Simon expected that his little liaison with Elthena would have been a oime thing, even though he hoped it might bee at least a sometimes thing, but the Queen made no effort to hide their retionship. Soon, he became known as Her Highness’s sort on an official level.

  That felt strao Simon. It was a fact that was both widely known and also rarely mentioned by ao him directly, though some of his friends would tell him about the rumors sometimes.

  “Have you heard the test,” Aikos asked him one day when they were strolling through the city together. “They say that the queen was forced to offer her hand to a moo save the city?”

  Simon ughed at that. “So I’m a monster now?”

  “In the eyes of some, all fners are,” Aikos answered, making Simon ugh all the harder.

  He’d been expeg to be told how his scars made him uable to royalty, but the truth was, he could be the prettiest guy in the world, but since he wasn’t Ionian, some of the locals would still turn their noses up at him past a certain point. Not all of them were like that, but the residents could be very ish.

  They weren’t rude about it, mostly. They were happy to sell him things or buy his medies when he’d been a doctor and herbalist. Some of the poorer families would have eve him marry their daughters on the at of his success before all this happened, but even if he’d been procimed a hero in public, he doubted the nobility of the city would have ever e to see him as one of their own. In truth, he’d probably never entirely uand the s of Ionar as a fner.

  That was fine; Simon could stay here for a dozen more lifetimes, and he doubted he’d ever think of it as home either. Right now his only true home was the road, and the only reasoayed here was because of what a delightful womahena was, with or without clothes.

  He often sat in on her court sessions now, not in any official capacity, of course. He just watched as she handed out justid took petitions from ts, aristocrats, and sometimes the governors of other cities. It was deadly dull most days, but sometimes it could get iing. Once, after she’d turned down the request of a powerful trader prinore favorable tariffs and a monopoly reted to certain imported goods, he’d been forced to stop an assassination attempt.

  In the moment, it had been terrifying, but he reacted on instind sprang into a even before he was quite sure what was happening. Holy, iermath, he had to admit to himself that it was the most fun he’d had all year.

  One moment, he’d been naked in bed with the Queen, and the , he’d been fighting off two armed men who crept in through the window. They both wore bck armor that marked them as some kind of professional assassins in his eyes, and they both wielded long curved knives.

  He fought the first one off with a particurly heavy dle stick while Elthena screamed for help. He mostly parried that strike, turning it from a death blow into something mng before he braihe bastard.

  However, the sed one was too far away and moving too quickly for him to repeat that performance. So, instead, he took the man’s head off with a whispered word of force, sending him tumbling to the floor before the assassin could reach his target.

  He had a knife now, and it was dark. He po tell her he’d do with the first assassin's on. After all, in the chaos of the moment, everything happe ono one could say who did what exactly. By the time the guards arrived, it was already over.

  Simon was bleeding, and apparently, based on the slow numbiion spreading across his chest. So, while the Queen ordered the guards to wake the pad put everyone o, he took care of that with a word of lesser cure.

  Slow down there, Simon, he joked to himself. Two spells in two minutes. You aren’t as young as you used to be.

  He cured the poison, but he didn’t bother to heal the wound. That would have been too obvious. Instead, he waited for the pace physi to arrive in his nightgown and stitch Simon up one more time.

  “You just ’t take care of yourself, you,” the man muttered good-naturedly as he closed the long, shallow wound oitch at a time.

  “He took care of me, and that’s all that mattered,” the Queen answered peevishly. She was worried as she summoned her ministers and issued orders, but Simon could tell that she was worried about him more than the assassination attempt.

  “Of course, this means war,” she told her cellor as they discussed the events and asked her what she was going to do about this.

  Elthena was many things, but indecisive was not one of them. Still, the talk of war made Sime. The st thing he wao do was see more violene to this pce. Still, it wasn’t his pce to tradict her, at least not while there were people around. That discussion could wait until they were by themselves.

