Page 114 of The Prince's Sacrifice

She looked suddenly older, wan and tired. “And now we’re dying on our side of the mountains, like we only prolonged the inevitable.”

“Why are you dying?” Pel demanded.

This was exactly what Tor had proposed, talking to the exiles, and Pel wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. (Tor would be so annoyed to have missed it.)

“The better question is whyaren’twe dying.” Tama sounded defeated. “Illnesses that spread too quickly and too virulently for us to heal. Too much rain here in the east, and too little further west. Extreme cold. Extreme heat. If you can conceive of it, we’ve been experiencing it. It’s only been getting worse. We’ve barely been managing with dwindling livestock and wildlife and what supplies we can… find.”

Pel waved this aside. It sounded like their situation was dire, and up until recently, though it had had consequences for the Tondians, they were relatively minor.

“Did you consider asking for help?” Pel asked.

Tama snorted, her expression derisive. “From who? We’re likely to be killed on sight.”

“Not by everyone,” Bav corrected sharply.

Tama’s expression softened, and Pel upgraded the likelihood that they were involved in more than sex.

“Not by everyone,” she agreed. “But the people that we can trust are few and far between, and lately, it’s been getting… worse.”

Although her words were strong, she dropped her gaze. Bav and Pel met one another’s eyes and then looked back at her, confused.

“Worse how?” Bav asked.

Tama hesitated for a long moment before she ventured, “You know your father hates the exiles.”

Bav’s lips tightened slightly, but he said, “I thought we had a way of dealing with that.”

“What are you talking about?” Pel asked, looking between them.

“When exiles are captured, it… tends not to go well for them,” Tama said, like she was picking her words with care.

Pel grimaced, remembering that rumor he’d tried to dismiss. “You’re saying Father kills them, aren’t you?”

“Not since I took over the job,” Bav said.

Pel stared at his brother in complete incomprehension. “What?”

Bav made a face. “When Lara was ten, she accidentally saw Father kill an imprisoned exile. She confessed what had happened to me, and I eventually managed to convince Father that I wanted to take care of the problem for him. Thankfully, they aren’t caught often. I sneak them out as often as I can. And I’ve been doing everything I can to ensure they aren’t caught to begin with.”

Pel stared at his brother in astonishment. He’d had no idea this was happening right under his nose. Lara’s vow of non-violence made even more sense now.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Bav sighed. “I wanted to. But you were only seventeen when it started, and it felt wrong to involve you in something so terrible.” Meeting his eyes with his own somber brown ones, Bav said, “I know you’re an adult now and perfectly capable, butthere was no point where it felt like I should suddenly implicate my baby brother in such a conspiracy.”

Pel wanted to be annoyed, but he could see Bav’s point. He would have done everything to keep Lara out of something like this. And he was pretty sure the first surge of indignation and upset was as much habit as anything else. It was behavior Pel was going to have to unlearn.

“Thank you for taking that on,” Pel said instead, burying the resentment. “I’m happy to help now.”

Bav opened his mouth, then closed it again and just nodded.

Maybe he was trying to keep the peace, too. Getting along for less than a day didn’t mean all of their issues were suddenly solved. But for the first time in a long time, Pel genuinely wanted them to be. And that meant—

He turned back to Tama.

“You said it’s been getting worse.”

She hadn’t explicitly said with King Forex, but she was the one who’d brought him up to begin with.