CHAPTER 18
“What’s this?” Commander Chang said. “We don’t have time for every stray along the river.”
He turned aside to finish a discussion with Tun Jeju.
Penrys waited patiently with Zandaril and the children in the command tent. Zandaril gripped Tak Tuzap’s shoulder in a strong hint to stand still, and the little girl was subdued and quiet.
The expedition was setting up for camp in mid-afternoon. There would be a review of the incoming information from the settlements and then a planning session that was anticipated to go on for hours.
Penrys’s thoughts still roiled from Zandaril’s casual remark down by the river, and she avoided meeting his troubled gaze. She hadn’t dropped her shield to mind-speak him since.
Children. The thought haunted her. Women my apparent age do have childr
