“I do,” he said, laying his hand on his shoulder. “And I am sorry to have ever doubted you.”
“Nay,” she said, shaking her head. “I gave you cause to doubt me when I was first mistaken and thought to have scried and never corrected the misunderstanding.”
“That’s all in the past now, sweetheart. We don’t need to dwell on it anymore.”
“Then it’s true. My departed parents really said they forgive me?” Gregor looked up and Persimmon nodded.
“They say they understand what you did and why you did it. They are thankful that you gave up everything to help them. But they also are telling me that they don’t want you to work for King Sethor anymore. They worry about you, Gregor.”
“I won’t,” promised the man, taking one of each of his dead parents’ hands in his. “I promise you, Mother and Father, that I won’t ever help that evil man again.”
Darium, Zann, and Rhys entered the room. Darium carried a cloth bag with him.
“They also want Darium to sin eat for them so they won’t go to The Dark Abyss,” said Persimmon.
“Yes, please, Sin Eater. Please help them so they can get to The Haven where they belong for the rest of eternity,” begged Gregor.
“I am here to do so.” Darium pulled bread and a bottle of wine from the bag.
“Nay, Darium, don’t risk it,” begged his wife.
“Talia, I want to do this,” said Darium. “Not for the dead couple, but for the peace of their son.”
“Thank you.” Gregor let go of their hands and stood next to the bed. Darium place bread atop the dead woman’s chest, as well as the bottle of wine.
“May all her sins be forgiven, and may she find her way to The Haven where she will spend the afterlife in peace and comfort,” said Darium, eating the bread and taking a swig of wine. Then he repeated the same process with the dead man, saying the words again. Stone had never seen anything like this in his life. It was either ingenious, or they were all a little crazy.
“They will make it to The Haven now,” said Darium, when he had finished. “You don’t have to worry for your parents anymore.”
“There is a graveyard right outside the castle walls,” explained Rhys. “My brothers and I will help you bury your parents.”
“Thank you,” said Gregor. “I am only sorry I stayed away so long. Are they still here?” he asked Persimmon.
Persimmon looked around the room and slowly shook her head. “Nay, I’m sorry. They’ve moved on,” she told him. “But they were glad you came.”
“I am so thankful,” said Gregor. “I will do anything at all to show all of you how much I appreciate everything each of you has done for my parents. They meant the world to me.”
“Anything?” asked Stone.
“Yes.”
“Then help us sneak back into Macada Castle to capture two thieves from my homeland and to recover my king’s jewels that were stolen.”
“Stone, nay. You can’t ask him to do that,” said Medea. “It’s not right. If King Sethor finds out he even came here now, he’ll most likely order the man killed.”
“I’ll do it,” said Gregor without a second thought. “I will gladly risk my life to help all of you. But, please, tell me something that I need to know. Who was it that killed my parents?”
“The same two men we are hunting down,” answered Aithrod, walking into the room with Fang at his side. “The thieves of Taelgonoth.”
“I will kill them with my bare hands if need be, but they will pay for taking the lives of innocent people.” Gregor’s fists clenched and he gritted his teeth. “They will not get away with this.”
“Nay, they won’t, I promise you that,” Stone told him. “I will see to it personally. They will pay for their evil acts, and I will make sure justice is served.”
Later that day, Persimmon rode atop a horse along with Stone as they made their way through the village of Kasculbough, and along the beach of the Masked Sea with Fang leading the way. The sun shone down upon them, warming her body and making her feel safe and secure. Puffy white clouds floated lazily in the bright blue sky above them. Crystalline waves drifted up to the shore, rippling the bronze field of smooth sand before them.
“It surely is beautiful in Mura. We very seldom have a bright sunny day in Taelgonoth,” Stone told her.
“Really? Why not?”
He shrugged. “It is a much darker place than here. Sometimes, it is so bleak that it is hard to remember if it is day or night. And because of the lack of sun, not much grows. What we do have is mostly tangles of weeds or gnarled trees.”
“Oh, my, that sounds awful. No wonder there is no magic there. I don’t think a fae or elf or even a witch would live in a land without sun and flora. It is what we thrive on.”
“It might not be as colorful or as beautiful as this land, but still it is my home and I miss it.”
“Do you have family you left behind?” she asked him, wanting to know more about this intriguing man.
“No. Not anymore,” he told her sadly. “Most of my family was killed off by a plague that swept through the land. The rest of them were killed in war. The same thing happened to Aithrod with his family.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she told him, feeling his own sadness and emptiness in her heart. “So you have kingdoms fighting over there as well as they do here?”
“I am sure every land has greedy men who want to rule and will do anything to gain power. It is no different than anywhere else.”
“Thank you for asking me to go for a ride, Stone, but it wasn’t necessary,” she told him, enjoying the closeness of their bodies pressed together as they traveled slowly along the beach.
“It’s the least I could do to try to make it up to you that I didn’t believe you when you said you saw ghosts. I’m sorry. I’m not used to all this magic and odd happenings.”
