Page 91 of The Prince's Fealty

A traitor who still needed to be stopped. Probably.

“I don’t suppose Nostex was amongst the people you took down just now?”

Sir Rinil shook his head. “We think he’s with your family. That’s why we sent the other group to protect them.”

“I need to get up,” Var said firmly.

He might have been rescued, but until he saw his family for himself, he had to assume they were still in trouble.

Sir Rinil didn’t protest this time but simply helped him to his feet and then held him while he swayed and got used to the idea of being upright.

“Let’s go,” Var said, like he was in charge.

Nobody argued with him, which probably had more to do with the fact that he’d been tortured in this room than with the fact that he was High King. Sir Rinil and Lady Nawila each had a hold of an arm, making sure he stayed on his feet.

There was a stone walkway around the pool that he’d been submerged in. It was difficult to see, because most of the torches in the brackets on the walls were out.

It was incredibly creepy, and he imagined he was going to have nightmares about it for the rest of his life.

Once they reached the door to the room, Prince Pelun went first, bow at the ready, then Var with his supports, and finally Stronex’s two guards.

“I need to get to my family,” Var told them.

Sir Rinil just nodded, looking like he wanted to protest but wouldn’t. They didn’t know what was happening, and while Var certainly hoped the group led by Stronex was having as much success as this team was, he couldn’t count on it.

He needed to be up there.

Lady Nawila handed him a sword without protest, and Sir Rinil helped him strap it on. He was soaking wet, he realized somewhat belatedly, but the longer he walked, the more he felt as though his body was coming back together, even if everything ached.

Prince Pelun led them as swiftly as Var could walk through the corridors of the castle. There was no way he wasn’t conspicuous, but the others formed a tight group around him, and when they finally passed a window, Var saw that it was dark outside.

They went into the family wing, which he supposed made sense. That was where Fernila had been with the baby when Var had gone on his ill-fated walk with Nostex.

(Nostex would no doubt have tricked him some other way if it wasn’t for that, but Var still felt like a fool.)

They reached the corridor with Fernila’s favorite sitting room in it, and Var could hear the sounds of fighting. There were bodies on the floor, and it looked like the door was just gone.

Var readied his sword, mantling it with magic until it glowed fiercely.

Sir Rinil squeezed his arm. “There’s something in there that’s probably going to shock you. I thought it was better not to say anything since you weren’t looking so good, but I’m not actually sure this is better. Just… your eyes aren’t deceiving you, and there will be time to explain everything afterwards, all right?”

Confused, Var nevertheless nodded. Every single thing that had happened since they’d been attacked in Nexa had been shocking, so he couldn’t imagine what Sir Rinil was talking about now.

But it didn’t matter, because he could hear the sound of his baby girl screaming at the top of her lungs. There was only one way to react to that, and that was to fix the problem. So he drew a deep breath and slipped into the room.

Everyone was either fighting or unconscious or dead on the ground. Var’s eyes were drawn past the two shields that were still up—thank you, goddess!—to where Nostex was fighting fiercely.

Var frowned. He wasn’t just fighting Stronex. He was fighting someone else who was Extraordinary. Someone who looked exactly like—

A full-body shudder swept through Var, and for a moment, he stood frozen, unable to move, unable to think.

Then Nostex darted for one of the other people in the room, and Var watched as Tor immediately moved to intercept him—and failed to notice Nostex’s avatar before it hit him at full force and sent him flying into the wall.

Tor’s sword clattered out of his hand. Nostex’s avatar twisted around and went back for the guard, causing Stronex to leap to their defense.

All Nostex’s attention was on Tor, and Var sucked in a breath and slipped up behind him.

“There’s one thing that you forgot,” Tor told Nostex, with the precise right amount of cheek.