And obviously it got late enough even Cassius was ready for his bed. I knew this when the coral flap of my tent was slapped back, and his tall, be-leathered body, bent at the waist in order to clear the top, moved through it.

I drew in a breath of preparation and courage.

He straightened, allowing the flap to fall closed behind him.

My tent was not as large as Mars and Silence’s. Nor King Wilmer and Queen Mercy’s or King Gallienus’s, nor my mother’s, wherever she was in her journey home.

But it was not small.

His very presence dwarfed it.

Not simply because he was a large man.

His presence dwarfed it.

He looked how I thought a king should look.

As Mars did. Aramus as well. And the same with True.

Cassius was the second son. Only the death of his older brother brought him in direct line to ascend.

But everything about him screamed he was born to rule.

I liked that about him too.

“Cassius—” I attempted to launch my plan.

And immediately failed.

His deep voice interrupted me. “I’m weary, Elena.”

He could not be weary. We’d done nothing all day but sit on horses, stop and eat, then sit on horses, then stop and eat and hang about visiting while waiting to go to sleep.

He began to move toward the pallet, doing this with his fingers to the buttons of his shirt.

“I wish for you to come with me,” I told him.

He stopped moving and turned his head to the side to look down at me.

I also liked how tall he was.

Goddess help me.

“Come with you where?” he asked.

“To visit with the pixies,” I answered.

He turned fully to me and dropped his hands from his shirt.

“Why would we do that?”

“We’re in Wodell, and outside The Enchantments, the pixies are most populous in Wodell,” I told him something he probably already knew.

I then went on telling him other things he probably knew.

“They don’t exactly hibernate, but they don’t often come out in the cold when the leaves are gone from the trees, and the leaves are falling. It’s rare I have time to commune with them. But it’s enjoyable when I do. And I have…that is, we have an opportunity to do that before they seek their holes.”

He made to move to the pallet again, stating, “Then go, but take your lieutenants with you.”

“They’re already abed.”

He ceased moving and drew an audibly beleaguered breath through his nose before again shifting to face me.

“I’m not going to visit with pixies,” he denied.

I took a step toward him, stopped and inquired, “Have you ever visited with them?”

“No.”

I gave him a small, encouraging smile. “Aren’t you curious?”

“No.”

Hmm.

“It’ll only take an hour, at most, two,” I coaxed.