I nodded. “Yes, Your Grace.”
“Even before we physically changed, he saw,” Suiden said, once more smiling. He returned to his soup, finishing it. “Sro Laurel said that Lieutenant Rabbit has the gift of seeing true.”
“Yes?” The Fyrst’s black eyes fixed on mine. “Beyond the obvious?”
“It does makes one wonder, Your Grace,” Suiden said, leaning to the side to allow the servant to remove his empty bowl, “about Rabbit’s intense abhorrence of his old master.”
“Yes, it does,” Wyln said, having washed away all obstructions in his throat. He took another sip of wine. “So, tell me, Two Trees’son, you stopped a djinn storm? How?”
“I became the wind, honored Enchanter.”
This time Wyln’s goblet slowly descended to the table. “The wind.”
“It talks to you, doesn’t it, Lieutenant?” Suiden asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“It does? What does it say?” Wyln asked.
I looked up from my plate to answer and found myself looking at twin reflections in the Enchanter’s black eyes. As I watched, my doubles shifted, changing into flame, and I leaned closer, fascinated. Then a quick breeze blew between us and I blinked, drawing back, my heart pounding hard in my throat.
“Try that again and I’ll sodding take you apart,” I said, my voice very soft.
The Enchanter took another sip of wine. “Oh, you will?” He gave me a gentle smile, amused. “All by yourself?”
I smiled back, reaching to the knife in the small of my back. “Sometimes yourself is all you need.”
“Leave it, Lieutenant,” Suiden rumbled. I allowed my hand to drop as I looked at my captain—to meet the Fyrst’s and Molyu’s gazes once more, while Suiden stared past me at the Enchanter. “Is this how Hospitality is shown? By provoking one of my men?”
“I apologize, honored prince,” Wyln said, allowing a servant to serve him crab sauteed with butter and vegetables, while shaking his head both at the steamed shellfish in sauce and the baked fish artfully surrounded by mounds of greens shaped as waves. “My only excuse is that I was curious.” He waited as a servant poured more wine into his goblet. When the servant moved on, Wyln looked past Suiden and me to the Fyrst. “You have given him into Laurel Faena’s care, Your Grace?”
The Fyrst forked up a bite of fish, nodded, and once more the rest of the hall plunged into their own plates. He then looked back at the Enchanter. “Yes. He asked for him.”
Wyln’s eyes narrowed in thought. “Perhaps, Your Grace, it would be best if you allow me to oversee Two Trees’son’s stay with us, for Laurel—competent as I’m sure he is—is after all, a cat.”
The Fyrst speared some crab, giving a slight shrug. “You may be right, Wyln, but it’s in the Acta that Rabbit Two Trees’son is given into Laurel Faena’s care. Unless there’s a compelling reason, like the talent-murder of birds, I cannot change it.”
“True, my husband,” Molyu said. “But Wyln speaks wisely. Laurel Faena is a cat and so has a cat’s knowledge of the talent.” She looked at me, her own face thoughtful. “Perhaps there’s another way that doesn’t violate the law.”
“Well, I can ask Wyln to stand as Cyhn to Two Trees’son as he is cousin to someone who may be related to me.” The Fyrst gave another slight shrug as he once more looked at Iver’s colors woven in my hair. “At least I can argue so.”
Related? I stared at Molyu’s gold eyes. “Uhm—”
“ ‘Kin,’ Your Grace?” Captain Suiden asked over me, his eyes narrowed in speculation.
“Close, Prince Suiden,” the Fyrst replied. “Specifically, Cyhn is mentoring—showing a newcomer in a household how to get on. You call it fosterage.”
“Rabbit has plenty of people telling him how to get on, Your Grace,” Suiden said. “In fact, he may have too many, each with their own idea of who he should be.”
“Including yourself, Your Highness?” Wyln asked.
“When he was an insignificant farm boy from the Border that no one thought two coppers about, he was given into my care. I haven’t failed him yet, Sro Wyln.”
The Fyrst laid down his fork on his empty plate and a servant appeared to whisk it away. “He will still be in your care, Prince Suiden, in most matters. We’re talking about his talent, with which you haven’t the faintest idea how to go on. Laurel Faena does—however, as my wife has pointed out, he is a cat, with a cat’s knowledge of the working.”
“So, Sro Wyln knows better?” Captain Suiden also put his fork down on an empty plate, and the servant appeared again to remove it. “Can—and, more importantly—will an elf show a human how to go on? I’ve heard, Sro Fyrst, of the games Enchanters play on humans.”
So had I. Head bowed over my plate as I ate, I cast a sideways glance at the Enchanter and he gave me his gentle smile.
“I promise, Prince Suiden, not to play with Two Trees’-son,” Wyln said, still amused. “He won’t have to turn his coat inside out to confound me.” He rubbed a finger under his chin. “It’s amazing to me, Your Highness, how you fight against my coming near your lieutenant, yet you don’t argue against Laurel Faena even though he, ah, bent the truth a bit to get Magus Kareste’s runaway apprentice here.”
“That’s because—” I began.
“Rabbit met Laurel’s actions with words and fists,” Suiden spoke over me again, “and afterwards he didn’t fret about being left alone with him. You, on the other hand, sit down next to him and he moves away, and he damn near pulls his knife on you.” He took a sip of wine. “I’ve learned to heed his reactions, Sro Wyln. For the most part.”
“Seeing beyond the obvious, Two Trees’son?” Molyu asked around her husband. “Or is it just fear of the elfin Enchanter?”
Wyln’s smile widened as he watched me struggle to find an answer that didn’t insult him specifically or all Enchanters generally. “I don’t need to be fostered, Your Grace,” I finally said.
“I disagree, young human,” Her Grace said, “as you see fit to attack a guest under our roof and draw knives while at our table. The teaching of manners is a strong necessity at the very least.”
“But—” I broke off with a smothered yelp as Captain Suiden kicked my ankle. Hard.
“Dragoness Moraina has also laid claim to Rabbit,” Captain Suiden said, ignoring my grimace of pain. He indicated my cuff links and sapphire and diamond pin. “Her favors.”
“You are incredibly connected, Two Trees’son,” the Fyrst remarked. He turned his black gaze on Suiden. “I don’t see that Cyhn and any other claims on Two Trees’son are mutually exclusive, Your Highness. Besides, Cyhn will preclude harm as by that I have claimed Rabbit as part of my household, with all the protections it entails.”
“Then I remove my objections, Sro Fyrst,” Suiden said, now stepping on my foot as I opened my mouth to protest. He shot me a side glare, then looked back at the Fyrst. “As long as it’s understood that it’s just for the training of Rabbit’s talent.”
“So understood,” the Fyrst agreed. He gestured and a clerk arose from one of the lower tables. Heads craned to watch as he hurried forward, silence falling over the hall as he reached our table. The Fyrst rose, motioning for everyone else to remain seated, looking down at the clerk. “Note in the Acta that Wyln, the Enchanter of Elanwryfindyll, will stand as Cyhn to the human male, Rabbit—”
What little noise there was ceased.
“—son of Lark and Two Trees, and close cousin to Jusson Iver’son, King of Iversterre.” Wyln stood up, holding his goblet of wine. “I so agree.” He looked down at me, one brow raised.
I could’ve just sat there and damned the Fyrst, Her Grace Molyu, and the Enchanter for their forcibly adopting me. Unfortunately, that would also damn me and everyone with me to whatever hell His Grace chose to cast us into, along with any chances for peace. I slowly stood holding my own goblet, telling myself to just stay lost next time, no matter if there were a hundred Faena trying to show me the way home.