Marna started violently and she came to a sudden halt. Gulda took one pace ahead and turned to face her. Marna’s eyes flickered between Gulda and Farnor several times before finally settling on her old friend. She seemed to wilt inwardly.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said unhappily. ‘I didn’t know how to tell you. I don’t know why. And it got harder the longer I left it.’
Farnor’s throat was dry and he felt woefully inadequate in the face of what he had just learned and the pain he could see in Marna’s whole posture.
Something in him reached out to her. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he heard himself saying. ‘It was none of my business anyway. And I wouldn’t have known how to help you. I suppose you did what you did because of where you were, like me with Rannick.’ He looked at Yrain and Gulda. ‘And, without
