She took it, allowing him to guide her forward as the procession reformed itself one last time. The servants melted away to attend to their duties, the guards resumed their positions, and the corridor opened up before them.
Behind them, quite deliberately choosing the opposite direction, Aldric and Ryse began their own retreat, their footsteps echoing in counterpoint to Soren and Eris's measured pace.
For a moment, they walked in companionable silence, the kind that exists between men who have known each other long enough that words are optional rather than required. Then Ryse, because he had never met a moment of tension he couldn't puncture with mockery, threw his arm around Aldric's shoulders with the casual affection of old friends.
"So," he said, voice bright with barely suppressed laughter, "thirty days. That's quite a lot of time to miss someone."
Aldric's response was immediate and flat. "I did not miss him. I was too busy doing his job to miss him."
