They all looked back at Cormal, who was looking pale and shocked.
“He, uh, cornered me.” He cleared his throat and sounded incredibly awkward. “I wasn’t sure how to, uh, extricate myself.”
It was the youngest that Perian had ever heard him. He’d been, what, twenty-two when this had happened? And the sixteen-year-old heir to the throne had decided to come on to him? Yikes.
Cormal was staring at Renny like he’d never seen her before. “Why would he tell you that?”
“He didn’t tell me then. I was six! He says it’s one of the most embarrassing things that’s ever happened to him. He told me just now, so that you’d stop screeching like an idiot and actually listen, for once, to what Perian and I are saying. Kee is here, he’s always been here, and I amnotmaking him up.”
“But how could he be here?” Brannal wanted to know.
She turned to him, eyes huge. “None of us know. But you know how chaotic that fight was. There were wraiths everywhere, and bodies everywhere, and Mage Warriors and Warriors trying to stop it, and your shields, Brannal. Could you say what happened every moment in that room?”
His face was a mask of pain and confusion, but after a moment, he shook his head. She speared Cormal.
“Or you?”
He shook his head. “But this… this just isn’t possible.”
“And carnalions consume energy, they don’t give it, but look at me,” she demanded, gesturing at herself. “Look at everything Perian has done for me. Does ithaveto make sense?” She tilted her head, huffed a laugh. “Kee says that he loves me very much, but if there’s a chance he could talk to someone else and they could actually respond, he would really appreciate that. And he’d like to read some more complicated books in the Old Tongue.”
She eyed them all sternly. “Do you want to know the last thing he said to each of you?” She looked at Brannal. “His party was all polite pleasantries, so he doesn’t count that. He says it was two days before. Three?” She huffed. “He can’t remember the exact day anymore. He wanted to know if he could sit in on the Mage Warrior training again. He told you that he thought it was important that he learn more about them and be able to work with them, but it was actually because he liked to watch them work.”
Brannal looked kind of shocked, but he looked faintly amused, too. “I knew that. It was why he asked me instead of Summus.”
Her lips tipped up, and then she looked at Cormal. “He avoided you for the rest of the day because he was so embarrassed.”
Cormal still looked stunned, but he also looked like he was starting to believe.
Renny turned towards her mother.
“He told you that he was sure it was going to be all right, that father was going to get well and there would be plenty of time for him to learn to rule, so you shouldn’t be in such a hurry.”
The Queen sucked in a sharp breath, let out a stuttering nod, and didn’t say anything at all.
Should Renny and Kee have done this years ago? Would it have mattered, without Perian here?
“Do you really think you can help my son?” the Queen asked.
“I don’t know,” Perian answered, swallowing. “I know as little about this as the rest of you. But what the doctor said made a lot of sense, and if I could help Renny and Kee be better without being aware of what I was doing, without consciously trying, then it surely would be better if I was doing it deliberately. At least, I think so.”
Perian didn’t know anything aboutanything. But it still felt like he had to try.
“It sounds dangerous,” Brannal said. “I don’t think now is the time to make such an attempt.”
Of course that’s what he’d say. Perian felt his jaw tighten. He wasn’t lobbing fireballs at Perian, but maybe that was just because he had more control than Cormal.
“I don’t think it will be,” Perian said stiffly. “I don’t see how trying to give energy to Kee could harm him. I can’t see it getting any worse than the situation already is.” He looked at Renny. “No offense, Renny.”
She shook her head. “I know this hasn’t been easy on Kee, even when he insists that he’s fine with it.” She looked at the corner where Kee was standing and sniffed. “Love you, too.”
Perian drew a deep breath, made himself be reasonable, even if he was annoyed with Brannal right now. “It’s true that I don’t actually know what would happen. Something could go wrong, or maybe it won’t work the way we think it will. Kee, I think the choice is up to you.”
Renny had her listening face on, and then she snapped, “That’s not true! Don’t say something like that!”
Perian laid a hand on her arm. Her face had gone mutinous.
“Renny?” he askedgently.
