Syris put the gourd down on the stone table.
"Tell her to leave."
The guard kept his eyes on the floor. "I told her, my King. She said she would wait."
Kael shifted Oreo to his other arm. "Who is the pink fox?"
"A nuisance," Syris said, and walked out.
Ren went after him. Behind her, Kael took one step to follow, and she turned around.
"Stay with them," she said. "Please."
Kaelen had lifted his head off his paws. The guards were still in the archway.
Kael's jaw worked. Then he sat down on the floor beside his brother with the baby on his knee.
"Do not eat anything she gives you," he said.
"Wasn't planning on it."
Syris didn't slow down for her in the corridor. She had to trot to keep up, her bare feet slapping on the obsidian.
"At the feast," she said, "she took you off for a private word. What did she want?"
"Something."
"Did you give it to her?"
"No." He didn't look down at her. "That is why she keeps coming back."
