But Torex flashed him that obnoxiously bright grin. “Thanks. It’s been… nice to be here.”
Pel eyed him.
Torex laughed. “No, really. Especially after you stopped hitting me.”
“That was one time!” Pel flared up, drawn despite himself, subsiding once Torex laughed merrily.
He was pretty sure that Torex wasn’t ever going to let him forget it, and yet… it felt like friendly teasing, inviting Pel to share in the joke rather than reminding him of his shortcomings, as his father was so fond of doing.
No, this made him feel as though… they were friends?
Pel was arrested by the thought. Pelun of Tondfriendswith the High Prince of the United Realms?
Surelythat was wrong, and yet… they’d been spending weeks visiting the people of Tond, and they’d been doing so with increasing camaraderie. They didn’t always agree, but they seemed able to have actual conversations now, and Pel had been thoroughly enjoying himself without quite acknowledging that’s what was happening.
They had dinner together every night—though that was probably the least interesting time they spent together, since King Forex was so unpredictable, and Bavil and Larexa seemed often to be trying to impress him. They spent three or four mornings a week going to see the people. Pel saw Torex when he trained with the guards, though Bavil was sometimes there as well. Pel still didn’t love the casual use of so much magic, but he could acknowledge now that Torex was using it to help the others train.
There were too many things that were very attractive about the man, and Pel didn’t want to acknowledge any of them, because he knew he was setting himself up for disillusionment. Torex could have anyone he wanted, and Terila—who was only Illustrious—had rejected Pel out of hand.
Larexa, who’d once claimed that she’d love Pel no matter what, had declared that only someone Extraordinary like herself would do for a bond. And Bavil, who had once stood up for Pel against their father, had courted Marwila, cheated on her, and dismissed her and her concerns as though she were nothing. They hadn’t tried to explain anything to Pel when he’d come back from Vayrin licking his wounds from his own rude dismissal.
Pel had been left with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and the certainty that he’d grown up, all of a sudden, and seen the world for what it really was. Pel was Unremarkable, which might as well have stood for Unimportant or Uninteresting or Undesirable. He knew it. Everyone knew it.
Except… maybe not Torex? Or maybe he just didn’t know Pel well enough yet. But he seemed truly determined to spend time with him. Even if it was because Pel was safe and wouldn’t lead to a bond or a diplomatic issue, it was… nicer than he expected.
Was it possible that theHigh Princewas lonely? It seemed ludicrous on the one hand, but the High King had his wife and his new baby. Maybe Torex couldn’t quite figure out where to fit in.
Pel certainly knew that feeling, though comparing them felt dangerous. Torex might have chosen to run away, but he wasn’t going tostay. Pel had the terrible feeling that he was going to be even lonelier once the man left… but he wasn’t willing to give up what they were doing now. The connection would no doubt fade away once Torex went back home, but Pel was sure that Torex would at least remember what he looked like now.
As they spent more time together and their discussions became more open, Pel ceased to fear that Torex would punish him—or Tond—for any of his opinions. Heading between farms or back to the castle, horses ambling along, had become one of Pel’s favorite times.
Like he was thinking out loud, Torex said, “So are the exiles having trouble growing their own food and sustaining their lifestyle, or have they decided that it’s simply easier to raid Tond?”
Pel considered this. “I would think that the risk outweighs the benefits, but I’ve not seen the conditions in which they’re living. They made it twenty-odd years without more than the occasional raid, and now they’re nearly constant.”
“Did it increase suddenly?” Torex asked.
Pel shook his head. “No, not really. At first, it was a little more frequent in winter, then at the harvest, as if they were preparing for winter. A little more taken, a little more frequently… And now it’s simply all the time. Not predictably, but scattered across the towns and villages. The ones near the mountain have been hardest hit, of course.”
Torex’s eyes strayed to the mountain range, and it looked for a moment as though he shivered.
“Wouldn’t it make sense to try to see what the living conditions are?” Torex asked.
Pelun shook his head, surprised. “That’s against the accords, as I’m sure you know.”
“Very true,” Torex ground out.
Defensively, Pel said, “We would be risking the lives of—”
“I said true!” Torex snapped.
Pel recoiled at the vehement anger, making him rock a little in Extraordinary’s saddle. She snorted at him, and he shifted his weight back to center.
They continued on in silence, and it stretched taut and uncomfortable between them.
Torex seemed to hunch in on himself a little, and then he sucked in a sharp breath and blew it out noisily. “I lost guards over that mountain.” He grimaced, correcting himself harshly. “Isentguards over the mountain. They died.”
Chapter Twelve
