Master of Chains - Jess Lebow [12]
Kharl lowered his eyes, covering his face with his hands as he continued to cry. "I don't want to do this anymore. I just want this to be over."
Liam wanted to comfort the young man, but the image of his brother collapsing under the falling guardsman played over in his mind. The heavy pang of guilt that he felt over not being able to save him pushed to the surface. The pain inside welled up and began to boil, a deep ache that grew from the very center of his chest and spread out to squeeze his stomach, arms, and throat. It threatened to strangle him, and for a moment, Liam wished it would.
He stood up, shouting at Kharl. "You knew what you were getting into. You knew the consequences."
The young man looked shocked. He stopped crying, stunned at Liam's quick turn.
"Ryder knew it too. He knew this could happen, and he chose to go through with it anyway."
Kharl looked to the ground, remaining quiet.
Liam stared down at the young man for a long time, not saying a word. Then, finally, "What you do with the rest of your life is up to you. But I'll continue to fight Purdun until they pry my sword from my cold, dead hand." He turned away from Kharl and headed through Furrowsrich village toward his brother's house. "I will not let Ryder's sacrifice be in vain."
* * * * *
Liam knocked on the heavy wooden door. He didn't know what he was going to say. He didn't know how to make the news any easier. Hells, he was in shock himself. Not long ago he'd left his brother's dead body lying under a dying guardsman.
Samira opened the door. She smiled, looking relieved. "Liam." She wrapped her arms around him in a warm hug. "Thank the gods you made it back safely."
Liam felt his heart sink into his belly. Nothing could have made what he had to say any harder.
Except that.
He tried to raise his arms to return the embrace, but they rebelled against him. Nothing would work the way it was supposed to. He stood motionless, stiff as a board, with his brother's wife's arms around him.
Samira must have felt it because she pushed herself away in a hurry. "Where's Ryder?"
Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Liam," she said, the high pitch of desperation entering her voice, "where is Ryder?"
"He's gone." Liam began to sob just like Kharl had sitting under the tree. "He fell trying to give me a chance to escape."
"No." Her voice pleaded with him. "No. No. No. He's not gone. He can't be gone." She gripped his arms and shook him. "Tell me where he is. Tell me he's coming back."
Liam stared at the dirt in front of the doorway. He couldn't look Samira in the eye. Instead, he watched his tears as they fell to the ground.
"I'm sorry," he said. He gathered the courage to look up at his brother's widow. She was trying to hold herself together, but her face was dark, streaked with the lines of pain that he felt deep inside. "Ryder is dead."
Liam watched as her last bit of strength fled. Samira's anguish overtook her entire face, and her knees went weak. Liam caught her before she hit the ground, and she collapsed into him, her head falling to his shoulder.
Liam held her up, squeezing her sobbing body against his. She was so soft, so clean, and so without fault. He felt dirty and ruined, as if the events of the day had somehow changed him, made him less of an honest man and more of an evil one. Her pain only served to amplify his own. It was his fault his brother had been killed. It was his fault Samira was now alone.
He stood there in the doorway for a moment longer, trying to let the wave of sorrow and guilt wash over and pass.
It never did.
Liam took Samira inside, closing the door behind him.
"What happened?"
Liam looked up from his load. "Mother? What are you doing here?"
The gray-haired woman stood up from the kitchen table where she had been sitting. "I came to talk to Samira about Ryder's birthday," she said in a huff, crossing the room to lay her hand on Samira's forehead. "What