Page 98 of The Prince's Sacrifice

“That’s already been taken care of. Weren’t you listening earlier?”

Pel’s blood ran cold.

“Hey, I—”

“No talking!” someone said in a harsh whisper.

Pel’s heart rate kicked up, and he struggled to keep his breathing calm, to look straight ahead, not to do anything suspicious. He obviously needed to warn someone, but he had to get this right.

He was already at the back of the group, so he carefully lagged behind, grateful they hadn’t set up a rear guard, and as soon as he could, he slipped down the next interconnecting hallway.

Goddess help me.

As soon as he was sure he was far enough away from the mercenaries, he ran. Surely, all the guards couldn’t be dead or absent.Surelythere were patrols. He dashed around another corner and then another, until finally—finally!—he saw a guard, who startled at his presence and laid a hand on his sword. Pel rushed up to him anyway.

“A bunch of mercenaries sneaked into the castle!” he exclaimed. “They mentioned something about the Princess! Can you make sure that she’s safe? It’s urgent!”

The guard was young, and his dark eyes widened in alarm at Pel’s words, but he didn’t seem to know what to do. Pel supposed it wasn’t every day that someone came up to you yelling about an attack, but there wasn’t time for his uncertainty.

“The Princess is in danger!” Pel said more forcefully, glaring at the man. “It’s your duty to protect her!”

The young man finally seemed to be impelled into motion, shooting down the hall, and Pel hurried after him. Thankfully, the man led Pel to an actual patrol of guards.

“Uh, this man reports there’s a risk to the, uh, Princess,” he said, sounding somewhat uncertain, but at least he’d tried.

The handful of guards looked surprised or skeptical, and Pel stepped in front of the guard.

“You are being invaded!” he snapped. “Stop standing around and take action. A group went off to the kitchen, and they mentioned a fire. They came in through the servants’ entrance, and there was a downed guard there. They also said they’d taken care of the Prince, so his wellbeing should be investigated. Most of the group was heading for the baby.” He pointed at a guard at random, a tall woman with blond hair. “You will rouse the Captain of the Guard. Tell her about the baby, the Prince, and the kitchen.” He indicated someone else, a bulky man with dark hair and skin. “You, take another guard to the kitchen and checkfor any unusual activity.” A third guard with freckles and a mop of red hair. “You, go check on Prince Torex. The rest of you, to the Princess. Now!”

They all looked at him, and it belatedly occurred to Pel that they didn’t have the slightest idea who he was—and even if they did, no one in the history of ever had been impressed with him.

Only then the oddest thing happened. They all nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

They jogged off with alacrity, and Pel fell in with those going after Cala, because he knew exactly where Tor would want him to be, even though he vibrated with the need to check on the man.

They were climbing the stairs when it occurred to Pel that there was another way into the nursery.

He grabbed the nearest guard. “Where’s the courtyard that the nursery looks out to? Quickly!”

Looking harried, he nevertheless gave Pel instructions, and Pel bolted back down the stairs and tried to keep track of his turns. He had to double back once, but he finally made it into the courtyard—where he could hear the distant sounds of fighting.

He was pretty sure he caught the words “Fire” and “Foe” more than once, and he hoped that he’d helped ensure the distraction didn’t work as well as it should have.

There was no one else in the courtyard, and Pel oriented himself from the great tree that hid the secret entrance he and Tor had used earlier that day. Tor had pointed to the right and up, and Pel could see that there was flickering light coming from one of the windows, only partially obscured by curtains. He was pretty sure that was the nursery. He slipped along the paths, then skirted the garden beds until he was under the window in question… that was three stories above his head.

What had Pel been thinking with this plan? He supposed he was confirming that no one else was attacking via the courtyard, but it wasn’t like he had his bow—or even a rope.

Tor might be able to climb to the window just with his magic, but Pel couldn’t do that. But it still… He frowned. The churning anxiety inside of him had coalesced into a ball of certainty that he needed to be here, and so… here he was?

He paced under the window, wondering what in the name of the goddess he thought he was doing. If the baby was genuinely in danger, shouldn’t he be up there with the guards, trying to defend her? That made a lot of logical sense, and yet everything in Pel told him to stay where he was.

Was he letting his emotions overrule rational thought? There was an ache deep inside him, a certainty that something was wrong. But should he—

A tremendous cracking noise sounded overheard, punctuated by screams, and Pel flung up his hands—as a body came tumbling out of the window above him, along with wood and stone, as though part of the wall had just collapsed. On pure instinct, Pel tried to catch the body and dodge the stone, and they both tumbled to the ground in a jumble of limbs.

Chapter Nineteen