Chapter Seventeen
Pel
As they all gathered to make their way to the secret entrance, Tor spoke up.
“I can’t tell you what you’re going to face in there.
A lot of this is still conjecture. Regardless, we might not come out of this alive.
I’m going in for my family, but I can’t ask all of you to do the same.
If you’d rather stay behind with the horses, no one will think the less of you.
We’re still hoping that Gornexi, Bavil, and Larexa will arrive, and we could use people to keep an eye out for them and to catch them up on what we’re trying to do. Anyone?”
There was a great big resounding silence, and then Beluna said, “Stop stalling. Let’s get a move on.”
Lady Nawila grinned, white teeth flashing in contrast to her darker skin. “I like her.”
Tor smiled faintly at that, but it didn’t completely mask his worry. Pel’s heart ached a little at the knowledge that Tor felt responsible for all of them. They were making their own decision to proceed, but he knew Tor wouldn’t feel that way if anything happened to any of them.
“He might be your brother, but he’s also the High King,” Pel pointed out quietly from his place at Tor’s side.
Tor sighed. “I know.”
Pel squeezed his arm. “You decided to do the right thing. So did we. Let us have this, Tor.”
Tor’s expression turned rueful, and his shoulders relaxed a little. “Oh, am I trying to be the center of attention?”
Pel nudged him. “Yeah, always trying to be the hero.”
Sir Rinil piped up from a few feet away. “It’s the dashing prince thing. I don’t think he can help it.”
Princess Terila pointed out, “You’re a prince now, too, remember.”
Right. Prince Rinil made a slightly horrified face that made Tor snort with amusement.
It was so strange seeing Princess Terila again.
It was clear that she’d done some soul-searching recently, but Pel was also beginning to suspect that he’d turned her into the villain of his story.
She’d been unquestionably rude to him, but Pel had let it have way more power over him than he should have.
He liked the idea of moving on, and though he was a little surprised by the realization, he was pretty sure that they could actually become… if not friends, at least on friendly terms, which he assumed would be a good thing given how close Prince Rinil and Tor were.
Pel had a lot of questions, actually, but he knew that now wasn’t the time for any of them. They had to concentrate on infiltrating the castle of someone who’d been planning a coup for years—possibly decades.
It was a sobering thought. But at the same time, they’d foiled the plans against Tor (even if it had been a near-run thing). They had Stronex with them, and while it might be better to have Bav and Gornexi, too, Stronex probably had more actual battle experience than the rest of them combined.
Princess Terila and Pamuna had the least practical experience, but the rest of them had lots of training. They had several Illustrious with them—and Pamuna was leading them because she knew a secret entrance into the castle.
He reminded himself that she’d saved baby Cala, and when the High King had fled here, she’d immediately gone to warn Tor’s friends about what was going on. Just because she came from Fila and clearly knew more than she was saying didn’t mean that she was in league with King Nostex.
It was hard to know who to trust, but Tor clearly trusted Prince Rinil and Lady Nawila. Pel had basically put his and Tor’s lives in Beluna, Cavun, and Denil’s hands. And Stronex had clearly picked soldiers he trusted and was on a mission to save Princess Adexa.
They’d wound up practically in pairs on their way to the secret entrance.
Princess Terila was sticking by Prince Rinil’s side, just like Pamuna was doing with Nawila.
Tor was sticking to Pel like Pel couldn’t take care of himself.
(At this point, Pel just rolled his eyes and acknowledged that Tor was hugely overprotective.) Beluna and Cavun had fallen in together, and that left King Stronex and his guards.
They moved as quietly as they could, creeping through the forest with only small lights cast by the Extraordinary amongst them, since these could be instantly extinguished and caused no heat or smoke.
All the pale-skinned folks like him and Tor had their hoods up to try to shadow their faces and make them stand out a little less in the woods.
An uneasy feeling was creeping up Pel’s spine as they moved. There was so much at stake, and if they got any of this wrong, Tor might lose his family—if he hadn’t already. They might all be heading to their deaths, and if that was the case, Pel was bringing their unborn child to their doom as well.
But he knew he couldn’t stand aside, for so many reasons, but also because even if he did, if something happened to Tor, it might kill them all anyway.
