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“Agreed,” Sai sighed. He pushed his chair back and stood. His gaze lingered on Magnus for a moment before he glanced to his councilors. “It’s early for lunch, which the palace kitchens are busy preparing, but perhaps we should just adjourn until this afternoon. I have a few things I’d like to speak to some of you about.”
That ended the meeting for the morning. Magnus gestured for Peter and Neil to gather close to him as they stepped away from the table. He whispered briefly to them, then stood straighter and gestured to Hadrian, who looked as though he would bolt from the room.
“Hadrian, do join us,” Magnus hailed him. “I would like to introduce you to my husbands, and perhaps discover whether you are acquainted with any of my relatives in Royersford or the King’s City.”
“More like Magnus wants to wheedle out of him whether he’s a spy and whether he’s going to have to find someone to slit his throat,” I murmured to Olympus as the two of us stood and headed out of the room.
Olympus’s only reply was a distracted grunt. That was a sure sign that something was wrong. Suggestions of murder were not the sort of thing people usually brushed off lightly.
Once we were in the hall, I grabbed Olympus’s hand and dragged him away from the others as they walked on to…well, I didn’t know where they planned to go, but I didn’t want to go to the same place. Instead, I took Olympus in the other direction, searching for a room where we could talk in private.
“Where are we going?” Olympus asked. “Do you know your way around the palace?”
“Never been here before,” I said, still searching. “But all palaces are designed more or less the same, and I want to talk to you alone.”
It was another sign that something was unsettling Olympus that he didn’t even use that statement to make a sexual joke.
Sure enough, I found the obligatory palace library down a passageway and around a corner. It was a nice library, all things considered, but it didn’t feel particularly used. Most of the shelves were dusty, and a carpet had been rolled up in one corner. It had windows that looked out to the palace gardens, one of which doubled as a door, which made it lighter than most libraries I’d seen. Overall, it was perfect for a private conversation with my lover.
I stopped near one of the windows and turned to face Olympus, who looked confused about me dragging him away from everyone else.
“So,” I said, crossing my arms and staring at him. “Are you going to tell me why you’ve been so quiet and distracted all morning? Or really, since we got here.”
I pretty much knew the answer to the question, but I wanted to hear it from Olympus.
“I haven’t been distracted,” he said, moving restlessly and avoiding my eyes for a moment. When I arched one eyebrow at him, he said, “I’ve been listening.”
“Listening,” I repeated.
He let out a breath and crossed his arms. I would say it was in imitation of me, but Olympus looked far more authoritative when he stood like that, and far more experienced. Which was ironic, since, in this particular situation, I might actually have been the one who had more experience.
“I’m new to this kind of meeting,” Olympus said, at least doing me the honor of not pretending I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, or that he wasn’t out of his depth. “My whole life has been about trade, about running a trading business. I can negotiate for the best price on a cargo coming from the west seas, but all of this about allowing safe passage for people from one kingdom to another, or laws about stealing young men from one kingdom to another, and faires….” He shrugged. “I don’t know anything about this.”
“Which is perfectly understandable,” I said with my own sort of shrug. “You’re the son of a primary family in Good Port. No one could have guessed that you’d have to deal with anything like this.” I tilted my head to the side and added, “Granted, no one would have imagined any of us dealing with this two years ago.”
“That’s sort of the point,” Olympus said, stepping back so he could sit against the back of an old sofa. “I think I’ve learned more in two meetings, yesterday and today, just watching Magnus and Jorgen, than I learned in all the years of my formal education.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked, moving to sit next to him, pressing my body against his. It was a gesture of both friendship and an attempt to cuddle. I wasn’t sure which I wanted more right then—to feel like Olympus’s friend or to have him snuggle me silly, like Jace and Sebald had done with Gennadi and Avenel the night before.
Olympus let out a breath and slipped his arm around my waist. “It’s a good thing…but my father didn’t actually send me here to be effective. He sent me here to get me out of the way at home.”
“It’s nice not to be murdered by people who think you’re too close to figuring out the truth,” I said with a smug smile.
Olympus laughed. Some of the tension released from his shoulders, and he leaned in to steal a quick kiss. He was still frustrated, though.
“I want to jump into whatever deal Magnus, Jorgen, and Hati are making,” he said. “I can see as plain as day that Good Port needs to ally with those two wolf kingdoms. But my father gave me zero authority to make any alliances. I might as well be a dancing girl brought along for entertainment at these meetings.”
I laughed, nudged him with my shoulder, and said, “I can teach you the steps.”
“That would be awful,” he said with exaggerated disgust.
His burst of mirth didn’t last, though. He dropped his arm back to the sofa and stared out the window and into the garden for a moment.
“The last two days have shown me that I’m no better than Sai when it comes to being a leader,” he said. “I don’t even have the nominal authority that he has. I can’t even run a business without having my secretary embezzle a huge portion of my profits.”
“No, Oly,” I said, standing and facing him. I brushed both hands through his thick hair. “I’m not going to let you feel sorry for yourself. About these meetings or about what Gregorius did.”
Olympus stared flatly at me. “You know more about everything that was discussed in that meeting than I do,” he said, throwing his arm out toward the library door. “And apparently, you know more about running a shipping business than I do as well.”
