Abruptly, she got to her feet, not looking at him, one hand to her face, and fled down the hall. He heard their bedroom door slam, then silence. He had caught a fleeting glimpse of her anguished profile as she fled, and the image of her in such pain drove everything else from his mind. Rising numbly to his feet, because he needed to be doing something, he went back to the kitchen and resumed packing the provisions he would need when he left in the morning to join Birin’s small army.
In the morning, he and the other soldiers were going on a journey to the entrance of the Elf Kingdom, in an attempt to secure the narrow pass there, to hold it against any possible invasion by the King’s armies, and to allow the Thane and their friends a means to escape when they returned.
If they returned . . .
He decided to sleep on the couch, assuming that Malina had cried herself to sleep; regardless, he had caused her enough pain, and didn’t want to disturb her.
He was just making himself comfortable for a sleepless night when he heard her at the entranceway. To her look of hurt disbelief at seeing what he was doing, he said, ‘I thought you were asleep.’