I frowned. “People often say that to me in our conversations. I have no idea why.”
“I’m sure you don’t.”
“The King and Morgan wouldn’t tell me about anything happening in the City of Lockes. At least having to do with the We-Hate-Sam-A-Lots.”
“That’s because you have other things to be focusing on.”
“Maybe you could just tell me. Has the movement died down because everyone realized that they love me and Lady Tina was fed to a pack of wild fire geckos while the people of the City of Lockes cheered?”
He hesitated.
Which, of course, I understood completely. “Something even better happened? Great! As long as she is in pieces, I am perfectly fine with whatever it is.”
“A large crowd burned you in effigy in the city square near the castle.”
“See? That’s even better. Why, I knew everyone would come—say what?”
He almost looked amused, but since he was my best friend 5eva, I knew that couldn’t be the case. “Yes. It was really quite spectacular, if I say so myself. It was perhaps the size of two of you stacked atop each other and made completely of straw. Granted, they couldn’t get the face quite right, given that it was a burlap sack, but I do believe they got your dazed expression as close as possible.”
I was aghast. “And no one stopped this?”
He shrugged. “Pete said they had a permit.”
“How in the hell are there permits to burn effigies!”
“Freedom of speech? Also, there are permits for almost anything. It’s up to the permit office to approve them, though I thought I saw a few of the workers at the burning, so I wasn’t surprised they had one.”
“Maybe it wasn’t me.”
“There was a sign attached to it that said THIS IS SAM OF WILDS.”
“Maybe it was another Sam of Wilds.”
“Lady Tina was shouting at the front that it represented the apprentice to the King’s Wizard and that she meant it to be only that Sam of Wilds.”
“Curses,” I said. “She thought of everything.”
“She is pretty nuts,” Justin agreed.
“Huh,” I said. “I don’t know how I feel about this. I mean, yeah, one part of me is totally upset that people hate me that much. On the other hand, how cool is it they literally built a straw effigy of me with the sole purpose of burning it? Like, I am on their minds that much that they do something like that? It’ll probably take just one little push to get them to loving me.”
Justin sighed. “Your wishful thinking will be your undoing.”
“Eh,” I said. “I prefer to think of it as eternal optimism. How long did it burn for?”
“Ages.”
“Damn right,” I said. “If I’m going to burn, it’s gonna last a long time.”
He shook his head, giving me that look that said I was an idiot. “I don’t understand you.”
I cocked my head at him. “Why? I’m pretty simple if you think about it.”
“I’m not going to argue with you there. You are very simple.”
“Thank you!” I said, beaming at him.
“That’s not what I meant, though.”
“What did you mean, then?”
He hesitated.
“Come on,” I said, poking him on the arm. “Tell me. Tell me. Tellmetellmetellme—”
He glared at me. “If you stop, I will consider it.”
I stopped.
He considered. Then, “If you speak of this to anyone, I will deny it and then see that the rest of your life is made miserable. Are we clear?”
“Are we telling each other secrets?” I asked, wide-eyed. “Because that would be incredible. I’ll go first so you know you can trust me! Do you remember when we had that state dinner and Ryan and I disappeared for a good twenty minutes and you were really mad at me when we got back for leaving you with that old coot who liked to bad-touch your biceps? You’ll never guess where we were.”
“You were having sex in a hall closet.”
“We were having sex in a hall—oh. Dammit. How did you know?”
“It was the first thing you told me when you came back in. Loudly.”
“Riiiiiight,” I said. “I remember that now. Your turn. I’ll think of another.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Tell me! Tell me tell me—”
“Fine!”
I grinned at him.
He stoked the fire again, the embers burning bright. “My father is popular. Almost universally beloved. I will never be like him. I don’t know if I have it in me. And that worries me, sometimes, that I won’t measure up. That I cannot be the king Verania needs me to be. My father leaves large footsteps that I don’t know that I could fill.
“And for a long time, I was convinced I never would. I was… angry. Angry that I had no choice on the set path of my life. Sit up straighter, Prince. You have dance lessons today, Prince. No, no, you cannot play like a normal child, Prince; you must learn today how to act like a King-in-Waiting. You must marry, Prince, whether it be a match of convenience or love, it matters not. A king needs a queen or a consort.” His laugh was a hollow thing. “That one was hard. I felt cornered and mean. I very calmly pointed out to my father that he didn’t have a queen by his side because she saw fit to leave him behind.”
I winced at that.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Not my best move. But words spoken in anger are the hardest to take back. And even though I wanted to, I didn’t. I got it in my head that my father cared more for his people than he did for me. And then you came.”
“Hurray,” I said weakly. “I’m in this story too. Neat.”
“You came,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “And everyone loved you. This little kid with wide eyes that said please and thank you and seemed to find wonder in everything. I hated you. I hated you because my father adored you. It wasn’t fair, to see him dote upon you when he’d never done the same to me.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said. “I wouldn’t have—”
He held up his hand, cutting me off. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known. It’s not your fault that people tend to find you… fascinating. Which is something I will never understand.”
I snorted. “Dude, don’t front. You love me.”
“And then I found Ryan and he was ambitious and… I thought it would be enough. It wasn’t, of course, and looking back, I don’t know why I thought it was. But back then, it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter because I knew. The moment he laid eyes upon you, I knew.”
“Aw,” I said. “I was only fifteen. He would have been twenty. Ryan’s gross.”
“Not that,” Justin said, rolling his eyes. “There was this… awareness. Of you. He was always aware of you. Whenever you walked into a room. Whenever your voice echoed across the halls. I told myself it was nothing.”
“Maybe it was, back then.”
“You really believe that?”
“Nah. He wanted up on my nuts. Sorry.”
“Eloquent as always.”
“I try.”
“The point is that it was simple for you, Sam. It always has been.”
“Except for now,” I mumbled.
“Except for now,” he agreed. “And here you are, a destiny of dragons upon your shoulders, the will of the people turning against you, keeping secrets from those you consider dear. A madman nipping at your heels.”
“Succinct summation of the events. My life is terrible.”
“And yet you are alive.”