Dark Moon by Elizabeth Kelly Read Free Book Online Page B

think there was any reason to tell her.  My father died when I was five.  My mother remarried and when I was ten, Bree was born.  Two years later they were both dead, and it was just Bree and I.”
    “Gods,” she muttered, “how on earth did you take care of a two year old?  You were only a child yourself.”
    He shrugged.  “I was big for my age and strong.  I did a lot of manual labour in exchange for food and shelter for us both.”
    “Bree said your parents were robbed and murdered.  Did they ever find the men who murdered them?”
    He was giving her a strange look and she could see shame deep within his eyes.
    “What?”
    “I – I told Bree that story but it isn’t true.”  He said quietly.
    “What really happened?”
    He looked at his hands.  “Bree’s father fancied himself an adventurer.  He was always coming up with wild schemes to make money.  If he did actually manage to make some money, he would immediately disappear for months on his grand adventures.  He would leave my mother with barely enough money for food.  Even after she became pregnant with Bree, he still left.  He cared about no one but himself.  I started working when I was seven, odd jobs that people in the village would give me out of pity, just so we had enough money to buy food.”
    He snorted in disgust.  “It didn’t matter how many times he left, or how many times we nearly starved while he was gone, my mother always welcomed him home with open arms.  She was so weak.”
    “How did they die?”  She prompted gently.
    “When I was twelve, Arden got it into his head that he needed to see one of the old cities.”
    She gave him a look of horror.  “That’s suicide.”
    “Aye.  He had met a man in our village - a stranger who was just travelling through.  He convinced Arden that he had gone to the city and survived.  He told Arden that he had a – a magic pill that protected him from the sickness.  The fool didn’t even ask for proof, just blindly believed him, and eagerly bought the pills.”
    He rubbed his hand angrily through his hair.  “He started planning for the trip and I was happy.  I knew that this time his foolishness would cost him his life, and I wanted him to die.  Only, he decided this time that my mother should go with him.  Eager to please him, she agreed.”
    “Oh, Kaden.”  She whispered softly.
    “They left for the city within the week.  Two months later they were back.  They had made it to the old city, had gone deep within it, and both of them had the sickness.”
    He stared blankly into the woods.  His mother had been so weak she couldn’t stand, and both of them had lost all of their teeth and their hair. 
    “Kaden?”  Sophia moved in front of him and touched his arm gently. 
    Absentmindedly, he took her hand and linked their fingers together.  Holding her hand tightly, he took a deep breath.  “It was late at night when they arrived home.  Bree was sleeping, thank the gods.  My – my mother was bleeding from every orifice in her body, and Arden wasn’t much better.  They had lost their teeth and their hair.  Shortly after they arrived home, my mother lapsed into a slumber that I couldn’t wake her from, and Arden was babbling incoherently about the old city.  He had a small bag filled with jewels and other items they had picked up.  I sold those jewels and made enough money from them to keep our home, and food in our bellies, for the first year after they died.”
    She stroked his hand with her thumb and made a soft sound of comfort.  He tightened his grip on her hand and closed his eyes.  “They had to travel through the village to get home and the people there had seen them.  They showed up at our home the very next morning to drive my mother and Arden to the outskirts.  They were too late though.  Both of them had died in the night.  Once the money ran out from the jewels, we lost our home and we were forced to leave the village so that I could