Page 401 of Of Empires and Dust
Tharn Pimm turned slowly, as though afraid of what he might see. The man’s eyes were bloodshot and ringed with dark circles. His hair was more grey than blond now, and a nasty scar wound from his chin up the right side of his face. “Calen?” He turned fully, looking as though he didn’t truly believe what he saw. Tharn’s lips moved to speak, but instead he just wrapped Calen in his arms and held him like that for a long moment. “You look even more like your father than you did before. I’m sorry for what happened to them, Calen.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I should have stepped in… I should have done something. I should have stopped it.”
“Then you would have died with them… The past is the past, Tharn, and nothing any of us could have done would have changed anything.” Calen pulled away from Tharn’s embrace. He looked the man in the eye. For his entire life, Tharn Pimm had seemed solid as stone, strong as iron. He had been a man where Calen had been a boy. A lot had changed in the past couple of years. “Are you all right?” He grimaced. “The question seems kind of pointless now that I say it out loud.”
“No, my boy. I am… shattered, like there are pieces of me everywhere wrapped in pieces of her.” Tears welled in Tharn’s eyes. He drew a sharp breath in through his nose and shook his head. “Iwillbe all right. It’ll just take a while to put all those pieces back together again, and I know some will always be missing. But you know all about that.” He gave Calen a tender, sorrow-filled smile. “Dann is out by the woods with Lyrei. He’s not good Calen. You know how he is, always acting like nothing phases him, always trying to be strong for everyone else.”
“I know. The woods to the south?”
Tharn nodded.
The cold winterwind blew in Calen’s face as he walked from the city out towards the small wood that sat just past Salme’s southern edge. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the wind whistle in his ears, hearing the long grass shake. Salme may not have been The Glade, but this place sounded like home.
He spotted Dann and Lyrei sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree.
Lyrei noticed him immediately. She slid from her perch and walked towards him, pressing a hand to her chest and bowing at the waist. “Draleid. Alaith anar.”
Well met.
“Ar du,” Calen responded.And you. He looked past her to where Dann still sat on the trunk. “How is he?”
Lyrei looked into Calen’s eyes, then down at the grass. She stepped closer and rested a hand on Calen’s shoulder, then left without a word.
Calen watched Lyrei as she walked back towards the city. Dann didn’t speak as Calen approached. He didn’t even lift his head. A green cloak was draped over his shoulders, the hood pulled up, casting his face in shadow. A small bird, plump and round with a sharp-looking beak and beady eyes, sat on the other side of the trunk, tilting its head to watch Calen.
Calen stood there in silence, staring out at the city and the thick columns of black smoke still pluming into the air.
“You’re late,” Dann said, his voice barely a whisper.
Calen looked back down at the grass. “I know.”
Dann flicked a rock from his hand into the pile on the ground. “Where were you?”
“I had to fly north.” Calen’s heart felt as though it were cartwheeling, stopping and starting, skipping every second beat, his mouth going dry.
“Youhadto?” Dann lifted his head just enough for Calen to see his raw red eyes beneath the hood of his cloak.
Calen fought the urge to explain the choice. The explanation didn’t matter. The reason didn’t matter. Dann mattered. Calen had made a promise, and he had broken it. And it was Dann who had paid the cost for that choice, Dann and all the others who’d lost people they loved in the battle for Salme.
“You said you would be here Calen.”
“I know, Dann.”
“Then why weren’t you?” Anger spilled into Dann’s voice. Silence held between them for a few more minutes until Dann slid from the trunk, his feet landing softly. “She’s dead… My mam’s dead, Calen. She was breathing yesterday, and now she’s dead.” He shook his head, staring down at the ground. “You said you would be here… I trusted you… I needed you…”
“I’m sorry, Dann…”
“Sorry won’t bring her back!” Dann rounded on Calen, his hood snapping back. His hair was still tacked with blood and dirt, his face filthy. “If you had been here…” He kept shaking his head and pressing his tongue against his teeth. “If you had been here like you said you would, she might still be alive. But you weren’t, and she’s not.”
The tears flowed freely now, and Calen took a step forwards.
“Don’t,” Dann snapped, raising a finger.
Calen took another step, and Dann rammed his palms into Calen’s breastplate and shoved him backwards.
“I said don’t!” Dann roared. He lifted a shaking hand, extending his index finger. “I… I never…”
