Page 2 of Suffer No Fools
She smiled. "Coming from you, that's far better praise than it was when we docked in Hearthstone while she was alive. I always asked the idiots trying to get me to bed if they even knew what the empress looked like." She frowned and glanced down at their hands. "I'm sorry. I'm mucking this up. Please, tell me."
He unraveled the sad tale, slowly at first. He didn't notice when the first tears slid down his face, but they became a hindrance in the cool air.
Olivia reached for him, drawing him down on her lap, facing the doorway. She petted the side of his head, smoothing the hair loose from his braid away from his face. Still, he talked. He couldn't stop talking, even when his throat clogged with more tears.
When he got to that night, his sorrow overwhelmed him. He glossed over the crass parts, where he'd been begging his guards to take him to the pleasure houses already and shared how Coryn had shown him what no son wanted to see.
"And then, Coryn demanded her earth and air weavers watch me at all times, and she threatened that she would do the same to me if I stepped out of line."
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry." Olivia's hugs felt nice, but he missed Stan's brawn beneath his cheek. He cried until hecouldn't cry any more, until he was just a drained husk lying across her lap.
"I think we've found your sorrow," she whispered. "I'll get Frost."
"Frost?"
"You're ripe to learn ice weaves right now," she said. "I'll be back later, if you want?"
Did he want her? He studied her face for any emotional tells. She wasn't a simping courtier or a commoner catcalling after him in public. Olivia was aloof and guarded.
"Are you seeing someone on Aquarion? Stan mentioned Petri."
There was the smile Hugo wished she could direct at him. "No. Not ... we're not. But ..."
"You should tell him—"
"Them."
Hugo nodded. "You should tell them how you feel."
"I should." She sighed. "They hate sailing. They want me to stay on the island, but I can't. I'm needed here."
The pirates all had the same sense of duty, from what Hugo had gathered in his discussions with them. "This war won't last forever," he said. "Aquarion will be free to trade with Embertide again, and you won't need to steal supplies or sabotage naval ships."
She laughed. "No, I suppose not, but I'd still rather sail on a merchant ship than stay on the island, and they would hate it."
"Thank you," Hugo said. "For helping me through my grief, and for offering to return. You're beautiful, but I don't want to come between you and Petri."
He stopped her as she rose to her feet. "Are Stan and Tovey ... together?"
"They're complicated," she said. "Better to iron it out with them, I think." She tilted her head toward the doorway with a smirk. "The walls have ears."
He nodded his understanding. Tovey had said as much about the hold's acoustics. He assumed Stan and Tovey were nearby to ensure he didn't light the ship on fire by accident, but they stayed out of sight behind the partition wall after Olivia left him alone.
Hugo paced the floor until Frost knocked on the doorframe. His appearance didn't much fit his name. He looked like he could be one of Hugo's great uncles with dark skin, dark spiky hair, and amber brown eyes. "Your Majesty." He bowed in the doorway. "May I enter?"
"You don't need to be so formal, Frost. Please, come in."
The ice weaver grinned. "Thank you. Olivia said you found your sorrow around your mother's death."
Hugo nodded, worried he would open his mouth and spout the whole sad story and all those tears again.
"I can feel your sorrow, but there's something blocking your ice weaves." Frost sat in the same spot as Olivia and held his hands palms up at waist height. "May I?"
Hugo sat beside him and laid his hands palm-to-palm with Frost's.
The ice weaver laughed. "Palms up. I'm sorry I wasn't clear."
Hugo's cheeks burned as he flipped his hands over. Frost's had felt warm, but now a chill rose from them, through Hugo's fingers.
