Page 61 of The Prince's Fealty

“I’m sorry I have to rush off like this,” Tor told her.

She waved this aside. “Your commitment to those you care about is one of the things we most like about you, Prince. We’ll be here when you get back.”

Bavil stepped in. “And if it’s safer for you to wait on this side of the mountain, you can do that. We can work it out, even if I have to send guards house to house in the outlying villages to make sure no one panics.”

She smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you. I think we’ll be all right. I hope so, anyway. It stopped raining, after all.”

Tor looked around. Ithadstopped raining, and he’d noticed the actual sun rise, though he hadn’t thought too much about it.

“As you were accepting Fealty,” Istila observed.

“That could be a coincidence.”

She shrugged. “It could be.”

Or it could be the land already noticing that these people had someone to pledge their Fealty to.

A thread of unease wound its way through Tor. What if his leaving at this point messed everything up?

“We’ll be fine,” Istila told him, like she could read his mind. “We’ve lasted this long, and Bavil has agreed to help if needed. We are much further ahead than we were even a couple of days ago.”

That was true enough. He felt much the same way about his own part in this.

“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” Tor promised. “But I’m not at all sure how long this will take.”

Either he’d die in the attempt, or there was probably alotthat was going to need to be sorted out.

“Understood,” Istila said simply. “We’ll be here.”

She turned back to her people, who Tor realized were already gathering up their belongings and clearly preparing to head back over the mountain to their land.

Goddess, protect them and look after them until I can return. Please.

He hadn’t taken captaining the guard as seriously as he could have, but that was nothing to being responsible for an entire realm. Determination to do better filled him.

But first things first.

“Come back to the castle,” Bavil suggested. “It’s the closest option with the most supplies—and your horses.”

Tor closed his mouth on his instinctive objection. They needed to go practically to Baless to get to the Great Road. Being well provisioned and having horses Tor was prepared to ride into battle was a wise idea. The Great Road would allow them to travel quickly, and it kept them out of Filon for the initial stages of the journey, giving them more time to plan.

“All right.”

It happened very quickly after that. They were a small group, and they were traveling light. Pel and Bavil both hugged their mother before they left. Bavil and Tama still conspicuously ignored one another—and Tor was polite enough not to mention all the staring when the other person wasn’t looking. And then they were mounting up, and Tor was delighted by how well he felt compared to when he’d made his way to the exiles to accept the Fealty.

His horse was… solid, more than built for speed, but he picked his way cleanly back down the mountain, and then they cut across country for the most direct route to Baless.

They had to stop for the night, and Tor felt antsy about not moving, but he recognized that they couldn’t actually keep traveling non-stop until Tor saw Ada again. Even if he really wanted to. But no, Pel was determined to see that Tor took care of himself.

He grinned at the other man once it became clear that they’d been put as far away from the others as possible.

“Try not to keep us up all night, all right?” Beluna said. “We’ll take care of the watch.”

Tor briefly considered arguing—he was actually consciousandfelt energized—but he was going to take this gift for what it was.

Grinning at her, Tor said, “We make no promises.”

She rolled her eyes and said without taking her eyes off them, “Prince Bavil, you’d better make sure your mother knows to give these two plenty of room to be loud and ridiculous.”