Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale - Colin McComb

can be refugees looking for a new home. Since I don’t think you can lose the habit of calling me
‘sir,’ you will have been recently discharged from the army. I am your grandfather, Toren. You
are my grandson, and your name is . . . what’s your mother’s name?”
“Arulia, sir.”
“Your name is Arul now.”
“Yes . . . grandfather.”
Glasyin—Toren—coughed. “I think ‘sir’ sounds better from your mouth.”
“Yes, sir. But what about Her Highness?”
“What about her?”
“She needs a name. And who shall we entrust to raise her properly?”
A sharp look. “Entrust? No one. We do it ourselves.”
“We, sir? Have you ever raised a child?”
The old man smiled thinly. “Your father. And you, when he died. We need to remember
this. And now I’m helping you raise your daughter, because your wife died in the attack on our
village. It needs to be a northern village. Let's choose Half-crest. It's far enough away that no one
will send for our information. Have you ever been there?”
“Sir, I meant in your real life.”
“This is my real life now. Boy, I don’t like this any better than you, but we’re going to
have to accept our current circumstances. Whether we do a good job with her depends entirely on
what our goals are. I’ve seen enough of the spoiled nobility to know that our little princess will be
better off being raised outside Terona. She might not have the courtly graces, but we can make
her honest.”
“When do we restore her to the throne? And how?”
“Sir Kn . . . Arul, I have barely had time to think about that. By the time she’s ready, it
might very well be the case that there’s no empire left for her to rule. Fortunately, we have time
to think that over. What we don’t have is a place to live, and that’s our most pressing issue. You
still have money, I saw.”
“I do.”
Glasyin said, “Then our first business is to find ourselves horses, and then find ourselves
a home near a place with books. What sorts of skills do you have besides fighting?”
“Frankly, sir, not many.”
“Any farm work?”
“No, sir. My father was a Knight Faithful.”
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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