Azaliyah faced him one last time.
“You wanted to bring me somewhere unwilling,” she said. “Instead, your people are leaving with purpose.”
Camron folded his arms and grinned. “That has got to hurt.”
Varos’s jaw trembled once before he forced it still. He looked around at faces no longer his, banners no longer enough, power no longer answering when called.
Then, without another word, he turned.
Two guards followed him.
Most did not.
He limped through the open gates beneath the banner he came with, smaller somehow than when he entered.
Camron watched him go and exhaled through a smile. “Well,” he said, “that was deeply satisfying.”
The moment Varos passed beyond the gates, the courtyard exhaled all at once.
Noise rushed back in layers. Guards speaking too fast, villagers asking thr
