Page 43 of Suffer No Fools
"You've spent the last five years either forgetting or unlearning everything Empress Delilah tried to teach you. That played to Coryn's advantage, not yours."
Gods, Stan was right. Hugo had been taught to control his breath, his posture, even the muscles in his face. Vadim had tried to coach him over their games of stones, but Hugo had been too enamored with the death weaver to grasp his underlying messages.
"Sit up straight. Don't touch the pieces until you're ready to make a move."
On and on, until Hugo had hated playing stones almost as much as he now hated picking up his practice sword. He'd been delighted when he received his first sword as a Solstice gift, but then his mother had worried he would hurt himself and forbade its use until he was twenty-one. She'd died two months after his twentieth birthday, and Coryn had never let him touch a weapon.
"Don't think you're getting out of sword practice because we're on a date," Stan said, following Hugo's gaze toward the practice grounds. Hugo couldn't see the deep bowl in the sand from where he stood, but it was still there, calling his name and chiding him for being worthless with his unsharpened stick.
Stan cleared his throat as they approached, and Olivia stood up and eased her shoulders back as though challenging Stan's right to be there. Then, she saw Hugo, and all the tension in her stance evaporated. "Stan. Emperor Hugo. Good to see you both."
She opened her arms, and Hugo went to her, far more ready to hug her in greeting than he had been to embrace Elder Beatrice. Olivia had been kind when he needed a friend.
"Have you convinced Petri to move in with you yet?"
Olivia lived not far from them, in what used to be a guest house on Captain Efren's property. "I have not," she answered, keeping her voice low. Louder, she said, "You must be here for the best food in all Aquarion."
"We're throwing a banquet in your honor tomorrow night," Petri said. "You didn't have to make a special trip." They bowed, and their cheeks tinged pink.
"I ..." Hugo blinked and then took two steps forward. They hadn't met, but he'd seen Petri before. "I remember you, from the palace. You flew into the courtyard like a bird."
Petri laughed. "Your guards spirited you away so fast, I didn't think you'd seen me."
"It's an honor." Hugo reached over the counter to shake their hand.
"It's good to see you smile," Petri said. "You looked so unhappy at the palace."
"I was." He glanced at Stan and couldn't resist smiling even wider. His cheeks hurt from smiling so much the last few days. "I only hope I can be the emperor Embertide needs."
Olivia shared news from her meeting with Efren, Vadim, and the elders. "Don't worry," she said to Stan. "Vadim fought hard for the full crew to know what was happening, so you'll hear more about it before the banquet."
"Banquets are for eating, not politics," Petri scolded.
Hugo agreed. Too often, he'd been enjoying a delicious meal, only to have someone bring up a war or political matter that turned his stomach sour and ruined his evening.
"Speaking of eating," Petri said, setting a bread bowl before Hugo, "enjoy."
"How is the bowl also bread?" Hugo asked. "Won't it spill?"
"Not if you eat it right," Petri teased. "I would say Stan will show you, but he doesn't even use utensils. Spoon?"
Petri handed Hugo a smooth wooden spoon, and Stan led him to a bench beside the footpath.
"This used to run from the north of the island to the south," Stan said. "Now, it leads to the pool."
"I like the changes," Hugo said. "I can't explain it, but the island seemed broken before you fixed it."
Stan frowned. "That's interesting to hear from someone who's never been here before. I also sensed something had changed when we returned home, and then everything felt right again once we merged the islands."
"Renald woke the tree with his weird magic," Petri said. They sat on a large flat stone beside the path. "The tree had been begging for the earth weavers to move the islands back together for over a week. We could feel it, even those with little earth."
"Petri has mostly air, like Tovey."
"Aye," they agreed, "which only means I hate sharing power with Tovey because he hogs it all."
Stan laughed. "It's not a simple task, no."
Hugo waited until they were alone on the path to their house to ask Stan what Petri had meant.
