Web of Deceit Read Online Free Page B

very much.”
    “It sounds like you liked him,” smiled Rejji. “Why did he decide to leave? Did the villagers chase him away?”
    “No, no, no,” insisted Brontos. “He became very respected in the village. Nobody would have asked him to leave. The village came to depend on him. No, he left for your mother’s sake.”
    “My mother?” quizzed Rejji. “I don’t understand. Whenever I asked grandfather about it, he just said they would be back soon and then wouldn’t talk about it again. They never returned though. I don’t think they ever planned to return.”
    “There you are wrong, lad,” Brontos declared. “I was there when they left. In fact, I offered my wagon to transport your mother, but your father refused. It was the only time your grandfather argued with your father. Your grandfather didn’t want his daughter to leave, and if she had to, then he wanted her to ride in the wagon, but your father said it would only slow them down when they had to cross the mountains. They left the following morning on one of my horses. I had a devil of a time returning to Khadora with only one horse.”
    “What was wrong with my mother that she needed to leave?” Rejji persisted. “Was she hurt? Why didn’t they take me with them?”
    “You were just learning to walk at the time,” the merchant explained. “They did not plan to be gone long and your grandfather was willing to look after you while they were gone. Your mother was pregnant, lad, and it wasn’t going well for her at all. You father tried all sorts of concoctions to ease her pain, but none of them worked. Finally, he decided to take her to his own people, who had more experience with the problems she was facing. I’m afraid I don’t know much about these things, but your father was adamant that his people could help. Nobody knows why they didn’t return. It would not have been for lack of will though. They both loved you dearly and your grandfather too. Some ill must have befallen them.”
    Tears started to form in Rejji’s eyes and Mistake rose and began packing the spices into the tin. There was an awkward silence broken only by the sound of Mistake’s packing and Rejji got up and walked down to the water’s edge.
    “It might have been better for him not to know,” Mistake stated coolly.
    “Perhaps that is why his grandfather said nothing,” agreed Brontos. “Still, I am the only person left alive that can tell him. A man should know who and what he is, and if that means he experiences some hurt along the way, then that will only make him stronger. I know you make light of the time you have spent on your own, lass, but I am not a fool. This is a dangerous world and deceiving oneself is not the way to survive in it. He will need your help as much as you need his. Be true to each other, for you are all each other has now.”
    The merchant expected some bravado out of the young thief, but she merely nodded and gazed down towards the water’s edge. After a while she came over and sat next to Brontos.
    “Who were his father’s people?” she asked.
    “I have no idea,” admitted the merchant. “He was unlike any other villager I have ever met, but where he went I know little of. I know he was heading east and talked about crossing the mountains, so that must mean he was from the other side of the Giaming Mountains. I have only taken a trip or two that far into Fakara.”
    “Perhaps the Giaming Mountains is where I should look for the Sage of the Mountain then,” smiled Mistake.
    “There is life left in you after all,” grinned Brontos. “It has been many years though and you will not find a trace of his parents. Be cautious of raising false hopes within him. If they were alive today I am sure they would have come back.”
    “Understood,” agreed the girl, “but we really have nowhere to go anyway. At least it is a goal we can achieve and it will keep his thoughts off of the Jiadin.”
    “Make him understand that to seek revenge