It was almost dark already. Crickets were chirring quietly. The moon had risen above Lin Giliath and shone like a silver ball in the sky. Everything was so beautiful and unreal, so alien to Hellrien, that it made her feel insecure and almost timid.
”She didn’t look anything like her father”, Poppy said softly. ”She was a perfect angel – so gentle, so beautiful. But so weak, so sickly! She was sick almost every day through her short life. It was almost as if she was too good and perfect for this world. Like all the evil in this world drained her life away. Can you understand?”
Hellrien nodded. She didn’t know what to say.
”When Holly died, I couldn’t let go of this place anymore. I had no home anywhere. Only here. Trestlebridge – father – they were all just bad memories for me. Here I was among friends. Here I could be alone. If only I could stay alone.”
Hellrien said: ”I promise you that I will never tell anyone about you.”
Poppy didn’t answer, she just squeezed Hellrien’s hand lightly.
”You are a sellsword.” It didn’t sound like a question.
”Yes.”
”And… John? Did you kill him too?”
”I did.” Hellrien’s voice sounded different. She couldn’t shake that little marble plate from her mind.
”I don’t judge you”, the woman said. ”If you hadn’t killed him, somebody else would have eventually.”
”We all get what we deserve in the end.”
Poppy could hear from Hellrien’s voice how hard it was to be cruel. She smiled, but didn’t say anything. She knew that Hellrien’s hard shell was about to break. She knew that it frightened the other woman. Remorse and compassion didn’t go along with her profession. Poppy knew that Hellrien wanted to ride away as fast as possible. But somehow that thought made her feel lonely.
”Shall we go inside?” she asked.
”I have to keep going.”
”Are you sure?”
”Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Looking at the woman before her reminded Hellrien of Ray Cranes and John Crambe. She grasped her hat. Remembering Cranes and Crambe put her in a bad mood. She didn’t want to remember either of them.
