The tempo of their exchange was picking up and Vera shifted on her feet. Her side still felt wet and sore, even if the pain was only in her mind.
"Did you encounter any battles before the Castel?"
"There was a group that had tracked us from the countryside. We fought them shortly after the orchards. There were a few skirmishes after that, but none lasted very long. They did not know who we were, mostly, not like the first group. It almost seemed like our attackers had somewhere else to be."
"Were there survivors?"
Vera remembered telling her nephew to cover his eyes before she ran one man through and cut through another's neck. There had been one who still gurgled blood when she stepped away. She remembered thinking that a person could not cover their eyes and their ears at one time.
"No," Vera said.
A terse silence immediately followed. The Captain's face was like a storm where lightning was trapped in the clouds. Flashes of the argument he wanted to have appeared only when he looked at her, finally. Vera knew what he wanted to say, if only because she had thought it herself -- why have you brought her back here? Vera remained still as a rock and did not move from her place in front of Eithne. Maybe her father had not been wrong to call Simanel a haven for murderers. Yet if Vera could stand in front of her enemy and take a blow for calling Eragos a good man after he killed Sarta in the streets, then she could stand in front of her Captain and take his anger for believing in Eithne.
The silence between them became a test of wills. Vargis had been right -- a dead prisoner wasn't something that could be out in the air if the White Riders wanted to maintain a slip of integrity while Eithne kept her freedom. And that was the Captain's problem with what had happened. She knew it was. He wanted them all to be able to stand the light of day.
Vera pressed her lips together. "Let her atone."
"Gods damn it, Vera," the Captain's voice was black.
"Let her," she insisted, though her voice was quiet. "For everything she's done between Agethlea and Simanel, she deserves a chance. And if she blows that chance, I will hunt her down myself."
Eithne had been remarkably quiet throughout everything. Not one inappropriate joke or ill-timed protest had crossed the line of conversation. But now the Captain expected Eithne to say something and Vera could not answer for her.
"Atonement," the Captain's voice was gruff. "Is only sought by people who feel the need to reconcile their actions with the rest of society. We have a code, Savastian, and I won't discuss how you broke it. But you did. Yet somehow you've managed to come here with Rider Vera willing to be both your lawyer and a character reference. So tell me. What would you do with 'a chance'?"