Page 118 of A Suitable Stray

“For my mentor,” Nikoly explained as he worked, darting uncertain glances to Tiiran’s face. “She wanted to know the situation in the palace and the capital. I observed and sent her reports. I didn’tdoanything, Tiiran. Rossick do not scheme for the throne. I hid my name because if I was known as Rossick, people wouldn’t be as open and the palace guards might have watched me more closely. And thenyou.” He scrubbed around Tiiran’s nailbeds, then stopped with his head down. “You don’t like nobles and I wanted to be near you.”

“And endangered him by doing so,” Orin pointed out, but without ire, as if reminding Nikoly of something they’d already discussed.

Tiiran leaned back into Orin’s strength. “You’re friends with a Canamorra, Orin.” He licked his lips, slightly but wonderfully wet from Nikoly’s cleaning efforts. “TheCanamorra, Orin. And the outguards have been watching the situation more closely than you told me.” Tiiran looked up to Orin’s frowning face. “Closefriends with a Canamorra?” he guessed, but accepted Orin’s hands on his shoulders with a sigh. “We were all dangers, apparently. Captain Pash….” Tiiran considered Nikoly again. “I didn’t believe him at first. But it did make sense.”

“Captain Pash, Captain of the Palace Guard?” Orin inquired, deceptively mild, as he often was. “He questioned you himself?”

“Did he do this to you?” Nikoly pressed. “He’ll be found.”

Tiiran flapped a hand to dismiss Pash, who was far, far outside the realm of his concerns at the moment.

“I believed him, but I didn’t care.” That was what was important, even if it puzzled Nikoly. “I had to do what I could for you. So it wasn’t an accident.” He looked up. “It wasn’t my temper, Orin. I said what I said on purpose.Youwere in danger, not me. Both of you. And I wanted you safe.”

“Tiiran.” Orin regarded Tiiran evenly, but his hands were clenching and unclenching in Tiiran’s robe. “I’m sorry. If you were a better liar, I would have told you. But it wasn’t just me, so I couldn’t risk it. And though I guessed something of what Nikoly was up to, that also wasn’t for me to tell you. But reporting palace gossip is a long-held palace tradition, and if it was only that, there was no harm in it. There shouldn’t have been harm in it,” he corrected himself. “But with so many palace guards now taken care of, I imagine it no longer matters.”

Tiiran frowned, not following.

“I didn’t like lying to you,” Nikoly said as if he’d been prompted to, perhaps by something in Orin’s words. “I asked my mentor if I could tell you, but didn’t get an answer before… before you were taken.”

“At least the Rossick are not beat-of-fours,” Tiiran mused, then dropped his weight against Orin because he really was so very tired. “I have no experience with lovers, and I’m not good at lies.” Facts. “But you came for me.” Also a fact. “You came for me?” He sat up, swaying dizzily. “Did Niksa find you?”

“Niksa?” Nikoly shook his head. “Should he have?”

“When you were….” Orin paused, then started again. “Librarians again being arrested was apparently all the rest of the palace staff needed as a sign to flee. Some didn’t even wait to pack their belongings. So many of them left within hours that the Palace Guard ordered the gate closed and barred.”

Tiiran pulled in a breath, shocked despite himself. Staff could not be forced to stay any more than they could be forced to work.

Orin began to smooth his hair down. “Outguard inside were trapped here. Outguard outside were not allowed in. For a whole night and day, the gate was closed and the capital was in an uproar. And when we arrived to see for ourselves, we heard the rumors of an assistantdraggedfrom the library.” He tugged on Tiiran’s hair, not hard but deliberate.

“People had to see that I didn’t go willingly,” Tiiran defended himself.

Orin bit off whatever he might have said and momentarily grew louder. “After I heardthat, I found this one prowling around the gate, as close as he could get without them noticing, but obvious to anyone else.”

Nikoly’s expression hardened. “I told him if I was too late, I’d kill Piya myself.”

“Reckless,” Orin said, but fondly, unless Tiiran was imagining it. “Would have gotten himself killed, more like, no matter how good he is—and he is very good. Your pup is a deadly beauty. Trained well, but uncontrolled when upset.”

Nikoly flicked a sullen look up to Orin that quickly shifted to something uncertain, almost vulnerable. “But I did well?”

“Very well.” Orin put so much approval into his voice that Tiiran sank into it and it wasn’t even aimed at him. “You weren’t slowed by borrowed gear or being unable to get to your own swords.”

Tiiran startled to imagine swords and armor hidden in Nikoly’s room.

“I’m glad you didn’t let him get himself killed,” he offered quietly. “Especially for me.” Nikoly’s cheek was tacky with blood. He had the same vulnerable, fretful look in his eyes when Tiiran didn’t let him pull back. “You were reckless.”

Nikoly’s gaze fell. “I may scar.”

“Does that worry you?” Once again, Tiiran didn’t follow, but Orin would explain it to him later. “Others might swoon over your bravery and pretty battle scar, but I won’t forget seeing you bleed.”

“If we are speaking of recklessness, we could have a word about the things you were alleged to have said in all the stories, little spit-fire.” Orin tugged then petted Tiiran’s hair again, nudging Tiiran forward when Tiiran reached for Nikoly to take Nikoly’s face in his hands. The wet cloth was easily stolen from him, and then Tiiran did his best to wipe away what blood he could from his sunflower’s face without dirtying the wound. Orin showered Tiiran with some of his approval for that, nearly as warm as the sunlight even while pondering Tiiran’s crimes and future punishments. “On purpose or accident, whatever your reasons, I would like to hear and know which rumors are true, so I know what to do with you later.” But Orin sighed heavily. “Other things need to be done now, however. I should see if that cheering was what I think it was.”

His hands didn’t leave Tiiran. Tiiran shivered, heat finally sinking into his bones after days without it. They had come for him. They shouldn’t have, but they had, unconcerned with the potential costs.

“Treason, Orin?” he asked, even with warmth surging through him. Nikoly’s eyes had closed, but opened for that. “You both risked that for me? Or for whatever noble you helped go after Piya?” The wet cloth fell to the ground. Tiiran blinked several times. “You and all of the Outguard?” Orin had mentioned someone else several times, but there was no family that would attempt something this daring. No, there wasonethat would. That family was infamous, but didn’t have enough living members. All it did have was the loyalty and friendship of the Outguard. Tiiran gasped. “Are you plotting withthe Canamorra?”

“Who else would know this palace so well that they’d remember another way in? Or care about Jola?” Orin clucked his tongue. “Are you scandalized or upset that you didn’t know? He wanted his sister and his niece. We wanted you. Piya was in our way. The throne is for nobles to bicker over.”

“He will just take it, Orin,” Tiiran said, cross at the implication that he was sulking, even though he might want to later. He was sotired. And he had been lied to. If they hadn’t both committed treason for him, he would be more upset about it all. Maybe he still was, but he didn’t have the energy to yell. “He is Canamorra, and if he killed Piya, the crown is in his possession, and letting go of it risks retaliation. You know that, but are trying to soften it for me. I spent,” Tiiran dizzily tried to track the time he’d lost, then shook his head, “dayswith nothing but stone, rats, and empty bowls of porridge. Don’t lie to me again.”

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