Page 6 of Suffer No Fools
Hugo took another bite of gruel for Tim's sake. "I can't eat the rest. I'm sorry."
"You ate enough." Tim shoved the bowl across the table to Stan. Stan could always eat more. He'd already polished off his first bowl while they'd been talking. He was halfway through the rest of Hugo's bowl when Tovey and Yvette returned.
"Good morning." She gave Hugo a slight bow before shoving Stan over and sitting beside him. He knocked his shoulder against her with a laugh, and she nearly fell off the bench.
"Oh, goodness. I'm sorry." He pulled her back against his side. "I forget, you're nothing like Nola."
"I'm fine, you ox. And I live with Nola. I play far dirtier than she does." She jabbed him in the ribs with her finger and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Point taken." He dug back into his porridge, and the conversation continued around him.
"Both Tovey and Frost asked me to check on you," she said to Hugo. "Can you feel anything blocking you from your power?"
Hugo shook his head.
"When did you lose your appetite?"
"When Coryn gave Vadim a ship, and he left Hearthstone." Hugo had improved since yesterday, when he couldn't mention the death weaver's name without glowering or sulking. Now he met Yvette's gaze with a determined nod.
"Did anything else happen around that time?" Yvette asked. "Visits from strangers?"
He tugged the amulet on a chain around his neck over the hem of his tunic. "Coryn had this made for me, but all it does is suppress my magic from seekers." He snorted. "I kept the enchantment off, hoping they would find me."
"You did well," Yvette said. She held her hand out. "May I see it?"
"I can't take it off," he said. "It shocks me when I try."
"I've heard of necklaces like this," Tim said. "I wonder if it has two purposes." Hugo had tucked his unbraided hair beneath his tunic, but Tim pulled it free and draped it over his shoulder for better access to the chain around his neck. Hugo looked soyoung and vulnerable like that. Stan wished he could wrap their young emperor in a hug and protect him from the world.
#
Tovey
Hugo was gorgeous with his hair cascading over one shoulder, the side of his neck exposed as Tim worked the clasp on his necklace. Tovey couldn't think of him like that, not yet. They had too many problems to solve before they could help him find his joy. He only hoped Hugo's joy didn't bring his greatest sorrow along with it. Tovey had fallen for the wrong man twice now. He didn't want Hugo to make the same mistake, especially not with two men at once.
Tim yelped as he unclasped the necklace, but it was undone. It fell to the tabletop with a clatter.
"Anything?" Yvette asked.
"I feel dizzy?" Hugo shrugged. "Not really any different."
Yvette snatched the amulet up from the table, and Hugo's eyes rolled to the back of his head. Tim caught him as he fell backward and lowered him to the floor.
"Fuck." Tovey hopped over the table to help. The only aid he could offer was to confirm Hugo was breathing, which he was.
"That's not good," Yvette whispered.
"Do something!" Tovey shouted.
"There's nothing wrong with him, not that I can see or feel," Yvette said. "This amulet is a suppression amulet like the one Fanidra wore. We might get more information from her when, if, she joins us, but that could be weeks."
Tovey helped Tim ease Hugo to sitting and propped him up from behind. His hand slipped below the collar of Hugo's tunic, and his fingers brushed over something hard beneath Hugo's skin.
"What's this?"
He gently lifted Hugo's hair out of the way and pulled the tunic down so he could see. Two round disks sat on either side of Hugo's vertebrae beneath his skin. "Yvette, this might explain it." He probed with a tiny bit of earth to determine their purpose. "They're iron."
"Iron." She bristled. "For fuck's sake. We need to get this out of him."
