I can hear every worry he’s not voicing. They echo in my thoughts along with my own. I feel like I keep asking people to make impossible choices.
I turn my head. “Thorin. Move to the back. Make a plan with Francis for when we reach the mill.”
Once he does, I look at Saeth and keep my voice very low. “Do you have a way to slip into the house unseen?”
He frowns, but nods. “Yes, but—”
“Could you get them to the mill by the time we’re meeting Reed and Sommer?”
“That isn’t part of our—”
“Answer the question.”
He inhales deeply, running a hand over the back of his neck, considering. “On foot from here, it would be tight.”
And even more difficult with children in the rain, but he doesn’t say that. He doesn’t need to.
“If you can’t make it by then, we’ll do our best to make a second pass,” I say. “Half an hour later.”
“Your Majesty—”
“Listen to me. When we draw close, hand me the reins. I won’t slow the wagon. Slip off in the shadows. Sneak into your house.See your family.Let your wife react, then bring them to the mill.”
He stares at me for so long that I want to warn him to look back at the road.
Eventually, he says, “I can’t leave you with no one but Thorin.”
“You forget. I have Francis, too.”
Saeth gives me a look, and I smile.
But he doesn’t say anything else. He’s practically vibrating with the battle between duty and obligation.
So I end the war. “I’m ordering you,” I say.
He nods, then looks off into the darkness, his jaw set again. Ahead, at the crest of the hill, another cluster of homes sits between two tiny farms. Candlelight flickers in the windows of each one. Saeth swallows, and I know.
“Up there?” I say to him anyway.
“Yes.”
“You should slip off soon, before we’re too close.”
He hesitates, then moves to hand me the reins. An order is an order.
“Adam.” I put a hand on his arm before he can go.
He looks up in surprise. I never touch my guards. I never touch anyone.
“Thank you for what you’ve done,” I say. “Please make sure your wife knows I’m grateful for your family’s sacrifice.”
He frowns a little. “It’s not a sacrifice.”
“It is.” I pause. “I’m saying this now, because I want you to know that if you reunite with your family and choose not to come to the mill, I would understand.”
“I will be at the mill. I swear it.”
I shrug, then give a little laugh, though there’s no humor to it. “If I’ve learned anything from being king, Saeth, it’s that there are choices wewantto make and choices othersforceus to make. Truly. If your family forces you to choose another path, I won’t hold it against you.”
