Souls of Aredyrah 3 - The Taking of the Dawn by Tracy A. Akers Page B

perimeter of the
pool. As he drew nearer, he kept his focus on Lorcan, knowing that
Falyn was watching him, yet daring not a glance her way.
    He stopped within feet of her, and only then
did he turn to her. He reached out a hand. “Are you hurt?” he
asked.
    Her eyes darted to Lorcan, then back to Dayn.
She shook her head. “No,” she said.
    “No you aren’t hurt, or no you won’t take my
hand?” Dayn asked.
    Falyn looked at her father once more, her
face awash with fear, but then, hesitantly, she reached up her hand
to Dayn’s and took it.
    Dayn pulled her up gently and ushered her
over to Sheireadan. “Help him get dressed,” he said. “It will be
all right.” But he wasn’t so sure. Lorcan was watching him like a
snake poised to strike, and Dayn didn’t know how much longer his
own façade could last.
    “How dare you interfere,” Lorcan said, but he
did not make a move to stop Falyn from assisting her brother, nor
did he make any attempt to tighten the distance between him and
Dayn.
    “Even a demon would not treat their own
children so cruelly,” Dayn said.
    “You should know,” Lorcan replied.
    “Yes, I suppose I should.”
    Lorcan inclined his head toward Falyn and
Sheireadan. “The disciplining of my children is my affair, not
yours.”
    “Discipline? I wouldn’t call this
discipline.”
    Lorcan’s nostrils flared. “I do what is
necessary. Sin must be purged from their souls.”
    Dayn laughed. He could not help it. “Sin?” He
laughed even harder.
    Lorcan’s face flushed with fury, all
hesitation in Dayn’s regard tossed to the side. He raised his cane
to strike, but from out of nowhere a hand grabbed his wrist,
stopping it in midair.
    Haskel leaned his face to Lorcan’s ear.
“Touch my kin,” he growled, “and ye’ll find a hundred clansmen at
your door.”
    Lorcan glared at Haskel with an expression
that went beyond hatred. “Your kin is interfering in my
business.”
    Haskel glanced at Falyn, her lip swollen and
bleeding, and Sheireadan, panting from fear and injury. “Ye call
this business?”
    Lorcan’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Yes. My business. Now get your hand off of me, or you and your
clansmen will be hearing from the Vestry.”
    Haskel stared at him a moment longer, then
let go his hold. He turned to Dayn, without regard to the cane
still clutched in Lorcan’s hand, and said, “Come, boy. We’re
leavin’.”
    “But uncle, what of…” Dayn looked at Falyn
and Sheireadan. “We can’t just leave them!”
    “I said we’re leavin’. Now.”
    Dayn opened his mouth to argue, but before he
could utter a word, his uncle had grabbed him by the shoulders.
    Haskel forced Dayn’s gaze into his. “For
their sakes, as well as yours,” he said, “we go— now .”
    Dayn knew there would be no debating it. He
might have been able to hold his own with Lorcan for a time, but
there would be no winning with Haskel. He felt himself suddenly
spun around and shoved toward the woods where two horses waited.
Dayn glanced over his shoulder at Falyn, but she had faded into the
fog.
    Haskel handed Dayn the reins of one of the
horses. Dayn hesitated. “But what will happen to Falyn and her
brother?” he asked anxiously.
    Haskel did not answer.
    “Uncle, there must be something we can
do!”
    “Not here.”
    Dayn watched his uncle’s face, searching for
a sign of hope, but the man’s expression bore no sign of it. Dayn
mounted the horse, then looked toward the pool one last time. All
he could see was a blanket of mist, and the lingering image in his
mind of Falyn being slapped to the ground by her father.
    “How can the Vestry condone Lorcan treating
his children like that?” Dayn asked when they were some distance
from the springs.
    “They don’t condone it. They simply turn a
blind eye to it.”
    “Isn’t that the same thing?”
    Haskel drew a deep breath and released it
slowly. “You’re too young to understand how things work.”
    “I understand more than you