Page 22 of The Prince's Fealty

“It’s nothing bad,” she promised immediately. “It’s just… It’s, uh, probably going to be a bit of a shock, so I was wondering if you wanted to sit down.”

“We’ll need to stand to greet our guest.” Bavil sounded mystified.

Tama made a face. “All right, just—Try to stay calm. I’m really sorry about this.” She raised her voice. “You can come out now.”

Another figure emerged from the trees. She reached up and tugged down her own hood. She was middle-aged, and her expression was trying too hard to be neutral. She was a few inches shorter than Pel, with graying dark hair and dark eyes. She looked vaguely familiar.

Beside him, Bavil stiffened, and Pel swayed. Tor reached out, alarmed, and Cavun suddenly had his sword in his hand.

Bavil sounded stunned. “Mother?”

Tor gaped. What? Thedeadqueen of Tond?

Chapter Five

Varex

Almost two weeks earlier

Beyond a doubt, the nine-day journey to Filon was the most harrowing one Var had ever experienced. With the knowledge that his most trusted advisor had been acting against him, had been setting up Var’s own brother, everything that Var had thought he knew was called into question. Who could he possibly trust if he couldn’t trust Yomil? And if he couldn’t trust anyone, then who could he safely travel with when his wife and baby were at risk?

Maybe he should have brought Pamuna and Lady Nawila with him. After all, if they’d been acting against him, then his precious baby girl would be dead right now. But since he couldn’t figure out who to trust, he’d needed someone to give them enough time to get away—after all, only a fool wouldn’t bring the nurse when he had a new baby and was fleeing for his family’s life.

Var was definitelya fool.

But he prayed to the goddess that the fact that Pamuna had stayed, with Nawila backing her up, would be enough to throw people off long enough for him, Ferna, and Cala to escape.

He didn’t tell Captain Darmila what they were doing. He didn’tthinkshe was in on the plot, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain—plus he wasn’t sure she’d let him do this, either. The only thing he knew was that he had to get Ferna and Cala to safety. He’d failed utterly with Tor, and he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Nawila arranged the carriage for him, procuring one outside the castle, and she sent Knight Harili and guard Sustuna with them with a no-nonsense look in her dark brown eyes.

“What are you going to do, Your Majesty?” she’d demanded. “Drive the carriage yourself? Don’t be a fool.”

Varwasa fool, but he allowed himself to trust in her trust, even if he wasn’t convinced he could rely on his own judgment anymore. She’d handpicked from his brother’s troop.

“They’ll take care of you. Torex—” Her lips tightened and she blinked rapidly. “He would never let anything happen to you. Let us take care of you, all right?”

It was like a punch to the gut, one Var deserved, and he prayed that she was right.

Because Tor was dead. Var hadn’t seen what was going on around him, and now his brother was dead, his family was under threat, and the only thing Var could concentrate on right now was fleeing.

Once they made it to Filon and the safety of his father-in-law’s castle, they’d be able to regroup. In the nightmarish journey north, Var’s brain seemed only to spiral in terrible worries: how everything could go even more disastrously wrong, how close he’d come to losing his baby girl, how he didn’t know how to cope with the loss of his brother, how every person close to him was now under suspicion, and he needed to frantically analyze every interaction to figure out if someone was trustworthy or not.

That was why he’d been so insistent upon fleeing. They would have to figure that out. Darmila would no doubt be rooting out all the conspirators while he was gone, but it put everything up in the air, and Var couldn’t risk any harm coming to his family again.

He’d thought of Lotar and King Stronex first, but Ferna had been right when she’d suggested that her father could be safer because Filon was farther away from Alossa. It wasn’t where people would likely guess they’d flee first, and hopefully, by the time anyone figured it out, they’d be safely arrived.

He found his gaze darting to Ferna and Cala constantly, as though he were worried that they were suddenly going to be snatched away before his very eyes. But at this point, that didn’t seem like an unreasonable possibility.

His wife looked pinched with worry, although Var had assured her multiple times that he would shield all of them in case of danger. She was carrying Cala, and she’d already told him that she wasn’t ever going to let the baby go. That was exactly how Var felt.

He’d thought putting out the fire was the most important thing he could do, a way to safeguard his family and his people—and he’d missed the even more insidious danger in their midst. He couldn’t blame Ferna for her anxiety.

Harili and Sustuna kept them moving fast, driving for long hours, and changing horses without Var or Ferna ever having to reveal themselves. They slept in the carriage, which was not at all comfortable, but it allowed Var to set up a shield no one else would see. He wasn’t sure when Harili and Sustuna were sleeping, but they kept watch and insisted that the important thing was that they kept moving.

He didn’t actually need them to tell him that fleeing across the United Realms with his family and two guards was probably the height of foolishness. He just desperately hoped that it was out of character enough that no one else figured out what he was doing.

Nothing seemed quite real to Var. He couldn’t seem to adjust to this reality where his closest advisor was conspiring against him and his brother… his brother was dead. Var’s twin was dead, and Var was responsible for what had happened. His brain kept coming back to poke at this fact, a sore place in his mind, and nothing made it better, nothing made it go away.