Page 71 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

“I think the Queen just wishes to talk to me, Renny.” Perian sincerely hoped so, anyway. “She’s allowed to do that, isn’t she?”

Renny narrowed her eyes. “No.”

Perian laughed. “Actually, I’m pretty sure she can do whatever she wants. She’s the Queen!”

“Not fair,” Renny protested.

“But still what’s going to happen,” Perian said, because there was no way he was getting out of this when two Warriors had been sent to escort him. And he really shouldn’t try to drag a twelve-year-old girl with him to act as a buffer when she was supposed to be doing lessons, should he? No, no, he should not do that.

“You had better get to lessons so no one reports that these picnics are a bad idea because they’re interfering with your education.”

Now she narrowed her eyes at him. “Not fair.”

He laughed. “But still true. Picnics instead of rest while they’re doing you good, but you know better than to think they won’t get canceled if they’re causing problems. I’ve never met the Queen before, you know. This might be my one chance!”

He tried to sound far more excited about this than he actually was, and with a worried backward glance, Renny finally allowed herself to be led away by Molun and the Warrior with him. Molun looked a little impressed, and Perian wondered if he was acquiring child-wrangling skills. He would definitely not go so far as to say that he knew how to manage princesses.

That left him with the two Warriors who were supposed to be escorting him to the Queen of his country. He was carrying blankets and an empty picnic basket. He’d been lounging on the ground on one of those blankets.

He looked at the two Warriors. “I’m assuming at this point, it’s ruder to keep the Queen waiting than it is to show up looking like you’ve just been having a picnic?”

They considered him like this was the stupidest thing he’d ever said, but then the short female reached out and pulled a leaf out of his hair.

The tall man gestured. “Twirl.”

Bemused and grateful, Perian twirled.

“Yeah, you’re all right,” the man said. “Come on.”

And Perian, out of things to procrastinate about, went, his stomach churning more with each step.

He’d never been in the royal wing—very deliberately—so he immediately felt weird using the entrance from the quadrangle that he’d never gone through before. This wing looked… All right, truthfully, at first glance, it looked a lot like the other wings, but itfeltdifferent, even if that was probably mostly in his head. Itfeltlike it was the royal wing and like Perian was on his way to meet the Queen for the first time in his life. At no point previous to this moment had he imagined that his life would intersect with that of the Queen’s, not even when he’d come to stay here at the castle. She just seemed like someone who was very… other and set apart.

Apparently, thanks to a twelve-year-old girl who didn’t like to introduce herself as a princess, the Queen wasn’t distant anymore. You probably didn’t treat queens the same way you treated princesses you hadn’t realized were princesses, did you? Was there a safe middle ground?

His internal panic had the benefit of distracting him from walking to his doom. He didn’t really remember the intervening corridors, but now the guards were knocking on a door outside of which there were twomoreWarriors standing, and Perian knew that the Queen was inside.

Chapter Fourteen

Avoicecalledforthemto enter, one of the Warriors pulled open the door, and without permission from Perian, his feet moved, and he was walking inside.

The room was… not what he was expecting. This wasn’t a gigantic throne room with lots of weapons on the wall and row upon row of Warriors just waiting for him to make a mistake. This looked a lot more like the study he had at home, decent-sized windows on one side facing the quadrangle, a large desk covered in papers, bookshelves filled with books on every available wall, and two chairs by the fire opposite the desk that made him think of Brannal’s rooms. And then he triednotto think of Brannal’s rooms because he needed to be fully focused on the fact he was in the presence of the Queen.

She was writing at the desk when he entered, but she presently finished with what looked like a letter and rose to her feet. She was shorter than he expected, which was absurd. Had he really had expectations about howtallthe Queen was, and she was failing them? How rude of him. Which reminded him—Fire and water, he was such an idiot.

He offered a very belated bow.

“Your Majesty.”

“You can set your things down here.”

She gestured, and Perian promptly set the blankets and basket down. Now that he was relieved of the awkward burden, he felt as though his hands were weirdly empty.

“Come and sit,” the Queen said, gesturing towards the chairs by the fire. “There’s tea.”

Tea with the Queen. Perian was not sure this was an event he could handle, but given who had issued the instructions, he… went and sat.

The Queen poured. Perian was about to drink tea the Queen had poured for him with her own hands. His fingers were shaking a little with nerves, and he tucked them together. He needed to get a grip. This was Renny’s mother. He’d always wanted to talk to Renny’s mother, hadn’t he?

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