AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know,” he said quietly.
“I can’t wait until the others are paired off as well,” I grumbled. “I might finally get some blasted peace. Spend less time worrying about you lot. You’re all in desperate need of somebody with some sense to sort you out and the Empire knows it can’t always just be me.” I breathed out noisily, casting one last look around the room, trying to decipher if there was anything else I needed to do before I left. But I did not think so.
Silar was a mess, of course.
But he had Cherry. And I had a feeling that meant he was going to be just fine.
“I’ll go now. I’ll wait for your call tomorrow.”
I opened the door, listening to Cherry’s high, shaky call of, “Goodbye Warden! And thank you! Thank you so, so much!”
Listening to his wife’s words, I did not pay attention to Silar slipping out of the house with me. The door closed with both of us on the outside of it. My shuldu perked up, eyeing us before ambling over.
“I presume you’ve secured the property,” I said. It was a pointless question. Silar may have been a fool in many areas. But this would not have been one of them.
“Yes. The male was alone.”
“Good.”
I closed the last bit of distance between my shuldu and me. My hand froze upon the saddle when Silar’s voice cut through the cool air.
“Why did you do it? Why will you let this go for me?”
His question caught me off guard.
“Does it matter?” I asked, twisting to peer at Silar curiously. It was not like him to ask extra questions or make conversation, even about important subjects. Perhaps most especially about important subjects, actually.
This had to be his wife’s influence.
“I want to know,” he said.
I cast my gaze over Silar’s frame and face. Stony. Serious. Covered in blood. Eyes like white-hot coals.
“Because I know you,” I finally said. “I’ve known you a long time, now. I know that you need her. And even more than that?” I turned and hoisted myself up into the saddle, grasping the reins. “I know that you deserve her.”
Silar did not reply. He simply watched me as I urged my mount into the road.
“Despite it all, you’re a good man, Silar,” I called back at him. “And that in there is a good, good woman. Keep her happy. Oh,” I tugged on the reins, slowing my mount and turning back towards Silar’s house. “I dropped your order there by the door. This was the first chance I could bring it after its arrival. It’s why I came all the way out here tonight.” I jutted my tail at the potted package I’d left on the ground by the door before I’d come into the kitchen.
I guided my mount back into the road, ready to begin the long ride home. From the corner of my eye, I saw Silar move. He bent his big, bloodied body so he could get a better look at what I’d brought him. The order that had just about cleaned out every last credit to his name.
The order he’d placed the very day his wife had arrived.
That was the last glimpse I had of him that night. The image I carried with me all the way back.
The image of Silar bending, then crouching, silently gazing upon his new little sapling of a cherry tree.
30
CHERRY
When Silar came back inside after saying goodbye to the warden, he went straight to the kitchen sink and began to scrub his hands in vigorous silence.
“Are you… Are you alright?” I asked warily, edging up to him. He’d killed a person tonight.
And told me that it wasn’t the first time, either.
Silar’s gaze slid to me from the side. A muscle in his jaw twitched, his eyes flashing white.
