Anthierin was already crouched on her other side, checking her breathing with the brisk, practical hands of someone used to handling emergencies at a forge. "She's out cold. Completely out."
Dana glanced down at the unconscious girl with mild interest, unbothered by the sudden crisis. "Well. That's one way to answer a rumor."
---
Hono's face, still sweating, twisted through disbelief into something closer to frustration, caught between the accusation he'd just made and the deflection currently unraveling it in front of the entire kingdom.
He'll deny it. No point pressing further, not now. Whatever truth sat underneath that outburst, it wasn't going to surface through shouting across an arena. And he wasn't going to let himself get distracted chasing it either way.
Winning was winning. That was the only math that mattered right now. Layla was free, the hostage gambit spent, the game reset back to zero.
Or so he thought.
