"Did she see you?" Luka asked, his voice kept low so it wouldn't carry. His grey tail gave an anxious twitch behind his knees.
Ken unbuckled his sword belt and set it on the table. "No. She's locked in with the tax clerks and the district ministers. Turned me away twice."
Venn looked back toward the corner bed. "She didn't ask after him at all?"
"Not a word."
A quiet tension settled over the barracks.
On the mattress, Mahir shifted slightly. The movement made the sheet slide an inch lower down his hip, exposing the faint, dark ring of bruised flesh around his base where the iron band had bitten into him all night.
He let out a low, hoarse groan into the pillow, his fingers curling into the straw ticking until the knuckles went white.
Luka took a half-step toward the cot, concern tightening his features, before Ken raised a hand to stop him.
"Leave him be," Ken said quietly. "Let him sleep it off."