  Unfortunately, alone was a long time ing that day. Even though the attack had occurred just after midnight, it was only when they finally stopped the maelstrom of activity long enough for breakfast a few hours after suhat she dismissed everyone. By then, the harbor had been locked down, people had been arrested, and all manner of other preparations had taken pbsp;

  “First you save the city, and then you save me,” she said uedly between bites of her eggs. “Tell me, Simon, how exactly did you do that? I know you're a fine warrior, but wasn't the sed one a bit too far away, even for you?”

  He was supposed to tell her about the knife. He wao tell her. That would have been the smart thing to do. He couldn't bring himself to lie to this woman, though. He wasn’t sure if he loved her, but he certainly respected her too much for that. So, instead, he said, “Magic. It was the only way.”

  She nodded and said, “My Vizer tells me that no magic occurred on the pace grounds tonight, but I thought as much. There was too much distance for anything else, and the only sword you had on you, well…” She chuckled at that, taking the news a lot better thahought she would.

  Simon smiled baot sure what to say about that exactly, so she tinued. “Why do you think he ot see the spells you cast?”

  It seemed strao him that Elthena was more ed about that than his admission that he’d done su awful thing by her society's standards, but he ighat for the moment and answered her holy. “I doubt very much that he has su ability. I haven’t e across a lot of mages in my time, but the ones I have—”

  “Oh, Simon, stop,” she said, “I appreciate the hoy, but you make it sound like you’ve dotle with dozens of warlocks, and you’re not that much older than me.”

  “I’m not in this life,” he agreed. Once he started with hoy, all the rest started to leak out of him.

  “I’ve lived many lives and fought many battles,” he answered, “but only a few of them were warlocks. They’re pretty rare.”

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?” she said after a moment of silenbsp;

  “I am,” he agreed.

  Telling anyone everything he’d been through was a bad idea, but Simon had lived dozens of lives now without really telling anything. It was all bottled up inside him now and at this point. He had to tell someone. So, it might as well be her.

  They spent hours on the baly that m as he let it all pour out of him. He didn’t tell her everything, but only because it would plicate things even more. He didn’t tell her about the time loop or the fact that her city had been buried beh va more times than he could t. He didn’t tell her about the basilisk or the fact that it had turned him to stone for decades.

  But he did tell her about all the endless killing and about how when he died, the gods brought him back to keep doing it. He told her about his time as a zombie, along with the wars and revolutions and everything else he participated in. When it was all over, the most surprising thing of all happened. She hugged him.

  When he’d even hi this stuff with Freya, she’d been cold and distant for days while she processed it, but the Queen of Ionar was a much more fident woman, and she simply accepted it and him for who he was. Simon was reasonably certain she would have dohe same thing if he hadn’t just saved her life, but it certainly helped.

  “So, were you seo save the city, then?” she asked. “Did you know about the assassination? Is that why you stuck around?”

  “I knew about the volo,” Simon answered with a shake of his head. “Everything else… well, even if I was ier shape, I would have stuck around for you anyway.”

  Emotions overwhelmed Elthena then, and she teared up even as she kissed him. It was only after they’d fihat discussion, that they finally got to questions of war and all the rest. Simued she should find a more peaceful solution and that many would die if they took this route, but she wouldn’t relent.

  “My hands are tied here,” she sighed. “If Alfonsits a fight, then I shall give them ohey are nothing but a tiny isnd, and I ’t see why they think they could best our Triremes at sea, but—”

  “But don’t you see, that’s exactly what they want, or at least someone does,” Simon answered. “This rovoked for this oute.”

  “Maybe,” she agreed doubtfully. “But there isn’t much I do.”

  They didn’t talk about the subjeymore after that. Instead, the Queen called for a war cil a Simon to rest. Some part of him couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this was a very bad idea. “There’s more at work here than I’m seeing,” he told himself as he finally cast heal lesser wounds on his gash. He didn’t think he was in any danger if he didn’t; of course, they just hadn’t ied painkillers in Ionia yet, and the way that the freshly stitched wound throbbed painfully, he couldn’t think straight.