Page 87 of The Prince's Fealty

“I get the guards, you get the door,” Stronex told Tor.

Tor nodded. They all pulled out their swords. Tor mantled his body, assuming Stronex was doing the same. This gave them free range of motion, though it didn’t offer as much protection as a full shield.

He drew a deep breath, let it out. Then he nodded at everyone else.

“Up ahead, round the corner on the left,” Beluna said quietly. “Twenty steps. They’ll notice us before we get there.”

“Not a problem,” Stronex said grimly. “We’ll take it at a run.”

So that was what they did. They made sure the coast was clear, then walked to the corner. Stronex counted them down from five on his fingers, and when he reached zero, they burst into the hallway at a sprint. The guards startled badly, but before they could even reach for their swords, a shield of magic sent them crashing into the wall. They went down instantly.

That was an offensive shield used against people, Tor realized distantly, but he didn’t have time to think about that right now, because he was using his own shield against the door that was blocking him from his family.

With a crash and splinter of wood, the door gave way, and they burst into the room.

There were perhaps half a dozen guards, most of them attacking the shields protecting Tor’s family. He saw everything in weird bits and pieces, like his brain was compartmentalizing and assessing in split seconds.

Nostex was standing over the shield that Fernila and the baby were in. Cala was bawling. In a second shield, Ada was collapsed on the ground, but she still had a shield shimmering over her. Both shields were tinged lightly pink, but Tor had way more experience than he wanted with knowing it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could get.

Var’s magic was still holding up, despite the onslaught.

Everyone had paused their attack to gape at Tor standing where the door had been.

“You know what your problem is?” Tor said to Nostex, who looked truly startled and just a little bit fearful. “You actually think that you have a chance to defeat me.”

“How did you get free?” he demanded wildly.

Tor realized that Fernila was sobbing as well as the baby, and now she was crying out Var’s name. Tor tuned it out.

“By being smarter than you,” he said simply, edging farther into the room and making sure that no one was at his back. “You thought that you got rid of my allies? You thought that you could betray my trust and that was the end of it? You have no idea what I’m capable of. You don’t know anything at all.”

A few of the guards tried to rush Tor, but with another blast of magic, they were sent careening across the room.

Nostex scowled fiercely. “Stronex. You really think it wise to go up against me?”

Stronex sounded implacable. “I’ve been up against you from the beginning, Nostex, or did you forget that? I wanted a unified peace, and you seek nothing but power.”

“I’ll serve no one!” Nostex snarled.

“You’re the ruler of an entire realm!” Tor snapped.

Nostex gritted out, “I was made tokneel.”

Tor had been ten when they’d passed the peace accords. He didn’t think anyone had been required to kneel to his mother, but he supposed that to someone like Nostex, magical Fealty was the same thing.

“You were given an opportunity to create real and lasting peace,” Tor corrected. “You’ve thrown it away for your own selfish gain. It won’t be tolerated.”

“You can’t stop me.” His smile was mean. “Just like I killed your brother and your sister, I’m going to kill the rest of your family, and then I’m going to kill you.”

Tor’s gaze went involuntarily to Ada’s still form in the shield, which was, of course, when Nostex attacked, an avatar twice his size—its head practically brushing the ceiling—appearing and stabbing with a pure magic blade right at Tor.

Tor barely managed to parry in time, and the strength of the blow made him stumble back.

The battle rapidly descended into chaos. Nostex was crafty and incredibly strong. He was holding nothing back, his avatar and sword arm delivering fierce blows that Tor deflected as often as he could. They had to work around the shielded forms of Fernila, Cala, and Ada, and Tor and Stronex had to make sure not to hit them accidentally, as that would only weaken Var further.

The baby was still crying—was it just Tor who was filled with the instinctive urge to stop what he was doing and go soothe her?—and Beluna, Cavun, and Stronex’s guard were fighting the other guards who hadn’t been knocked out by Stronex’s shield.

Stronex had manifested his own avatar to fight Nostex’s, but Tor didn’t manifest his own yet, worried that its size would make it clear he wasn’t actually a ruler with the Fealty of an entire realm.