He was too thoroughly, pathetically terrified to construct a lie under the shadow of the death.
"If that's not her," Sol said, his voice turning into a dangerous, freezing tone, "then where is she? You took her from the Veynar to be your wife. And claimed that it was Lumi."
"She isn't there! She was never there!" the prince yelled, the words spilling out of his mouth in a frantic, uncoordinated rush. He was so eager to save his own skin he didn't even look toward his father, Chief Vane, for permission.
"It was indeed meant to be her! My father... the elders... we had been wanting to sacrifice a young girl from a rival tribe to the Ancestral Swamp Spirit to bless us! We brought her back to our main settlement, but... but just as we took her into the ritual hut, the whole sky went dark!"
Gorr paused, swallowing a thick knot of dry throat fluid as he stared at Sol's unblinking eyes, desperately trying to find the words to save his life.
