The citadel gate opened when they reached it. Lewin separated at the entrance with a brief nod toward Beorn and turned down the corridor running south. The group moved through without him.
The inner corridors had recovered their ordinary rhythm, the kind a building finds when a crisis passes and the people inside it remember what they were supposed to be doing before it started. Some workers continued to live there, others returned to their residences in the city.
A runner came across an intersection ahead, paused at the sight of the group, gave Beorn the brief acknowledging look of someone who wasn't fooled by the cheap and plain disguise, and continued on.
Beadu watched the runner go. She looked at his departing back, then at Beorn walking at the front of the group, and the inevitable conclusion reached her face over two seconds.
"He's the prince."
She said to Mod, beside her. "We walked through the slums with the actual prince."
