Page 60 of The Prince's Sacrifice

Given the foreign magic that Tor had felt swimming around in his veins after waking, the healer had given him plenty. Tor was just starting to feel a bit more normal, and he didn’t want that feeling to be buried under another person’s magic once again.

“Please make sure that you rest for several more days. You shouldn’t be overexerting yourself,” the healer told him sternly.

“I’ll do my best to rest,” Tor told him, because that was about as truthful as he felt he could be.

The man left with a slightly fatalistic look, so he’d apparently judged Tor well.

He supposed he could have told the man that Pel wouldn’t let him ride. That meant he’d be resting by comparison, didn’t it?

Tor groaned as he realized he might have inadvertently committed to another ostentatious traveling carriage.

Only it turned out that wasn’t what Pel had been thinking at all.

Chapter Eleven

Tor

Aboat?” Tor said, surprised.

“A boat,” Pel agreed. “We’ll be rowing with the current, so we’ll get there before you know it.”

Tor eyed him. “I don’t think my rowing skills are at peak proficiency right now.”

Larexa scoffed and shot him a “Did you really just say that?” look.

Pel glared, hands on his hips. “You’re not going to row at all. You’re not even going tothinkabout rowing. Beluna, Cavun, Denil, and I are going to row.”

Tor kept forgetting that Pel had spent a lot more—conscious—time with the three guards than Tor had. They’d apparently made quite the impression.

“They’re really willing to do that?” He frowned. “Wait, I told them I’d help them relocate to Alossa, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Pel’s expression was wry. “I’m pretty sure they think we need the help more than they’ve decided for certain that they’d like to relocate to Alossa, though.”

“They’re not wrong,” Tor admitted. “I’d like to be more functional again soon.”

“Try not to magically exhaust yourself again!” Pel answered promptly.

There was really no answer to that, and Tor wisely stayed silent.

Bavil said, “I’ve always liked Beluna. She speaks her mind. Denil is quieter, and Cavun’s been stationed out by the western mountains for a while. But I’m honestly a little embarrassed you didn’t have more than three guards helping you.”

Tor sighed. “It’s no easy thing, going up against your ruler.” His face tightened. “It’s not as simple as saying ‘just follow orders,’ either, but as angry as they all made me, I can admit it was a complicated situation. Real harm was done, and the exileswerein Tond when the guards attacked. They may genuinely have thought they were fighting off an attacking force—at least until we found the civilians. To give them their due, not a single person attacked—or even heckled, as far as I noticed—when we were all trapped together under the shield.”

He didn’t actually disagree with Bavil, but he liked to think that if all things had been equal, more of them would have sided more openly with him.

Bavil looked like he disagreed, and Tor reminded him, “You and I have the protection of our name and position. I can’t thinkit’s very pleasant to go up against your father with neither of those things.”

Bavil’s face shadowed, and he gave a reluctant nod. “No, that’s true. If the three of them do want to relocate to Alossa, I’ll help any way I can.”

“Me, too,” Larexa agreed.

“We’ll let them know,” Pel said, looking faintly surprised but pleased.

“I suspect how Varex reacts will make a big difference,” Tor conceded. “I can only imagine the version of events that has probably been dispatched to him, but I’m sure once I lay everything before him, we can get it sorted.”

They weren’t always good at communicating, but saving fifteen hundred civilians, as well as hundreds of Tondian guards, surely spoke for itself when you weren’t a ruler who was seething and irrational.

“We’re leaving tomorrow morning,” Pel told them all. “Early, before King Forex has time to make a fuss.”