“He was a terrible man!” Renny said, stamping her foot. “He did awful things! Why was he able to get anywhere near Perian?”
“We were unaware of his whereabouts,” the Queen said.
“But you did know he escaped?” Perian couldn’t help but ask, reading between the lines.
He glanced fleetingly at Brannal, but his face was a mask, and Perian had to look away.
“We were aware, yes.”
And no one had mentioned it to him, like it wouldn’t have been something he would like to know. It wouldn’t actually have changed the situation that he found himself in, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have wanted to know such a thing! How could Brannal not have said anything?
But there was a lot that Brannal hadn’t said, wasn’t there?
He’d seemed like he’d been on Perian’s side when he was arguing with Cormal earlier, but now the Queen was here, and it didn’t seem anything like that at all.
Had he not wanted to be the one to make the decision? Had he wanted the ease of being overruled?
“Larenia, I insist!” the Queen said.
None of them were moving closer, Perian realized, and after a moment, it finally struck him as to why.
They knew what he’d done, and they didn’t know how far his powers extended.
“I wouldn’t harm any of you even though I could in theory,” Perian said. “But Renny is a child. You know better. Ican’tharm her.”
Carnalions couldn’t feed off children. Renny was getting closer to puberty, and maybe she’d be someone that he could feed off—in theory—soon, but she was still a child.
Not that there was any reason to believe him at this point, but the tension in the room did seem to go down a little bit as they were reminded of that fact.
“Then why is she standing there?” Cormal demanded.
Renny actually stamped her foot and answered before Perian had to try to come up with something diplomatic to say.
“Because he is my friend, you idiot! Because this is unacceptable! Because you’ve locked him up after he’s gone through something terrible, and it’s not right! Because you won’t let me in and this is as close as I can get to him!”
There were tears on her face again. “I’m sorry, Perian,” she told him.
“It’s all right,” he assured her. “Renny, it’s all right.”
Under any other circumstances, he would reach for her, would hold her hand, at least, because the bars would permit that. But he wasn’t sure what the watching people would do if he did that, and whatever it was, it could harm Renny, and that could not be allowed.
There was the sound of a distant door clanging, and then the sound of footsteps, and they all watched as the doctor arrived. She seemed to take in the very charged atmosphere calmly.
“I’m glad to see that you’re awake,” she told him.
“Thank you,” he said, a bit blankly, because she was one of the only people beside Renny who was treating him like he was still a person.
“I need to examine his wounds,” the doctor said.
“Absolutely not,” Cormal snapped.
The doctor shot him a scathing look. “I’m a doctor, and he’s my patient. We do not deny treatment to anyone, no matter where they reside.”
“It’s a carnalion!” Cormal hissed. “Do you know what it could do to you?”
“Thus far, he seems to have chattered a lot and helped me make salves and tonics,” the doctor said very dryly. “What do you imagine he’s going to do?”
“He could kill you!” Cormal snapped, looking a bit like he was going to burst into flames at any moment, like he couldn’t believe the people around him were so stupid.
