Page 74 of The Prince's Sacrifice

But he was leading Pel to the right, skirting around the stables. In this direction, there was only a tall wall separating this area of the courtyard from the garden at the back of the castle, with the stables stretching down to fill in most of the space between the outer wall and the inner wall of the castle.

Pel eyed the wall that led to the gardens dubiously. “I don’t think my climbing skills are that great.”

“Definitely would not recommend,” Tor agreed. “The guards in the tower would shoot you. They might not be quite as talented with a bow and arrow as you are, but they’re good enough.”

“So what are we doing?” Pel inquired.

“Using the secret entrance, of course.”

Pel thought he was joking, but it turned out there was anactualsecret entrance. Tor showed him the two different stones you had to push, and where you needed to stand for it to work, and then an entire section of stone swung inward. Looking around to make sure no one was looking, Pel slipped inside after Tor.

Tor pushed the door carefully closed between them, and a moment later, white light sprang up, and Pel saw that Tor had created a ball of light in his hand.

Pel shot him an unimpressed look.

“Sorry,” Tor grimaced. “Instinct. It’s what we always do to sneak through the secret passage.”

The light was small, bright, and white, and Pel decided he’d better pick his battles. It wasn’t like he could reasonably expect that Tor would never use magic again, even if there was part of him that was clamoring that that would be the safest solution to ensure nothing happened to Tor ever again.

The passageway sloped down, and then it narrowed until it was just wide enough for two people, and just high enough that there wasn’t more than a foot and a half of clearance above Pel’s head.

“Does the castle have lots of secret passages?” Pel asked curiously.

“Sadly, no,” Tor said with a frown. “Or at least not that Var and I ever found. And believe me, we searched.”

Pel tried not to smile too much at Tor’s slipping and calling his brother by his short name. It gave him hope for theconfrontation that he knew was coming. All the affection was clearly there. They just needed to get past the resentment and sour feelings.

Tor pointed out the door that led into the castle itself on their right-hand side, but he continued on until they reached an area directly opposite where they’d come in, the corridor sloping back up to another door.

“This leads out to the courtyard, which is our private garden, set apart from the formal gardens out back. It was Mother’s favorite location.”

On the inside of the secret passage, there was a straightforward lever that opened the door. Tor demonstrated how lifting the lever opened the door and then nudged Pel out.

“The lever falls closed once you’re no longer holding it, and that closes the door.”

Pel watched in fascination as the door soon blended in seamlessly with the surrounding wall. He couldn’t tell where it was at all from just looking at the long stretch of stone.

Grinning, Tor pointed out where to stand and the stones to press on this side, making Pel do it this time. Pel couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face as the door opened soundlessly once again.

“That’s way more fabulous than anything we have at our castle,” he admitted.

Tor’s smile grew bigger. “There’s another one on the outer wall that leads out of the castle completely. On the other side of the stable, directly opposite this one. Same pattern to open it, just with two stones on the left.” He held out his left hand splayed wide at about shoulder height, as if to demonstrate. “Mother made us promise not to use it or she’d have it bricked up.”

Pel eyed him. “How often did you use it?”

With exaggerated innocence, Tor said, “Never. Obviously.”

Pel snorted.

The courtyard was filled with trees and a variety of plants. (In fact, a large tree and some bushes were planted—strategically, Pel assumed—in front of the secret entrance, but far enough from the wall that they could slip out unobstructed while not being seen by anyone else.)

Tor pointed across the courtyard to the right and about three stories up.

“We’re going there.”

“And where is ‘there’?” Pel asked without much hope.

Sure enough, Tor just kept smiling as he guided Pel through the beautiful garden and then through an entrance into the castle itself.