexios. “Come, let us, er, adjourn to my terrace and we can discuss your notion.”
Dafina cast curious looks over her shoulder as Alexios shooed her out onto the balcony.
Sorex stirred in his sleep, one leg falling of the couch on which he’d slept. Leofric knelt beside him, easing the boy’s leg back up onto the cushions, and adjusted the blankets over him. “I can’t believe he slept through that,” Leofric said.
“I can’t believe a queen just accused me of being a harlot,” said Laela.
“I feel as though she was accusing Alexios of being a harlot,” Ozias put in. He lowered his voice with a glance at Auro, who was still sound asleep as well. “She is his betrothed, after all.”
Leofric narrowed his eyes. “How did you know that?”
“Know what?”
“That His Highness and the Queen are to be married?”
“Oh,” said Ozias. “Cosmo told me. Or I heard it somewhere, on the road.”
“Where exactly?”
“Leofric, enough,” Cosmo cut across them. “We discussed it at your home, when we explained the tale of Janus to Ozias and Laela. You were sitting right there.”
Leofric flushed, recalling now that Cosmo was right. “Apologies,” he said grudgingly. “I am not yet myself this morning.”
Ozias rolled his eyes. “You seem yourself to me,” he said, under his breath, but of course loud enough for Leofric to hear.
Cosmo pinched him. “Both of you, enough. We are all here to work together, no? We are all upon the same side.”
Logically, Leofric knew that Cosmo was right. It wouldn’t help anyone if they all began fighting amongst themselves. They must be united into a fist of single purpose if they hoped to smash Janus and unmask his allies.
That brought him up short. Last evening, Prince Alexios had said nothing of his father, the king. His Grace King Nelios had been hovering at the door to the afterlife when Leofric had set out on his quest—it seemed a lifetime ago, now, he thought, looking at Cosmo across the room.
Leofric excused himself and went out onto the balcony. Standing a respectful distance away, he cleared his throat to announce his presence. His Highness and Her Grace looked up, and Alexios beckoned Leofric closer with a terse jerk of his head. “A moment, my lady.”
“Alexios,” said the Queen, and when she drew herself up to her full height, she could look Alexios directly in the eye. “If you ‘my lady’ me one more time I’m going to push you off this balcony.”
Alexios smiled. “As you wish, Dafina.”
He followed Leofric back inside, as Dafina called, “Do take your time! I was so hoping to be stuck standing outside on your balcony all morning.”
“I see you’re doing well in wooing Her Grace,” Leofric heard himself say.
Alexios startled. “Are you…are you making a joke?”
“Thought I’d give it a try, Your Highness,” said Leofric.
Alexios just stared at him, mouth gaping for a moment. Then he laughed. “Well, alright then. Apparently, you’ve had quite the transformative journey.”
Leofric balked, flustered. “Apologies, Your Highness. I didn’t mean?—”
Alexios smacked a hand over Leofric’s mouth, just as Leofric had done to Cosmo, a thousand years ago. “What did you need, Leofric?”
He waited for Alexios to release him. Once freed, Leofric’s tone turned grave. “A serious matter, Your Highness—how fares His Grace, your father?”
Alexios looked genuinely puzzled. “Still fine, of course.”
“What do you mean, still?”
“I sent a messenger, twice, while you were away,” said Alexios. “Letting you know he had taken a turn for the better.”
“I never received any message, Your Highness.”
“Odd,” said Alexios, but he couldn’t help but brighten. “My father has made a full recovery—shortly after you and Cosmo left.”
“How? Why? He was on death’s door.”
Alexios shrugged. “He’s a man, despite what he would have all of us believe. Men sicken. Then they heal.”
Leofric supposed that was true, and he supposed it should be a relief. Nelios was a fierce commander, and Leofric felt better having him at the helm of any defenses the villa should have to mount against an assault. “I am relieved to hear it, Your Highness,” Leofric said, but even to his own ears the words sounded hollow.
The prince gave Leofric a sidelong look. “Kato was actually a large help. He brought Her Grace’s medicus to see to father. The man has more experience than any on the continent, after helping Neossós survive its plague.”
“I see,” said Leofric, though he didn’t. None of this felt quite right—though he couldn’t place his finger on why. He stared at Alexios, hard, the way he’d learned from Auro to see through a glamour. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t discern anything amiss with the man standing before him. There was no shimmer, no swoop of vertigo through his stomach. Nothing out of the ordinary.
So why did Leofric feel so afraid?