Page 36 of The Prince's Fealty

“What if you’re wrong? What if there’s another disaster, and I need more power than I have?”

She met his eyes evenly. “Then we would trust that what you were doing was actually to save people. Not pride or ego or anger.”

Tond has lost the most people to the exiles, Pel remembered suddenly. Citizens had fled to Alossa and other realms—it was part of the reason why Alossa was so big following the peace accords. More people hadwantedto be there. Even if everyone hadn’t understood exactly what had been going on with the Fealty, had they felt it on some fundamental level?

Tor blew out a shaky breath. “All right. Hypothetically, you’d want me to live with the exiles in the hopes that my presence with the sworn Fealty would provide the land with the stability that it needs.”

It sounded wild when put like that, but maybe no weirder than anything else that had happened recently.

“Yes,” Pel’s mother confirmed.

“What else?”

“That’s the primary requirement,” she said with a shrug. “It’s only a theory, but it’s the one major change since the exiles broke off from what’s become the United Realms. Ideally, you’d also advocate for us with your brother and the other rulers. We understand that all of that would be contingent on you being accepted in the position.”

Tor blew out a breath. “You can’t keep raiding. Definitely no killing, but just the raiding is a problem if we’re actually looking at proper peace. There couldn’t be any of that behavior if I were there. I wouldn’t stand for it.”

Bavil spoke up. “I would be happy to assist while you’re getting back on your feet. No subterfuge required. I realize not all Tondians will be happy with that, but I believe explaining the situation to them will make enough of them sympathetic. Especially if we explain about the violent raid.”

“That wasn’t us,” Pel’s mother said quickly.

“So Tama said,” Tor agreed, brushing this aside. “But it appears to have been you, and that can be virtually as damaging. It will be almost impossible to prove it wasn’t. Who else would have done it? And why?”

“Someone who wanted to make it look like us,” Pel’s mother proposed. “To turn sympathy against us.”

Tor, Pel, and Bavil all nodded, and Tor said, “We considered that.”

Pel added, “We actually wondered if it might have been Father but agreed it didn’t seem quite like him.”

She nodded slowly. “I think it unlikely he would have come up with the idea himself. He’s more likely to want to attack and obliterate his enemies.”

That’s what Pel had always been led to understand. When the Bessaran rulers had tried to take over Tond and had killed Pel’s grandparents, Forex hadn’t been content once they, too, were killed. He’d been intent on razing Zanay to the ground and demanding the utter capitulation of every Bessaran.

He wasn’t exactly subtle.

Pel’s mother continued. “Someone else would have had to think of it.”

Tor abruptly straightened. “Someone… like the man who offered the exiles amnesty?”

They all turned to look at him.

“That’s what you said, isn’t it?” Tor said sharply. “That King Nostex offered you amnesty? When did you even see him?”

“He brought us supplies a couple of times. Said that he sympathized with our plight and he was sorry for the turn everything had taken.”

Tor stiffened. “When?”

She considered for a moment. “It must have been a couple of years ago. He said he sympathized, but it wasn’t sustainable, trying to support so many people who weren’t contributing in return.”

Tor grew even more rigid. “After the fight in the Filon mountains? When we fought you off victoriously?”

Pel squeezed Tor’s hand, and he squeezed back.

Pel’s mother was looking at him carefully. “Yes.”

“I was the one leading that campaign,” Tor said with a voice scoured of emotion. “And I can assure you that we had King Forex’s full support, and we were there at his request to protect his people. He requested aid specificallyfrom the High King.”

They were frowning at one another. Pel’s mother said slowly, “He certainly… implied that it was an overzealous High King who had decided to take matters into his own hands.”