Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

“Would you like me to recruit Coeval and Hammond?” Tayse inquired. “We can help you disembowel him.”

“No, no, I think I can kill him all by myself.”

THEplan was executed the following afternoon and worked perfectly. Senneth and Ellynor were standing just inside the door when Cammon, talking excitedly, followed Justin inside. His expression of dismay was so comical that Senneth almost forgave him on the spot, but this was too serious. So instead she grabbed him in a headlock and wrestled him to the floor while he flailed about and protested mightily.

“You traitor!” he yelled at Justin. “I warned you when people were waiting for you!”

Justin spread his hands. “Senneth,” he replied. “I couldn’t help it.”

“I hate to chase you out of your own house, but I need a few minutes alone with him,” Senneth said.

Justin grabbed Ellynor’s wrist and pulled her out the door. “We’re gone.”

When the door shut behind them, Senneth released Cammon, but they both remained on the floor, Cammon ostentatiously rubbing his wrist and throat. “Nobody realizes how mean you can be,” he said.

“And I never realized how stupid you could be,” she responded.

He stopped rubbing and gave her a straight look. Cammon’s eyes were so unusual, brown eyes flecked with gold spots-the eyes of a seer, or a madman, or a genius. She had never been sure. “Senneth, I haven’t done anything.”

“Then why have you been hiding from me?”

“Well, I didn’t want to be set on fire!”

“Seriously.”

He threw his hands up, then hunched his knees together and set his chin on top of them. “Valri’s already lectured me. Came to my room at midnight to warn me not to be too friendly to the princess. I don’t know what everybody’s so afraid of. I’m hardly the kind of person-well, I mean, look at me. Then look at somebody like Darryn Rappengrass. Or even Ryne Coravann. They’re like purebred horses. I’m a shaggy dog.”

“Yet people have been known to become very attached to misbegotten mongrels, especially when they’re loyal and affectionate.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Valri tells me to stay away. But Amalie is angry when I’m not there. It seems I can’t make anybody happy.”

“You can behave yourself,” Senneth said softly.

He looked mutinous. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Tell me you weren’t carrying on a private conversation with Amalie all during dinner the night before last.”

He said nothing.

“Exactly. That’s the sort of behavior that creates a certain-emotional intimacy. Yes, you have to attend Amalie when she requests it. No, you certainly don’t want to make your liege angry. But you appear to be on the road to becoming Amalie’s primary confidante. And that is a very tricky road.”

“How stupid do you think I am?” he burst out. “Do you think I’m crazy enough to think that-that-Amalie could fall in love with me? It didn’t even cross my mind till Valri said it! I still don’t think it’s possible! But if you keep going on about it-”

“Cammon. You’re a delightful young man and all of your friends love you very much. But it has always been clear that you don’t really have a sense of boundaries. You’ve always treated everyone as your equal. And that just won’t do when it comes to Amalie. You simply can’t be yourself around the princess. You have to be someone else.”

He shrugged and looked away. She didn’t have to hear the thought in his head to know what he was thinking. I don’t know how to be anyone else . “I’ll try,” he said. “But I think you’re all overreacting just a little.”

“No more secret silent conversations with the princess?”

“All right.”

“And no more long days spent roaming the palace grounds with no one to supervise you?”

“I can’t imagine Valri would let that happen, anyway.”

“That didn’t sound like a promise.”

“All right .”

She climbed to her feet and he scrambled up beside her. “You’ll have a chance to prove just how good you can be when I’m not watching over you,” she said. “I’m leaving for Carrebos in a couple of days. And taking Tayse and Kirra and Donnal as well.”

He frowned. “But Justin just got back!”

She was amused. “And how does that have anything to do with this trip?”

“Well, because! We haven’t even been together for two weeks!”

Now she was laughing. “I thought sure you’d be relieved to see me go.”

He grinned. “I am, of course. I was trying to conceal it.”

She laughed, too, and they left the cabin together in perfect amity. But later she thought over this part of the conversation and wondered if she had been duped. True, Cammon was never so happy as when the six of them-the seven of them-were together. And true, for Cammon, a period of ten or fourteen days was not enough time to satisfy his craving for that close connection.

He had showed distress at the thought that four of them were leaving. But had the emotion been genuine? Or had Cammon-the most artless person she’d ever met-had Cammon learned to lie?

CAMMONwas miserable for a whole week. Everyone was angry at him, and then everyone was gone , and if Justin and Ellynor hadn’t been around he would have felt completely lost.

Nominally, he was back on good terms with both Valri and Amalie, and he joined them a couple of mornings in the parlor. But Valri watched him with a darkling expression and-at least for those first two days-Amalie treated him with a brittle coolness. He was tempted more than once to renew his silent diatribes, and now and then he caught a look on her face that made him think she was puzzled that he had not.

But he had promised Senneth that he would be good, and he had decided he would at least try to keep his promise. So he was friendly but not intrusive, ran errands when Amalie asked, played card games with the princess and the queen, and was generally unhappy.

He had told Tayse that Amalie wanted to get to know the Riders better, which Tayse thought was a very good idea. The best parts of that week came as the Riders arrived by ones and twos to visit with Amalie. The older ones, like Tir and Hammond, were respectful but hardly loquacious and tended not to stay long. The younger ones were a little more cocky, a little more talkative, and just as curious about the princess as she was about them.

“I’ve never handled a sword,” Amalie confessed when Wen came calling. She was accompanied by Janni, a compact, dark-haired, and infectiously happy young Rider who was Wen’s best friend. “Not even a knife, except a dinner knife.”

Janni’s dagger was in her hand even though she scarcely appeared to move. “Well, that we ought to do something about! It’s good for everyone to know how to handle a weapon. You never know when you might be required to defend yourself.”

Amalie’s eyes sparkled. “I agree! What can you show me?”

Cammon glanced at Valri, thinking the queen might not endorse the notion of royalty receiving weapons training, but Valri’s face was inscrutable. Janni and Wen gathered around the princess, let her hold their various blades, explained the basic mechanics of edge and weight and reach.

Wen stepped back and eyed Amalie’s clothing with disfavor. “You can’t really fight when you’re wearing a gown,” she said. “You see how we’re dressed? In trousers and boots? Anything else just gets in the way.”

“I don’t think anyone would find such attire appropriate for me,” Amalie said.

Janni shrugged. “Well, just for an afternoon, maybe. We could come back and show you a few fencing moves.”