pored

we found our way out. I tried it . . . once. It’s all twisted ravines and impassable rivers, as well as totally confusing forest. I only got out by pure luck.”
He took a sip of his coffee. “Thanks to the three bungling burglars we can’t go through Amphir. Thanks to our little Princess and her boyfriends the coast trail is closed. Which reminds me, what was all that wordplay about ‘Saril,’ girl?” asked Cap, fixing her with his eagle gaze.
She shrugged. “He’s Deshin’s boyfriend.”
“Hmm. Interesting . . . and possibly useful to know, in a homophobic society. A lever perhaps?” he asked, questing.
“He does keep it a secret. In most of the Tyn States, it wouldn’t be wise to be public about it. It’s different in Arlinn, of course,” she said.
Cap snorted. “Thanks to bloody Evie Lee. Half of her friends were chutney ferrets. Still, it won’t get us north. I suppose we can rope down the cliff between the watchtowers at night, but we couldn’t take horses. On foot it would take us too long to get out of Amphir’s territory. That only leaves us the option of going by sea to Dublin Moss. It’s a bugger of a trip, weatherwise, but I don’t see how else we can do it. We’ll go further south and then down to Port Lockry.”
Keilin dredged his memory, trying to remember the place on the maps he’d pored over. “Back down through the lowlands?” he asked, just the edge of trepidation in his voice.
He was rewarded with a snort of laughter. “Don’t like them