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“I couldn’t agree more,” Sai said with a nod. He stepped forward to shake my hand. “Until we meet again in the spring, then,” he said.
“Until then,” I said, shaking his hand firmly in return.
A firm handshake was the beginning of the things I needed to learn to serve both the Wolf River Kingdom and the Kostya Kingdom. If Magnus and Sai were going to treat me as their equals, then I would damn well have to learn to feel like I was an equal myself.
Sai stepped back and turned to Magnus—who had wrapped his arms around Peter’s and Neil’s waists and held them close to his sides.
“Will I see you in two weeks, at the faire?” Sai asked.
Magnus glanced to Neil, then Peter, then made a face. “We’ll see. It all depends on a few…other matters.”
He made a show of kissing Neil and Peter, but I had the feeling a show was all it was. He wanted Sai to believe spending time with his husbands was his priority. I had a feeling that whatever we all ended up discussing in Good Port would be the real determining factor as to whether Magnus could take time to leave Gravlock yet again.
Sai exchanged a few more pleasantries with the others, said some grand, pretty things that didn’t really mean much to Jorgen and Hati, then turned to Jace.
“Could I have a word with you in private?” he asked, sounding like a king, but looking like a brother.
“Of course,” Jace said. He grasped Gennadi’s hand and followed Sai out the front door.
Sai sent a momentarily hesitant look to Gennadi as they left the rest of us. I wondered if Sai objected to Gennadi somehow or if he’d wanted to speak with Jace alone. Sai should have known by now that Jace and Gennadi were one entity, just like Magnus, Peter, and Neil were one entity, and like Avenel and I were more or less one now.
I turned to Avenel and smiled. I couldn’t wait to have just a few moments alone with him.
“Well,” Magnus said with a happy but tired sigh. “That seems to be the end of that. And now, if you will excuse me, I believe I will follow the example that our dear friends Lefric and Olympus set and take my husbands back to our cottage for a bit of a lie-down before supper. It has been an exceedingly trying day.”
Jorgen laughed humorlessly. “You can say that again.” He glanced to Hati. “I believe we have a job to finish, and once it is done, I suspect it would be wise for the two of us and our pups to return to our camp. Even if we set out for Good Port tonight, we will still reach the city days after you lot, perhaps as much as a week.”
“Will that give you time to spread the word about this faire to the Northern Kingdom?” I asked.
Hati shrugged. “We’ll send runners to our settlements tonight to relay the details. Two weeks is not enough time for us to put together much of a presence, but it will be something.”
“Something is the best we can do right now,” Magnus said.
Truer words had never been spoken. I just hoped that the small somethings we were able to do now would make a big difference later.
