Page 57 of The Prince's Sacrifice

Tor had to suddenly wonder if that was the story of his life. He was so relieved that he’d figured things out before Pel could be hurt by his asinine fake courting plan.

Hopefully, Tor offered, “I didn’t know I was going to pass out.”

Pel looked amused, thankfully.

Curiously, Tor asked, “What, uh, happened from your perspective?”

Pel explained that Tor had literally dropped at the top of the mountain. Thankfully, Cavun had been there to carry Tor, and Melody had then saved the day.

Tor laughed and laughed when Pel explained how he’d gotten Melody to come out of the cave. (Rin’s horse must have beenpissedby whatever those guards had tried to do to run into a dark cave and stay out of sight.) Tor couldn’t wait to tell Rin about it.

The trip back wasn’t particularly amusing. Pel was circumspect, but it was clear that he’d been desperately worried.

“I assume your father wasn’t very impressed,” Tor said carefully.

“No,” Pel agreed very evenly.

Larexa snickered. Tor looked at her curiously.

“Pel yelled at Father to shut up!” she exclaimed gleefully.

Tor felt his eyebrows rise, and he turned to look at the man incredulously.

Pel shrugged, not quite meeting his eyes, looking a mixture of defiant and ever-so-slightly shamefaced.

“He was ranting,” Pel said grumpily. “You needed a healer.”

Tor leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “My hero.”

“Shut up.”

They all laughed, but Tor reached out to squeeze Pel’s hand. Pel had spent most of his life since he’d Manifested keeping his head down and trying to be an exemplary son. That he’d picked Tor over everything else meant a lot.

Sounding thoroughly annoyed, Pel admitted, “Father seems inclined to think that you ruined everything, and if you’d just left well enough alone, the situation would have resolved itself.”

“With everyone dead,” Tor couldn’t help but point out.

Pel made a face. “Exactly! But in his head, it’s somehow just the exiles who would have been destroyed. By that logic, you were therefore aiding the exiles. Which”—he grimaced once more—“I guess you could argue is what happened at the end, though it’s not like more Tondian guards wouldn’t have been lost in any ensuing battle! And losing Sir Cloril didn’t help, not that it had anything to do with you. But you know King Forex. He’s not exactly rational at the best of times. He’s probably already written to the High King to complain.”

Tor shrugged and nodded. This didn’t surprise him in the slightest. And really—

“Well, we were going anyway, weren’t we? After borrowing his magic, Idefinitelyneed to explain myself. I’m sure there are going to be rumors, and he needs to hear the full story from me. From us.” Tor looked at Pel hopefully. “Assuming you’re still willing to come.”

“Just try to stop me,” Pel told him fiercely.

Tor beamed. “How soon can we leave?”

“Are you capable of getting out of bed?” Pel asked skeptically.

Of course he could—

Oh.He’d mostly managed with eating, but that hadn’t been full-body coordination. It took Larexa and Pel to get him moved so that his legs were hanging over the side of the bed. Pel spent the whole time muttering that he was reckless.

Maybe Torwasreckless, but the realization that he’d been unconscious for five days and just been… lying there while people had hauled him around had suddenly made his skin itchy, like it wasn’t fitting right.

“Ineedto be on my feet.”

Pel seemed to understand, even if he didn’t approve, and he and Larexa helped heft Tor out of bed. At which point Tor realized that his legs felt like jelly, and he had to cling to both of them. They barely managed to keep him upright.