Zaber watched Larden rocking slightly for a moment, then approached the cabin wall. He stretched one leg out, drew the other in, leaned his hand against the wall, and sat down. Beneath the wooden floorboards, a faint creaking could be heard; the air carried the mingled scent of old cabin timber and dust carried by time.
Larden slowly stopped rocking and took a deep breath.
"Do you think I went too far, kid?" he asked, his voice retaining its former firmness yet now softened with a gentler intonation.
"Thinking about what you did would only harm me, and my opinion on the matter is this: the subject is closed." He drew his gaze away from Zaber and spoke the words with deliberate care.
Larden stared at Zaber in genuine surprise. In the old man's eyes flickered a mixture of astonishment and an attempt to understand.
