Page 32 of A Suitable Brat
“Hely,” Sun growled, but reflexively, because he knew it amused Westin and not for any other reason.He took a deep breath.“The three at the window are far outnumbered by the potential threats in this room.Even the nobles inclined to peace or to like the king all have their own agenda.Even you have an agenda, though it’s only to protect what is yours.And that means he can never really trust.Maybe he never trusted anyone until he met them.His husbands.”Sun stopped for a moment, giving away more than he liked to, but only to Westin, who was allowed to know.“And he is our hope for peace.”
There was no denying that, unless one happened to be a foolishly ambitious noble.
“If he gets you killed, I’ll kill him myself,” Sun added, calm about it.“If I can get through that hulking brute of a first husband.I might be older and slower now, but the big ones always have a weakness.West,” Sun stopped again, then continued on, lofty and light, “do you think they’re all imagining you fucking me like this?”
Some of them undoubtedly were.Westin was too old and too trained by Sun to feel much embarrassment about it anymore.
“Yes.”He kissed Sun’s ear.At the window, the king smiled again.“So we’re agreed then?”
Sun squirmed, once again intentionally.Thankfully, it took a little more to get Westin hard these days, so when Sun stood up and took his place back at Westin’s shoulder, Westin wasn't too visibly aroused.The table was there to hide much in any case.
Sun scanned the room like the former outguard and survivor he was, then murmured, “Agreed.But you still owe me your mouth.”
Westin captured Sun’s hand again simply to hold it.He met the eyes of the king and slowly inclined his head.Arden’s dark eyes filled with fire, then he began gently leading his husbands toward the table and the rest of the nobles in the room began to follow suit.
“It’s a lovely day to begin such an endeavor,” Westin remarked, reassured to hear Sun’s scoff.Whatever Westin might have added, he forgot when a slight figure in a brightly embroidered robe dropped into the seat on his left and immediately leaned closer.
Mattin of the Arlylian, who almost definitely was not supposed to be so close to someone he didn’t know, judging from the alarm on the faces of both his hovering husbands, was no more than twenty-six, with warm brown eyes full of interest and arms full of the two books he seemed to have forgotten that he held.
“Westin of the Corilyeth?”He named Westin without any hesitation over the abandoned fifth beat.“I’m so glad you came.Your reputation precedes you, and I knew you’d be helpful.”
“Sass.”Mil Wulfa’s gruff, quiet objection was waved away.
Mattin finally put his books down, scooting them to one side as if he was aware that he was not in his proper seat and would have to move soon.Orbemoved, likely.Mil Wulfa appeared more than capable of simply hefting him up and depositing him somewhere else.
“Youinvited me?”Westin couldn’t help a moment of confusion, particularly when the king stood pointedly at Mattin’s other shoulder like a worried mother hen.
“I’ve read so many reports of you.”As if sensing danger, Mattin lifted an arm to gesture behind him.He clucked his tongue when the king captured his hand and did not return it.“As well as the finished documents of agreements you helped get made.Well, copies of those.I’m a Master Keeper.They go back to your time in the Outguard.You witnessed quite a few judgments and we—the others at the library and I—have long suspected you had a hand in those too.More than as a witness, I mean.So I wanted to thank you for coming.Will you visit the library if you have time while you’re here, or perhaps when you return for the wedding?Several of the Keepers would love to get your memories of those events in the records.”
“Dear heart,” said the king, in a tone Westin didn’t think he wanted to read.Westin hadn’t been in the Great Library for over twenty years but he remembered what the assistants were like, although he doubted that was what the little Arlylian meant.
But Sun might have thought so.He slipped his hand free of Westin’s in order to press down hard and unyielding on his shoulder.
“Finally, some appreciation.”Sun was pleasant, almost charming, despite the fact that sworn guards generally didn’t speak up in such moments.He also knew what library assistants were like.“I’ve been telling him he’s special for nearly three decades now.But maybe he’ll believe it from you.”
Mattin got a worried look on his face but had no chance to ask any further questions.As predicted, he was picked up and set on his feet and then urged one chair down, where Mil Wulfa then stood at his elbow between him and the now-empty seat.
The seat the king sat in, putting Westin on his right.
“You trust me that much?”Westin heard himself asking, his surprise at being so honored undoubtedly obvious.
Arden of the Canamorra gave Westin a careful study.“The guard who left and took the infamous wolfling with him?Even if Mil and I hadn’t known you for that, Mattin put together information on you for me to read.”He lifted his chin to address Sun.“Does he always fret like this, Sunlark of South Burrow?”
Sun relaxed his grip, though only slightly.“Until he has resolved the problem, yes.Most people don’t notice.”
Westin got the feeling Arden noticed many things, and what he didn’t, Mil did.And whathedidn’t, Mattin would discover in a dusty volume dragged from the depths of the Great Library.
An odd light filled Westin’s chest, and a faint, sweet scent drifted to him for a moment.Perhaps it was the white blossoms.Perhaps it was the fae blessing of hope.
“This is indeed a problem that needs resolving if we want this peace to last.”Arden was serious, nodding to someone sitting down at Westin’s right.To Cael of the Rossick, calm and unimpressed.Arden suddenly smiled, looking almost like a boy.“I couldn’t leave it all to Cael.”
Westin inhaled to steady himself.
“Then I am happy to help.Although all I really do is listen.”He ignored the noise of protest from Sun.“That’s all most people want, really.To be heard.”
Mattin had a pencil in his hand.Where he’d pulled it from, Westin didn’t know, but he appeared to be writing down Westin’s words.
“Excellent,” Mattin muttered as he scribbled, leaving Westin to be studied once again by two husbands and a Rossick.Studied by the entire room, perhaps, with everyone no doubt wondering why someone from an obscure and fallen family had this much attention.
