Page 203 of Keeper of the Word
“Good-bye, Sir Tolvar.” Elanna strode away.
Tolvar did not makeit far, but he found a location clean of blood near the bank of the river. For a time, he simply listened to its babbling melody. Stared at the full moon. Held Sloane’s moon cuff.
Waited.
The breeze was cooler by the water. He expected that mayhap it should cause him to shiver; he was in much worse shape than he’dled the others to believe. Yet his body grew numb. He felt nothing. No more pain.
He thought about Elanna’s words about the Wolf turning into legend. When Tolvar had first been knighted, ’twas all he desired. With everything that occurred on the continent over the last year, he wondered if the Legend of the Wolf and Unsung would eventually become intertwined? The thought made his mouth twitch into a half-smile.
Tolvar was sapped. He propped himself on his hands to hold himself upright.
Would this work?
He was not a praying man.
He waited.
Tolvar.
He held his breath.
Unlike the form of his father, whom he’d perceived the previous year, Tolvar was not frightened of the vision of Sloane standing before him under the moonlight of the Falling Leaves.
Her stature was as it’d been, small and delicate. Determined and pure.
She beamed at him.
He drew in a breath and reached for her.
She took his hand.
Chapter
Seventy-Four
ELANNA
Elanna did not go with the others to search for Tolvar. She knew he would ne’er be found.
But her heart rose with the dawn the morning after the Falling Leaves Moon, thinking of the Wolf and Unsung somewhere in the vast canvas of the stars. Together.
Days later, she found herself in the middle of too many preparations and certainly too many good-byes.
The first was Daved. Wrapping her arms around him, Elanna whispered, “Thank you.”
“For what?” Daved asked.
“For being my brother. For once again, being my protector.”
They released their embrace, and Daved mounted his horse. He had three scores of men already mounted and awaiting his command. They were to journey back into the heart of Grenden.
“We shall right whatever wrongs we come across,” Daved said. “Spend the rest of our days serving the ideals of the realm.”
“A band like that needs a good name,” Hux said. “How about the Ravyns?” He winked.
“Mayhap,” Daved said. “’Tis not the first good idea you’ve shared, Hux. Good-bye, sister.”
Tara, still recovering, watched with Elanna as he and his multitude rode away.
