Page 48 of The Prince's Sacrifice

Now he pointed to an area further up the mountain, near where his shield was protecting them from the landslide.

There was a moment of stillness.

“Now!”

And such was the power of the man, the memory of what he’d just done, that everyone moved. Pel, Tor, Cavun, and Beluna began to move towards the path, but Pel noted that Tor was making sure they walked slowly and stayed at the back of the group, between the guards and the exiles as they began to separate into the two groups.

Pel saw that the exiles were carefully rearranging themselves so that the civilians, especially the children and injured, were protected at the rear. The guards had done the same with their injured. No one had pulled out swords yet, but there were handson hilts and watchful eyes, with a weird quality in the air, like the calm before the storm.

The actual storm seemed finally to have passed, thank goodness. The rain now was closer to a drizzle. Pel wasn’t sure he was going to feel the same way about rain ever again.

Finally, they had two groups once again, with Tor and Pel standing between them. Beluna and Cavun were nearby, but had wisely decided to stand a bit out of the way. Pel couldn’t see Sir Cloril, but after a moment he recognized Gremuna, the second-in-command of Tond’s guards. Her graying red hair was still matted down, and another guard was helping prop her up as she favored one leg. On the other side, the exile they’d been dealing with stood a little ahead of the others.

Tor projected his voice, sounding remarkably calm given everything that had happened. “I hope everyone here understands how close we came to dying today. The fact that we’re still here means we have a second chance. So I want each and every one of you to turn around and go home.”

They all stared at him in stunned surprise. Pel wasn’t sure what he’d been imagining, but this wasn’t it.

He felt a surge of inappropriate laughter well up and barely managed to choke it down. Torhadsaid he was going to take on all the guards.

“They shouldn’t be here!” one of the guards shouted. “This is our land! They attacked us!”

There was a swirl of angry noise, more hands shifting for swords.

Tor stared them down. “Is that what happened today? Did they attack you?”

There was an uneasy silence with more than one guard shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. Thank goodness Tor had gotten that right. Or wasthatwhat he’d asked the exile? Pelwas impressed with how Tor’s brain worked. Pel had still been thinking about the current crisis, not stopping the next one.

“They’ve been attacking us for months!” someone on the Tondian side yelled out. “They’ve killed people!”

There was another angry murmur of noise.

“These people?” Tor demanded. “Specifically? Apart from this fight that you brought to them right now, are you telling me that you know for afactthat someone here attacked and killed someone in Tond?”

Stilted silence once again.

“And have any of you killed any of them at some point in the past? Are you prepared to swear that they have caused all the harm and you have caused none of it?”

Tor had some really excellent rhetorical questions.

With a slash of his hand a glowing shield formed, more like a vertical wall than the domed shield he’d made earlier, rising higher than all their heads and separating the Tondians from the exiles.

“Go home!” Tor repeated loudly. “I barely managed to stop the mountain from killing us, and goddess help me, I will also stop us from killing one another!”

“The King commanded us to hunt down the exiles,” Gremuna pointed out.

To Pel’s relief, it sounded more like an observation than an accusation.

“The High King has ordered the exiles not to be pursued into the mountains,” Tor responded easily before his voice turned scathing. “And I’m telling you right now that you will have to contend with me if you intend to attackchildren.”

There was more awkward shifting, and the heated expressions on many faces had given way to something that looked more like embarrassment.

Pel caught sight of movement, and he realized that the rows of exiles were diminishing. The front was still there, protective, but it wasn’t as dense as it had been. While Tor was talking, his big shield in the way, they were escaping.

Pel made himself look away. He had a better view from the side than the Tondian guards did. He didn’t want to risk drawing attention to what was happening.

“Go home!” Tor repeated forcibly. “I will explain everything to the King when I return.”

There was a sudden flash of lightning that made everyone jump. A few seconds later, thunder rumbled. The storm wasn’t on top of them—but that didn’t mean it couldn’t return.