“Can you blame them?” Arram asked. He crouched to pet the three-legged dog. “Your mother and the emperor, I mean. The other heirs haven’t been particularly lucky.”
“No, only stupid or unhealthy,” his friend retorted.
“Ozorne!” Arram said, shocked.
“I’m not wrong, except where Stiloit is concerned. He was unlucky.”
Arram swallowed a lump in his throat. He wanted so badly to tell Ozorne that it was not at all a matter of luck for Stiloit.
The older boy scrubbed his face with his hands. “Listen, I’m all over dust. Why don’t I clean up? We can walk over to supper and then the library. At least I can get some studying done tonight.” He walked into the hall.
“But…your things,” Arram protested.
“I told these people where they go. They can arrange them better than I would anyway,” Ozorne said over his shoulder. His tone made Arram think that perhaps he was not as resigned to the presence of his guards as he claimed. “Oh,” he called, and came back to the door. “I have more news, the kind that delights you.”
“Better news than I won’t have you snoring across the hall?” Arram asked.
Ozorne’s grin was the essence of wickedness. “So much better than that,” he said. “Mother has moved her palace suite on a somewhat permanent basis. She means to entertain, and asked me to put you and Varice on notice. She wants you to attend the parties and dinners that she intends to stage for me.”
Arram whimpered. “She wouldn’t be happy with just one supper to say hello?” he managed to ask. Preet, on his shoulder, croaked her opinion. She knew she would never be allowed to attend such events, any more than Lindhall’s students’ dogs would be allowed. “I have the infirmary, as well as my lessons….”
“Oh, no,” Ozorne murmured. “She mentioned ‘bringing some life into the great barn.’ I don’t know where she got the idea you might bring life, but…” He shrugged. “Mothers.” He vanished into the suite of rooms again, the inside guard following. “For the time being, you can teach me the pushing spell you used on the guards!” Arram heard him call.
Arram let his head fall back until it banged the wall. “Mithros, Minoss, and Shakith,” he said, though what he prayed for he did not know. He shouted to Ozorne, “It’s only a mix of ordinary barrier spells and runes for movement, concentrated into one sigil that I wrote into my palm!”
“?‘Only,’ he says,” one soldier growled.
—
On Saturday Arram went downstairs for a trip to the city’s biggest market. He and Preet joined Varice at the foot of the stairs. “He’s been shouting,” the young woman whispered behind her hand. Together they walked down to their friend’s new home. There eight guardsmen and a furious Ozorne waited in the hall.
“Ozorne?” Varice asked, smiling at the guards. “What’s going on?”
“According to our new ruler, Sergeant Okot”—Ozorne waved a hand at the sergeant, whose face was diplomatically blank—“according to him, this is how I am to go to the city, or I am not to go at all. Never mind that we’ve been perfectly safe without so much as a pocket picked for years!”
“Your Highness, you were not Prince Mikrom’s heir in that time, and your protection was not my responsibility,” the sergeant said. He spoke with the kind of patience that indicated this was not the first time he had made these arguments.
“My friends are as good as an army!” Ozorne snapped.
“If we aren’t visiting the book stalls or the spicers.” Varice tucked Ozorne’s arm in one of hers. “Really, shall we spend the day here while you scream like a gull? This poor man is only following orders from your mother and your imperial uncle. Or do you want to see if we can match those jade beads you like so much?”
Ozorne looked down at her. “How did you know I liked them?”
“Because you bought all the gem seller had in June, silly. He told you he’d have more in September. If he hasn’t been holding them for you all month, I am a bonobo.” Varice smiled at the sergeant. “He’s ready to go now.”
Okot ushered them outside to a waiting carriage, while Arram murmured to Varice, “Thank you.”
“I heard that,” Ozorne snapped. “You two don’t have to live with an extra clutch of people making your life their business.”
As Okot pointed Arram to the spot on Ozorne’s free side, Varice said pleasantly, “I know you’ll feel differently the first time someone tries to kill you, Ozorne. Sergeant, do you have a mage to check—” She raised a glittering hand and smiled. “Oh, you’re the one trained in the detection of poisons and poisoning spells.”
Arram could tell the sergeant was a mage, but he hadn’t tried to discover the man’s specialty, if he had one. Ozorne saved Arram’s pride by asking for himself: “How did you know he’s expert in poisons?”
Varice turned up her nose, looking very pleased with herself. “How do you lads think a kitchen witch would know?” she teased.
More calmly Ozorne asked, “Where did you study, Okot?”
The sergeant looked at Varice with respect. Bowing to Ozorne, he said, “I began at the City of the Gods on Tortall’s northern border. When they understood my Gift was best employed to protect and investigate, I was sent to Jindazhen and the countries of the West to learn what I could, and then to…other masters, closer to home. When I was judged fit to serve in a noble or royal house, I made my bow to the emperor.”
Varice sighed, the picture of a girl in love. “I don’t suppose— No, you must be far too busy.”
Okot raised his brows a touch. “Once the lads and I are settled in here, and with His Highness’s permission—”
Ozorne gave a bark of a laugh. “Far be it from me to stop Varice from adding another string to her bow, particularly when I hope to benefit!”
“He’s so good to me,” Varice told Okot.
“When I know my off-duty hours, I will let you know, mistress,” Okot said. “In the meantime, if you have not read it already, you may wish to look at Strange Things in My Stew by Farmer Cooper of Tortall. It was written three hundred years ago and is out of fashion, but there are things in it you will not find in the modern texts.”
“Wonderful!” Varice said. “Thank you so much, Sergeant!”
She is marvelous, Arram thought. This could have been a miserable outing, or no outing at all. Yet with a little flirtation, teasing, and honest curiosity, she made everyone feel better, even Ozorne. Even Okot.