"You lie to yourself, sister!” Harwin’s voice boomed. He never raised his voice to her, but he could no longer contain his anguish. He stabbed his knife into the deer and glared at Deidre. “As you lied to Father the morning you confessed and continue to lie to me! I do not interrogate you; I am trying to protect you and bring those who harmed you to justice!” His anger faded to pleading as he seized Deidre’s hand with his larger, bloody one. “The girl I know would not be so reckless or undiscerning.”
Deidre stared at him, face softening at the pleading his voice. Her hard facade gave way to pain of her own as she swallowed, eyes watering. The siblings looked down at their hands, both desperate for understanding. Joined together in a tight grip, Deidre’s small pale fingers appeared like the skeletal appendages of death, entwined with her brother’s bloody fingers like a twisted weirwood. Harwin saw her gaze grow distant at the sight, the glaze falling over her eyes again as she pulled her hand away. “Then mayhaps you don’t know me anymore brother, or the woman that little girl has grown into within the court of dragons where you left me to linger.”
A small glimpse of his sister he had seen, and then she was gone, hidden by the spell this place or Alys Rivers had cast over her. She calmly stared down at the little owl of hers, tucked in its pouch, reaching for another meat scrap to tear up and feed it. Harwin bowed his head, clenching his eyes in grief before he made a decision.
