Lyria felt a sort of sputter escape her lips as she stared at Gertal.
“That’s impossible,” she finally said. But Gertal merely shook his head, backing toward the door.
“I can’t say more,” he said. “I can’t.” He managed to unlatch the door without looking at her, and he disappeared past it and swung it closed almost impossibly quickly. She heard him scraping metal against metal as he turned the key in the lock. Then she heard his retreating footsteps. She considered calling out to him, but she felt it was useless. He had told her all he would for that day.
But with nothing to do but pace and think, she found herself unable to settle to anything. The food tempted her, the water called to her, and she spent many minutes pacing past them on the bed, staring at them each time she went by.
