Molun grinned at them. “Hello, two of my favorite people. How’s it going today?”
Perian said, “I got to see that Arvus is a lying liar who lies.”
They all shot him surprised looks.
“That whole thing about earth being so subtle and not showy? Lies! He broke the quadrangle earlier and made this wall of earth, and it was awesome!”
Molun looked at Perian like it was clear there had to be way more to the story than that, but he seemed to judge the mood right, and he shot Arvus a leer.
“Arvus has hidden depths. Super deep.”
Perian groaned. “Oh, wow, those bedroom eyes. All right, I think that’s enough for me. I need to go have lunch.”
The Warrior with Molun huffed a laugh, and Perian shot him a commiserating glance. He nodded to Perian, which told him that either he supported him, he didn’t know what was going on, or he was a consummate professional. Perian didn’t need everyone to like him, but the professionalism would be a nice change.
Perian piled the blankets in the basket and then carefully took it with his left hand, sighing.
“At least this should heal faster than the knife wound,” he reminded himself. He smiled at Arvus. “Thank you for the escort. I appreciate it, even if it was ridiculous.”
Arvus just smiled softly at him, and Perian nodded at the other two and then went through the bushes to where Renny was waiting for him.
She pounced as soon as he got in there.
Chapter Ten
Are you all right?” she demanded. “What happened? How badly are you hurt?”
Perian blew out a breath. “Let’s get this set up first. I do need help.”
Renny assisted with laying out the picnic blanket, and once they were settled, she insisted on pulling out all of the food.
“What are these?” she asked.
Pulling them out, Perian saw that “these” were in fact little hearts that had been made out of scraps of fabric, pieces of food, paper, leaves, and other odds and ends. Perian just stared at them.
“Oh.”
He could feel his eyes stinging with tears. Renny shuffled across the blanket and poured them into his hands.
“They’re for you, aren’t they?”
The tears spilled over as Perian nodded, and Renny wrapped her arms around him.
“What happened, Perian?” she asked. “You were hurt again. Do they want you to get well?”
Perian shook his head, then amended, “Well,yes, they want me to get well, but I was trying to help someone when it happened, and I think they’re acknowledging that.”
“What happened?”
Perian wondered if he should tell Renny everything, but she seemed to know what he was thinking. She poked him in the side. “I’m twelve. I’ll be thirteen soon.”
And one day, she was going to be Queen. He wouldn’t go into graphic detail, but maybe this was exactly the sort of thing she needed to know.
So taking a deep breath, Perian told her what had happened the day before, the horrible feeling he still didn’t totally understand—could something be so awful that it made the place it was happeningfeelwrong?—the scared woman, and what they had discovered. He finished by explaining how the man was in the dungeons right now and the Queen would be pronouncing judgment.
Renny’s face screwed up with resolution. “I’m going to be there, too.”
Perian’s eyes widened. “Uh, Renny—”
