“Along with no drinking and no orgies,” Tor reminded him, adding with relish, “Prince Torex.”
Rin grimaced, and Tor tugged him into bed.
Tor was glad to be getting away from the carriage, but he was going to miss his friend.
Tor slept fitfully and was easily able to sneak away in the wee hours of the morning. He was wearing his—or rather Rin’s—helmet, so that helped further obscure his identity. A yawning Rin was there to see him off.
“I hope everything goes smoothly for you,” Tor told him.
Rin grinned, still looking sleep ruffled and paler than normal, probably thanks to the shock of dark hair. “I hope you have an adventure.”
Ruefully, Tor agreed, “I’ll certainly be doing something that I’ve never done before.”
Rin clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Have fun. And stay safe! No way am I taking on this prince lark permanently!”
Tor couldn’t help but smile. “Understood.” Tor swung himself into the saddle. “At least I’m on a horse again, even if it’s notmyhorse.”
“I’ll take care of your picky stallion, never fear.”
“See that you do.”
“Good luck, Sir Rinil,” Rin said with another yawn.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Tor responded.
Rin grimaced, and Tor nudged his steed’s sides. Melody, at least, was used to Tor. Rin and Tor had swapped out periodically, as Tor had with several other of the guards in his troop, though not many had been able or desirous of handling Monster, who thought he was the terror of horses everywhere and definitely as dark as his all-black appearance—but he really just needed lots of apples, carrots, oats, and coddling. Tor was going to miss him.
He headed back towards Lotar for a little while, on the off-chance anyone was watching from the inn, and then he began to make his way north, cutting through fields and stands of trees rather than taking the main road where he might be remembered.
One of the first things he learned was that it was great to be a knight. He wasn’t receiving the fawning service towards the High Prince, but his uniform meant he wasn’t getting grief from people, either.
Plus, no one mistook him for his brother and gaped at him. Thankfully, the farther away he got from Alossa and any of the capital cities, the less likely that was to happen. Bad enough when people fawned over him, but it was way worse when they tried to fawn over the king and then realized they’d picked the wrong brother.
He’d never come up with a way to just be a person—until he got to be Sir Rinil instead of himselforVarex. After a couple of days, he left Vayrin behind and entered Bessar. (He was so glad he was on this side of the river and wasn’t going through Filon. Somehow, he’d have wound up having to talk to King Nostex, he was sure of it.)
He switched back to the main road so that he could sleep in inns and move quickly. It was chillier the farther north he went, the ground slowly rising as he headed towards Tond.
Tor had kept some of his funds with him, and Ada and Rin had loaned him a little more, but most of his money was even now heading towards Glomar with Rin. Still, he had enough to get by, especially since he didn’t need the best of everything. A knight with ready coin was welcome, especially as it was not generally busy. Tor found that it was easy to find a reasonable room, a reasonable meal—and generally, a reasonable companion who was happy to spend a couple of hours with one of the King’s guards.
As per his brother’s ludicrous command, he made sure it was never more than one person in an evening. And he was always clear that he was passing through and this would be a night’s entertainment only.
Tor wondered if Rin had made it to the castle yet. Had he explained himself to Terila and her parents? He doubted they’d be happy, but it wasn’t like Rin was Tor’s keeper. They couldn’t actually blame him for Tor’s disappearance.
Tor steered carefully clear when the road split and one fork headed off to Zanay. Sovereign Gornexi would recognize Tor, since they’d seen one another at Cala’s naming ceremony only a few months ago, as well as Gornexi’s wedding just a handful of years before that. And since Gornexi was married to Terila’s sister, it would be too easy for word to get out. There should be no reason for Tor to actually be noticed by the royal family in Zanay, but he wasn’t risking it.
It was a lot easier to move unobtrusively when you didn’t have a whole bunch of servants and guards traveling with you.
When he approached the border of Gornexi’s realm, he found himself stuck for a few days at an inn because of heavy rain in the area, which had put the bridge between Bessar and Tond underwater. The Great River was even greater than normal, it seemed.
Tor wanted to get there and get started on his courtship, but he wasn’t about to swim.
The people in the inn peered at the sky and pointed at the mountain.
“At least another couple of days,” they predicted.
So Tor entertained himself very pleasantly, irritated anew that his brother had decided to judge his behavior and put restrictions on how he found his pleasure. As long as everyone was of age and enjoyed themselves and no one was hurt, he didn’t understand what the problem was.
Within two days, as predicted, the water level had lowered enough that the bridge was safe to cross again. Tor had only been to Tond a couple of times, and he’d always noticed that it seemed a bit harsher than Alossa. They were surrounded by mountains, and Baless was built into one set of foothills, while there was another range that separated Filon from Tond—and Tond from what was now the exiles’ land. It wasn’t the lush land of Alossa, close to the sea with no mountainous barriers. Tor wasn’t used to mountains towering pretty much everywhere that the eye could see, and it made a weird, unsettled feeling squirm in his belly.
