Perian was still reading when there was a soft tap on the door and it opened to reveal… Brannal. Perian wasn’t sure which one of them was more taken aback, but as Brannal stepped into the room, Perian saw that he wasn’t alone. Cormal was there, too, and where Brannal looked surprised, Cormal looked displeased.
“What are you doing here?” the redhead demanded angrily.
Chapter Two
Perian made a shushing sound and gestured a little wildly at Renny, who made a noise but didn’t rouse. He carefully closed the book and shimmied off the bed, then gestured at the door. They all trooped back into the sitting room, where Molun offered him a look of sympathy and then pulled the door nearly closed again, presumably so that Renny wouldn’t be roused by the fight they were about to have.
“I was reading to Renny,” Perian said, though he thought that rather obvious.
“The Princess isn’t meant to have visitors,” Cormal said stiffly.
Brannal had several times told Perian that Cormal was an able Secundus who supported Brannal in his duties, but every interaction had demonstrated that he was determined to dislike Perian. Did he wake up that way every morning? Did it come on suddenly when he saw Perian? Perian tried not to engage, really he did, but sometimes it was hard.
With as much patience as possible, he explained, “The doctor asked me to deliver Renny’s tonic.”
He hoped this wouldn’t get the doctor in trouble, but he’d already announced it to the Warriors present, so it wasn’t like it could have remained a secret.
“I don’t see how that necessitated sitting on her bed and disturbing her by reading!”
Brannal clucked his tongue, looking amused. “Come now, Cormal, that is taking the matter too far.”
Cormal shot Brannal a resentful glare, then turned it on Perian. “If she was sleeping, she shouldn’t be disturbed!”
“She wasn’t sleeping when I arrived,” Perian defended himself again. “I offered to keep her company because she was bored, and she fell asleep as I was reading.” Not able to explain that he’d kept reading in large part for the invisible brother they all thought was dead, he shrugged. “I think she found my voice soothing. The book was rather boring.”
Cormal looked like he was going to take exception to everything that Perian had just said, and Molun interceded.
“She sounded happier than she has since she wound up in bed,” he said firmly, sounding more serious than he usually did. “And you know how much trouble we’ve been having getting her to sleep with all her fretting. Perian was very helpful.”
Cormal clearly didn’t agree. Perian suppressed a sigh and held his tongue, because it was more important that he got to spend time with Renny than that he got to tell the other man what he thought of him.
“I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her health,” Perian assured everyone. “She was feeling very down worrying that this was her illness coming back worse than before. Having someone to talk to cheered her up.”
Cormal blew air out through his nose, like he couldn’t actually object to the words but was thinking of lobbing a fireball anyway.
“You know the Princess likes to spend time with Perian,” Brannal said gently.
“Then you shouldn’t take him away from her, should you!” Cormal snapped before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room.
They all exchanged glances. Was that Cormal switching from blaming Perian for being there to blaming Perian for not being there?
Perian wasn’t the only one who seemed to thinkthatwas a little excessive, but after a rather awkward moment of silence, Brannal spoke.
“I wanted to come see how the Princess was doing myself.”
“Much happier since Perian has been here,” Molun repeated promptly, and the other Warrior nodded in agreement.
Just in case Brannal might feel nonsensically guilty thanks to Cormal’s words, Perian added, “And she was delighted to hear all about ourweekend.”
Brannal’s eyes widened slightly.
Perian amended, “All the safe-for-twelve-year-olds details about our weekend.”
Molun laughed out loud, and the other Warrior looked like they were trying not to do the same. Brannal rolled his eyes.
“Thank you for censoring yourself. How did you find her?”
“Not as well as when I last saw her, obviously,” Perian admitted unhappily. He rallied: “But she said she hasn’t felt any other dizzy spells since then. She seemed happier when I was talking with her, and I tried to remind her that setbacks could happen but positive steps forward could still occur after. I thought she was actually in pretty good form just now. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she were up and ready to face the world by the end of the week.”
