Chapter 80

Aria's POV

The neutral territory was called Fenwick.

It sat at the geographic center of the region the way a modest, self-possessed person sits in a room — not calling attention to itself, simply occupying its space with quiet confidence. Rolling hills, a river that moved slowly enough to seem thoughtful, a main settlement that had been trading with everyone for so long that it had developed the particular neutrality of a place that couldn't afford enemies.

We arrived a day early. Drogo had insisted and I hadn't argued, because arriving somewhere unfamiliar without time to orient was the kind of unnecessary disadvantage you avoided when you could....