Neri heard Iven on the stair before the key entered the lock.
She looked up from the drawing.
The door opened, and for a moment he remained in it with the road still arranged around his body: pack settled high, tool roll clear of the left hand, eyes finding the room before the rest of him admitted he had arrived.
Then he saw her.
The pack came down.
She crossed the room and put her arms around him.
Day four hundred and sixty-six had brought him home in time for the noon meal, with twelve days of field work behind him and the cold smell of the last shelter still in his coat.
Neri held him for a while before moving back enough to look at his face.
