“You’re welcome,” Perian assured her. “He shouldn’t have done that to you.”
“I couldn’t say anything,” she sobbed. “I should have said something. I couldn’t say anything. I was so afraid.”
“He’s a lot bigger than you are,” Perian said. “I was scared, too.”
In a whisper, she said, “I was afraid he’d hurt memore.”
Oh. Perian’s temper was at risk of boiling over, and if he could have lobbed fireballs, then that particular Warrior would definitely have been burnt to a crisp.
The doctor spoke before Perian could, which was probably a good thing, because Perian wouldn’t have had anything sensible to say.
“We won’t allow him to harm you or anyone else again. Now I know this is difficult, but do you think you can tell me what happened?”
She nodded.
“I can go,” Perian offered.
But Misalla wouldn’t release him, and if supporting her and bearing witness was what she needed, then he could do that.
In a whisper, she said, “He gets mean. And he doesn’t take no for an answer.”
Based on the impressions that Perian had got when he’d seen the man interacting with her, he was pretty sure that ignoring the “no” was exactly what the man wanted to do. Perian felt more than a little ill.
“We’ll take care of it,” the doctor promised her firmly. “Is there anyone else who might wish to speak with us? It will be in confidence, and I’ll approach them to see if they would be willing to speak to me.”
She was silent for a moment, and then she gave a shaky nod.
Fire and water and all the elements.If there was a way to make this worse, that was definitely it. Perian only realized he was shaking when the doctor spoke to him.
“I think you should drink this, Perian.”
He stared at the glass of water like he’d never seen one before, but he eventually figured out to take it into his hands and drink some of it. It tasted funny. Or maybe it was his mouth that tasted funny, like the bile in his stomach had crawled up his throat and invaded.
Nisal had apparently found some of Misalla’s friends who could cuddle up with her. When she turned to them, Perian gave her arm a pat and then climbed to his shaky feet. He felt weirdly cold. Brannal had come in at some point, and he eyed Perian with concern, but Perian squeezed his arm and summoned a smile from somewhere. He wasn’t the priority right now.
Onadal, the doctor, and Brannal were all sending out instructions, runners running into and out of the room. Perian made sure that nothing more was needed from him, then made his way blindly back to his and Brannal’s rooms. He stood there blankly for a long moment, unable to imagine what he was possibly supposed to do now, then he left the room and went across the hall.
Thankfully, Molun was there.
“Oh, Perian, I thought—” he cut off as he got a look at him. “Perian! What happened?”
And Perian, who’d been trying to keep all of this in so that he’d be a good support for Misalla, burst into tears.
Chapter Nine
Molun clearly had no idea what was going on because Perian hadn’t explained anything, but he pulled Perian into his arms anyway and held him tight, and Perian sobbed all over his chest.
He didn’t realize Arvus was back until he felt another set of arms wrap around him and another body settle against him. It wasn’t as good as Brannal’s body, but it was tied for a close second.
“What’s going on?” Arvus asked.
“I have no idea,” Molun answered.
Perian wasn’t crying as hard anymore.
“It’s fine,” he said with a sniff. “I mean, it’s not fine. I was just trying to keep it together before, and Brannal is dealing with it, so it was just me in the room, and I realized I wasn’t doing so well on my own.”
Molun kissed his forehead. “You should definitely not have to deal with anything on your own, especially not when you’reupset like this. Do you want to talk about it?”
