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Jared lifted the cover and lowered the wooden bucket When he looked around for the dipper, Yarek said, "Here," and called in aand handed it to Yarek "Wheneverin the woods, we’d all end up here because this well had the sweetest water in Ranon’s Wood"

"Yes, it did" Yarek drained theand handed it back to Jared "Now it’s as bitter as a wo into the bucket and drank

As bitter as a wo now? For the Blood, was there really any difference?

Because he was thirsty, he drank anotheron the bench next to his uncle

"What happened here, Uncle Yarek?"

Yarek looked at the sparse garden and sighed "War’s what happened, Jared War between the tribes"

"But we’ve been united since the tis about the long-lived races, weBut that slut who controls Hayll has a way about her It’s like finding a weed in the garden You know it doesn’t belong there, but it looks s that, although it looks s a tap root so deep you can never cut out all of it, and it sends out all these other runners that choke out everything but other weeds

"That’s what happened to Shalador One by one, place by place, we lost our strong Queens, our good Queens Soe Some to ‘accidents’ One by one, until all that was left were the weeds"

Jared rubbed his forehead "And even a good er for the bond gnaws at hi love bond eases that hunger, too A Blood uess that’s why the warriors who came to demand we yield to the new Queen did what they did"

Unable to look at Yarek, Jared focused on the cracked, barren ground in front of hihtered the witches They butchered our hearts They didn’t give a call to battle and wait for the ones who chose to fight to co field When every family in Wolfs Creek refused to yield and every s of Obedience, the delegation left Thirteen men That’s alluntil the next day when hundreds of thee and attacked They weren’t after the men Our wounds and deaths happened because ere in the way It was the witches those bastards wanted Little girls, old woirls on the verge of womanhood

"They raped some of them, just like they raped the land Left sohter-Jeweled young witches were captured and taken away A few--very few--escaped the breaking and slaughtering, but they weren’t old enough or strong enough for the males to bond to comfortably"

"Is there anyone left at Wolf’s Creek?"‘ Jared asked, carefully circling around the questions that needed to be asked

Yarek shook his head "Only a couple of houses were left standing by the time it was done They took most of the livestock, and we knew the land couldn’t yield enough for us to eat even if ere able to tend it and could find a Queen to heal it--and there was nothing to get us through fro to the harvest

"Belarr arrived that evening with forty menand Reyna She did what she could to keep us alive Then Belarr and the otherfamily ties between Wolfs Creek and Ranon’s Wood, so Reyna didn’t have to look far to find hands to help her" Yarek cleared his throat "I told her to take the ared to stop the bleeding before they arrived I told her to put her strength into the young ones She cried but, hter, she did what I asked

"A week later, the bastards came to Ranon’s Wood Belarr had set up a watch, so they didn’t co, but they caain--except they didn’t even give Belarr or anyone else a chance to refuse to yield

"He fought Mother Night, how he fought! But"

"He wasn’t trained as a guard," Jared said quietly "He wasn’t trained as a warrior"

"No He was a strong man and a fine administrator and he’d served his Queen and Ranon’s Wood well, but he wasn’t a trained warrior"

Belarr had had the strength of the Red, but hadn’t had soth to kill, hadn’t had a Warlord Prince like Blaed with hi field within himself

"They had to kill him, you see," Yarek continued in a low voice "They had to They couldn’t let a Red-Jeweled Warlord live after they’d torn his wife’s body apart enough to h to let her die quickly"

Jaredsound

Yarek didn’t notice "They paid dearly, Jared The bastards paid for Reyna with their own blood And they didn’t really win in the end

"She was in the village when the attack started Janos died trying to reach her And she went down fighting to protect a young girl

"I don’t kno Belarr reached her or where he found the strength to get her away froot her ho to heal him He askedwas over Then he carried her up to their room and lay doith her on the bed Wasn’t my place to be there, so I closed the door"

Yarek pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his nose "I left the house and hid in the woods Sounds cowardly "

Jared shook his head "You’d already fought one battle You weren’t strong enough to fight another"

"I did have another reason," Yarek said slowly, tucking the handkerchief into his pocket "On and off all through the winter, Reyna kept saying you were co houred someone from the family should be here to oogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>