He wasn’t totally sure how anyone dealt with that responsibility on a daily basis—or maybe most people didn’t wind up in situations quite as dire as this.
He definitely had newfound respect for the exiles. If this was the kind of fear they’d been putting up with during the war, and they’d taken a stand and removed themselves from the situation? He could definitely understand that.
Unfortunately, he and Tor were so deeply embroiled that there was no getting out of it unless they solved it themselves, and that was why they were sneaking to the secret entrance of a castle in the middle of the night.
(Honestly, if they survived this, he was going to suggest to Bav that they get their own secret entrance of some sort. Why was Tond left out?)
This entrance was nothing like the ones at Tor’s castle in Nexa.
It was set well within the forest, and Pel could only imagine what Nostex used it for.
The trap door was concealed amidst a thicket of bushes with debris covering it.
Pamuna showed them how the handle had been hidden, and two of the guards hauled the door up while King Stronex and Tor covered the entrance with shields.
It betrayed that they were Extraordinary, but it meant they were all protected from any surprises.
But there were none—no shouts of alarm, no thud of weapons.
It was altogether anticlimactic, but Pel sagged with relief and reminded himself that was a good thing. He tried to slow his breathing.
The two Extraordinary released their shields, and still no one leaped out to attack them.
Looking pale but determined, Pamuna told them, “There’s a trap at either end of the tunnel. If you trigger it, you’ll cause a cave in.”
Pel’s stomach sank, and he swallowed. Ah. King Nostex hadn’t left the entrance unprotected after all.
“I’ll go first,” she told them. “When you climb down, go to your left or right immediately. Do not turn around or step straight back.”
Pel could see from Tor’s expression that he didn’t like that, and it made a totally inappropriate smile want to spread over Pel’s face.
He really was a hero. Obviously, it made more sense for the person who’d been here before to go first, but Pel could actually see the struggle warring in Tor’s eyes because he didn’t want Pamuna in danger.
He kept his mouth shut, though, and one by one, they followed Pamuna into the darkness. Tor went second—and Pel third—so that he was down there and ready to shield as soon as possible, while King Stronex brought up the rear.
By the time Pel climbed carefully down, preternaturally aware that he needed to not step backwards and needed to immediately go to the side, Tor had already cast glowing balls of magic in the air—and there was a shimmering shield over a section of the ground right in front of the ladder.
Pamuna had clearly already pointed out the area with the trap, and Tor had done his best to neutralize it.
It was extremely quiet except for the sounds of their movements as they climbed. The tunnel was stone, but it was smaller and more cramped than the one in Tor’s castle—or maybe that was just because there were so many more of them trying to crowd into it.
Finally, King Stronex descended as well, pulling the trapdoor closed as he went. Pel felt a shiver run through him as they were sealed inside, but he reminded himself that Pamuna knew the way, plus they were with two Extraordinary who could shield them from whatever happened.
Everyone had fanned out carefully around the shielded area, and now Pamuna led them through the tunnel, Tor’s lights bobbing along in their wake.
Pel was keeping an eye on them, since Tor had told him this was some of the hardest magic to create, since magic liked to be firmly grounded.
There was no evidence of strain on Tor’s face. In fact, it seemed entirely effortless.
Pel reminded himself that while yes, Tor had been in a magical coma that had lasted for nearly two weeks not that long ago, he’d been healed, and then he’d acquired the exiles’ Fealty.
Pel had seen how much that had healed him.
He was perfectly fine. He was ready for this, and it wouldn’t help him concentrate if Pel questioned his wellness.
If he wasn’t ready to manifest lights, then he certainly shouldn’t be sneaking into a castle in order to go after a king with the Fealty of an entire realm and who knew what other allies.
Pel blew out a breath and tried to relax his muscles.
Yes, he was preternaturally aware that they were walking through a tunnel designed to cave in under who knew how much earth above them.
Yes, the sides of the tunnel only let two of them go abreast, and the top of the tunnel wasn’t more than a few inches over Tor’s head.
But Pel had already made it through several secret tunnels in this wild adventure, and at least this one had light and conscious company.