Sunlight fractured into pieces on the floor from where it bounced off the dusty wall mirror, which had become distorted with spider cracks over the course of Eragos' speech. The rod that held the curtains of the window bent slightly. Somewhere across the room, a bucket fell on its side. Quiet things, disorderly things...
Vera, for all appearances, still remained calm in her chair.
Focus was so important. She'd barely hung onto it. Her arms burned, her shoulder hurt terribly and she was tired. These things weren't supposed to be felt after so many years of practicing control, but they were. The level of control that she'd lost wasn't acceptable...and she'd have to regain it very quickly. She wanted to hold everything together. There was no time for falling apart.
No time.
"The best place to slaughter the villagers is on the road. The People have been beaten badly, twice, because they placed Gali under siege. They won't have the same problems if we travel in a poorly organized caravan. Whoever arranged the previous attack on Gali has to realize that."
Vera struggled to keep her voice calm. She did not rise from her chair. Instead, she squeezed her hands together that much more tightly and corrected her posture.
"I know that there isn't any time. I know the potential for another battle and soon. Yet with nothing but a line of green-armed archers, a fatigued magic user and a severely injured White Rider, I am setting the people of Gali up as a big, slow moving target. I've led enough parties through dangerous territory to know what's going to happen. And they are not ready for it."
She knew the intensity of her anger was in the piercing look she gave him next, but she forced her words to remain smooth. For however he'd cut into her with his own words, Vera had no desire to do the same. She hadn't forgotten the bandages or how much blood was in the water after the healer had finished first cleaning him up.
"You've spoken to me as if I were blind since you arrived here. Maybe after a month of being confined to one of these damned cottages, I was. But I will not line the road to the King's city with graves because of recklessness!"