Sairis's POV
The carriage stopped.
Sairis did not move immediately. He sat in the dark and let the stillness settle and took stock of his body the way you do when you have been travelling for a long time and are not entirely sure what you will find when you finally stand up.
It was not good news.
His lower back had been aching for the last hour. His legs felt heavy and stiff from sitting in one position on a seat that had no padding worth mentioning.
His stomach was tight in the way it got when he had been upright too long without proper rest.
Sairis shifted carefully and felt the ache move through him and thought, with complete clarity, that if he did not die from whatever was waiting for him on the other side of this carriage door, the journey itself might finish the job.
He now understood, in a way he had not fully appreciated before, why Loreen had been so particular about the carriage that took him to the market.
