Interrupted Dialogues

A Stone In Heaven, XI.

Have you had the experience of answering a hostile question with "No...," intending to add, "...but..." and explain further but been interrupted after the "No..."? Yewwl tells her companions that their armed guide is sending for people to arrest them but, before she can add that surrender is advisable, her son attacks and is killed. Great! We have already been told how Ramnuans respond to bereavement. Yewwl's knife goes into Skogda's killer. Before Banner can talk Yewwl out of going berserk, she too is interrupted... All the conflict comes to a head. But Yewwl has learned enough to confirm Flandry's and Banner's suspicions. Flandry must move against the Duke. We can tell from the page count that the novel approaches its climax.