“It’s fine. Let’s just get back, alright?”
If anything, that only pissed Syrus off even more. “No, Eiri, it is not fine. You could have gotten sick if you’d eaten that.”
“Maybe it was just an accident.” If it were, Eiri would eat his shoe. “Come on, it’s starting to rain.”
“You expect me to believe he accidentally served you spoiled meat, but mine was perfect?” Syrus countered.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it?—”
“No, Syrus, it doesn’t!” Eiri cut him off. “Honestly, I expected it. That’s why I didn’t eat it, alright? I’m nothing but trash to these people. I know that. Even if I’d dressed like you, I don’tlooklike one of you, and I never will. I consider myself lucky that he was so obvious about it and didn’t try to disguise what he did. You’re right that it isn’t fine, but like I said… it doesn’t matter. It’s just the way things are. So, can we please just get back before the storm hits?”
He hadn’t meant to turn his protest into a rant, but Eiri couldn’t say he regretted it. Syrus might be an experienced soldier and several years Eiri’s elder, but in some ways, he was unbearably naïve.
Syrus didn’t respond at first, just staring at Eiri, then at the food in his hands. He didn’t have to know the man to know he was contemplating going back and confronting the vendor, and the outcome of that was easy to predict. The man would of course apologize, but it would only fuel his animosity toward Canjiri in general and Eiri specifically. He likely had friends and family members he’d tell the story to, and Eiri would inevitably end up the villain in that story. Word would get back to the palace and the royal family, who would no doubt find a way to make this entire thing Eiri’s fault.
Just thinking about it exhausted him.
“Syrus… just forget about it. Please?” He hated that word, but he didn’t know how else to snap Syrus out of his fury. It worked, to his surprise. The older man froze, his attention coming back to Eiri and staying there.
“It’s not right, and you know it.”
“I do, but going back and fighting with him won’t change anything. It will just make them hate me more, which is the opposite of what we’re hoping to accomplish here, right?”
“I guess…” Syrus reluctantly agreed, sounding petulant.
“Then let’s just forget about it and go. We’re already goingto get soaked. There’s no point in making the trip back even more miserable.”
“Fine, but just so you know, I don’t like this.”
“I’m aware. But you can’t fix everything.” Syrus seemed to like that statement even less, but it was the truth, even if he didn’t like it.
“I can try,” he muttered under his breath. He took the pie from Eiri and tossed it to the side of the road, followed by his own half-eaten one.
“There was nothing wrong with that one. Why waste it?”
“I won’t eat food from a man who tried to make you sick. End of story.”
Syrus set off walking, but Eiri fell behind for a moment, stunned. Hearing Syrus defend him was surprising enough, but throwing away food over a slight against him? Here in Vaetreas, where food seemed plentiful, that might not be a big deal, but to him, it was inconceivable and said far more than any words Syrus may have spoken.
Maybe there was hope for this truce between them, after all.
Chapter 17
Syrus
“Isyour husband not joining us for dinner again?”
Syrus tried not to wince at the tone of his mother’s question. He knew what she was really asking: why had he not broken down Eiri’s stubborn pride? Two days ago, the question would have frustrated him only because he had to tell his queen that he’d failed the task she’d set for him. Now, after the day he and Eiri had shared, it got under his skin in a new way.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the resigned way Eiri had just accepted what happened. With what he knew of his husband, he would have wagered money that Eiri would go back and confront the vendor. For him to just brush it off like that… were such things truly so common for him? Syrus wasn’t a complete fool; he knew how his people felt about the Canjiri because he’d always felt the same. But for that vendor to do something so blatantly disrespectful right in front of him? Clearly, the man hadn’t expected Syrus to mind, and didn’t that say something about how he’d treated Eiri since he arrived?
“Syrus?” There was a sharp snap to his mother’s voice now, and he quickly focused on the matter at hand.
“No, Mother. He wasn’t feeling well after our visit into the city, so Ambassador C’Marlo offered to take a tray up to him.”
“Yes, I heard about your little trip. I also heard you didn’t take a single guard with you.”
