“Well,” Klyde replied derisively, “If you had bothered, you would have discovered a slew of orphaned children in the manor—with your mother among them.”
Von stared up at him. His throat dried, his voice a mere whisper. “She’s alive?
“Aye.” Klyde sheathed his knife. “If not for Edyth, perhaps many more of us would have perished.”
Von worked up the nerve to ask the question circling in his mind. “Did he know?”
Tarn had returned to the manor that night for coin and food. Von hadn’t inquired about it, and Tarn hadn’t mentioned finding his brother alive.
At the long silence, Von glanced up. Klyde’s blue eyes were the storm of a hurricane, and it was answer enough. “I’m sorry. If I had known…”
“If you had, would you have stayed?”
Von had no answer. He had been newly sworn to his Master. He couldn’t say what he would have done, but they both knew.
Sneering with disgust, Klyde turned to go.
“The boy…”
Klyde halted with his back to him.
Von had many questions, but he dared to only ask one. “Did Tarn know of him, too?”
“No.” Klyde met his gaze over his shoulder. “And I thank the Gods every day for that.”
They both looked at the camp where Tavin was speaking with the Rangers. The last rays of the evening sun caught his hair, an excited smile on his face. It was the same smile of his mother. Bright and warm.
Untainted.
An echo of Aisling’s laughter surfaced in the next passing breeze, and it made Von’s chest ache. What would the boy have been molded into if Tarn had raised him?
“Stay away from Tavin,” Klyde said as he turned to go. There was no anger in his tone this time, only a mere idle fact. “Approach him, and I will kill you.”
With all the blood on his hands, it was logical to stay away. Von wasn’t a good man, and he had served an evil one.
“I remember…” Von murmured, looking down at the knives strapped to his chest. “You asked me once if I remember the people I have slain for Tarn. I remember every life lost because of me. I remember when I close my eyes at night and every morning I wake up. They haunt me in the wind, and in the faces around me. Especially his.” Von glanced at his nephew. “The boy doesn’t need me in his life. And I have no interest in being a part of it.”
Attempting to have any family would only end the same.
With death and regret.
Klyde studied him a moment before turning away. “Go have a wash. You’re proper sour.”
Von watched him walk away, sensing somehow that some of the hostility between them had diminished. Albeit only a little.
Sighing again, Von’s nose curled his stink of sweat and wet mildew oozing from his clothes. He really needed to bathe.
Von went into the woods in search of a secluded stream. The chatter of wildlife and the rustle of leaves kept him company until he heard the trickle of water. He passed through the bushes and came upon a creek, but another had found it first.
Zev rose from the surface and wiped the water from his face. Von froze. He had evaded the Lycan since joining and didn’t expect to run into him now. Seeing him wasn’t the only reason that rooted Von in place. Many horrid scars marked his body. The burn of chains, bite marks, and the tracks of claws.
But the scar Von had expected to see on his abdomen wasn’t there.
Zev’s eyes flashed bright yellow when he spotted him, claws extending at his fingertips.
“Ah … I … pardon.” Von quickly turned to go.
Water splashed as Zev climbed out. “It’s fine. I was leaving.”
