Page 11 of The Prince's Fealty

And Tor wasn’t sure they had the time. They were theorizing someone was trying to commit regicide—while taking out the royal family, too.

A fizzing urgency bubbled through Tor, exhorting him to ride off this minute to rescue his sister. (He refused to consider that although he’d just woken up, he and Cala had actually been attacked more than two weeks ago. He just couldn’t think about what that might mean for Ada.)

They needed more information, and they weren’t going to get it here.

Lotar was closer to Alossa—and it was where Ada was.

Tor figured there was no point beating around the bush. “We need to go.”

“Not before tomorrow,” Bavil corrected. “You told Tama you would wait.”

Tor’s whole body locked up. That was before he’d realized Ada might be in danger.

“I understand your feeling of urgency,” Pel told him, reaching out to clasp his hands again. He waited until Tor looked him in the eye. “But I don’t think you’re in any fit state to travel.”

Tor’s immediate attempt to stand up went as poorly as everyone else apparently expected it to.

Bavil and Pel caught him, and Tor ended up back on the pile of blankets they’d madefor his bed. Why did his bones both acheandfeel like they were made of jelly?

“We can take boats again, can’t we?” Tor asked anxiously, plucking at the blankets until Pel curled their fingers together.

“Once Tama gets back, we can look at our options,” Pel assured him. “We had to trade the boats for the horses to get here. Plus, if we wait for Tama, I’m sure she’d be willing to give you another boost.”

“I feel much better than I did,” Tor assured Pel, not liking how anxious he looked.

Though maybe that was just everyone’s default expression now.

Pel raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “You feel much better than you did when you drained all your magic and then fell out of a window and looked like you were dead?”

Tor cleared his throat. “Yes, definitely better than that.”

He could see in retrospect how that wasn’t hugely reassuring.

“I don’t think that you’re a very good judge of how you’re doing,” Pel told him sternly.

Tor couldn’t really disagree, but—

“It’s my sister.”

Pel slipped an arm around him and hugged him. “I know it is. And we’re going to go get her. But she’s well-protected in Lotar, isn’t she?”

“My brother would have said the same of Cala,” Tor pointed out sourly.

They’d never imagined this sort of thing could happen.

“Unlike Cala, Princess Adexa can protect herself, can’t she?”

Tor felt a little bit of the tension drain out of his shoulders, but his stomach still churned.

“That’s true. She can shield almost as well as Varex and I can.”

Once she’d Manifested, she’d wanted to be involved in all their games, and they’d mostly let her join in. But they’d been twenty when she Manifested, so they’d had six years of experimentation and play on her, and she’d never had ideas quite as wild as they did. She also wasn’t alone.

Tor blew out a breath. “And King Stronex fought in the war and would never let anything happen to her if he could prevent it.”

If for no other reason than because Par and Hena adored her, and Stronex cared for his children. Tordidfeel better when he thought about it like that.

But it still wasn’t good.