98

Alvis makes a sound as though someone's just thrown a knife into his chest. You don't hear him take another breath afterward.

"We saw you on the road—we have patrols, of course—but I thought you'd be delayed longer," Verity says. She's running a finger along the map like she's tracing a path. "But I suppose you must have been convincing. Is it true you brought Prince Evander with you? The patrols disagreed about whether or not it was him."

You don't remember Verity being one to ramble. Her finger on the map is trembling.

"I thought you left," Alvis says, gasping, like there isn't enough air in the room.

Verity stares at her hands, as though noticing the trembling for the first time, and folds them in her lap. "I don't see how I didn't," she says.

"I thought you trekked off through the mountains, or sailed across the ocean," Alvis says. "I thought you weren't a week outside of Archa. I thought you were gone."

Verity fixes her eyes on the door behind you. "It was never a place I was running from," she says.