"Kosanna." Better he had stayed in the pit of Ophid!
Roya sensed something in Toka's quiet terseness, in the odd silence of Rok and Old Ledo. "Toka, what does it mean?"
Only the swift thrusting of the paddles and the swush of the river against the canoe's shell filled the next moments. Roya's patient waiting for an answer was inescapable.
"It means," Toka replied quietly, "that I ... shall not be leaving Kosanna."
Roya took it surprisingly well. "And the rest of us?"
"Free to go, I guess."
"Why can't you come too?" Roya wouldn't give up till she knew.
Toka tried to keep it factual. "I married Queen Kolano."
"And who is Queen Kolano?"
Toka tried to explain. "Lives in the palace—up in the dome or some place. I met her—" Why explain his crazy trance! "So...."