No matter what Tor did, it seemed that the other man was determined to disapprove.
All the guards smiled at him, a few even ventured to clap him on the back. It felt a bit closer to the camaraderie he’d had with the Alossan royal guard, before everything had gone wrong. His troop had stuck with him, but that wasn’t the same.
Tor made himself smile and thanked them all for the training session. Once they’d dispersed, Tor ventured over to Pelun to see if he could find out the way in which he’d evidently erred this time.
“Everything all right?” he asked. “I thought you might take part in the demonstration.”
Pelun scoffed. “So that you could grandstand against more people who can’t match you magically?”
Tor blinked, stunned, and then a hot rush of anger scalded his veins. “If you think that I simply attacked them without any consideration at all, then you don’t have a very good understanding of magical strength!”
He could see as soon as the words left his mouth that they were the wrong thing to say. He could have guessed that, if only he hadn’t lost his temper. But the words were out, and Pelun’s face, always annoyed, became expressionless.
Tor opened his mouth, but without a word, Pelun whirled and stalked away, tension in every line of his body. For a brief moment, Tor considered running after him… but he was pretty sure that would get him punched in the nose.
He stared after the man, though, and tried to figure out exactly what his problem was. Tor hadn’t thought he was solely surrounded by people who liked him—Varex, Fernila, and Yomil, just to name a few, clearly put the lie to that—but maybe hehadsort of taken it for granted that most everyone found him handsome and charming.
Training with the guards was usually anexcellentway to attract positive attention. And find a bed partner, for that matter.
It was evident that Pelun wasn’t going to be one of those. He clearly thought Tor was a conceited ass, but while Tor could acknowledge that he didn’t always cover himself in glory, he wasn’tthatbad, was he?
And yes, his whole plan consisted of courting Pelun, but… it was getting personal now. Tor wanted to prove that he wasn’t as terrible as Pelun thought he was.
He needed new ideas.
After cleaning up, Tor decided to walk in the garden and blow off steam. It took less than three minutes for Larexa to join him.
He quirked an eyebrow and said, “This is getting to be habit.”
She made a face that seemed to be a cross between a grimace and amusement as she fell in at his side and they resumed walking. “Isn’t it?”
“If I made an observation, would you consider confirming or denying it?”
She shrugged elegantly. “Depends on the observation.”
There wasn’t a lot growing in the gardens yet, but little green shoots were starting to appear, and Tor’s eyes were drawn to these signs of life.
“Is your father hopeful that I’m on the lookout for someone to bond with, and he’s volunteering two of his children to the task?”
She sighed. “Perhaps. Might I make an observation in return?”
He nodded.
“You don’t seem to be interested in either of us.”
“I’m not desirous of a bond at the moment,” he admitted.
“Then may I make another observation?’
“Of course.”
“You seem to be focusing on someone else.”
Her expression was careful, and it told him that she’d definitely noticed who he was interested in—and family was family no matter what.
As far as Tor could tell, only Larexa and Bavil actually got along. Pelun spent almost as much time glaring at his siblings as he did at Tor, and their father behaved more like aking than a parent. Maybe this was simply the way that rulers interacted with the world, but Tor thought there should be a better balance.
It didn’t seem like any ruler was interested in changing that at the moment, unfortunately, and it meant the interactions between the entire family and Tor were somewhat awkward. Everyone behaved like it was perfectly normal. On the other hand, given all the issues that Tor had with his own brother, it wasn’t as though he should judge these family relations.
