Shadow Wings (The Darkest Drae Book 2)(72)

Dyter laughed derisively. “Rynnie didn’t believe plants came from seeds until we put a pot in her room and made her check it every day for three months.”

“I thought it was a scheme to give the people of Verald hope.”

“You didn’t know what a scheme was at five.”

I might not have had the words to express how I felt at five, but I did think seeds were a hustle. Most people in Verald couldn’t get them to grow and bear fruit, so it wasn’t really a stretch for my childhood mind.

“Wait,” Tyrrik said. “She didn’t believe plants came from seeds until five?”

I scowled at the grin in his voice.

“No one was more surprised than I to find out she was Phaetyn,” Dyter quipped.

The conversation was feeling like a man alliance, and Dyter was supposed to be firmly team Ryn. The next words passed from my lips without filtering. “I can’t believe Mum never told you, Dyter. She told you everything.”

The old man was silent, and I had time to wonder if I could’ve phrased my comment better. Definitely could have.

He turned back, his features darkening. “She loved you more than life itself, my girl. When you love someone that much, you don’t take risks that could lead to hurt. I was your mother’s best friend, and she was mine, truly. There were very few who were in the confidence of Ryhl, and I consider myself honored to have been one of them.”

I stared at the blurry ground in front of me, stepping in a puddle. The muddy water splashed up on my calves as I was still bare footed. I didn’t want to bawl again, so I focused on the only other thing in my head: I needed shoes.

It is normal to be sad, Khosana.

Even now, months later, I missed my mother terribly. For the most part, I seemed to get by without thinking of her, and then in moments like these, the sadness, the regret, hit me with the force of a brick wall. Shoes fled my mind as my emotions echoed through Tyrrik.

“Dyter,” I said. “Can you tell me about her? About how you met?”

Dyter wouldn’t normally hesitate to tell me, but I held my breath, remembering Tyrrik. Despite my easy relationship with the old man, he wasn’t one to spill his guts, and he was the king of secrets.

Sure enough, Dyter stiffened. He flung a quick look at the Drae then met my gaze, and his eyes steeled. No one was more surprised than I when he started talking.

Dyter trusted Tyrrik? But my memory niggled at the back of my mind that this wasn’t the first time Dyter had made this decision in front of me.

I shook my head and focused on what he was saying.

“My sister, Dyrell met her first,” Dyter spoke. “Your mother was searching the bins behind The Raven’s Hollow in Harvest Zone Eight.”

I grimaced. Amateur. Dumpsters were always picked clean. Not that I’d had occasion to pick through them like many others, but growing up in starving Verald, rubbish bin-dipping had been common among the poor in the Penny Wheel. Still, life had probably been a bit easier back then, or at least more food was available if my mother’s stories were true.

“My sister took one look at the baby swaddled on your mother’s back and invited her in for a meal, but your mother refused to go inside. Dyrell thought it odd but put it from her mind; even then, people were just scraping by, and Dyrell was busy. A week later, five of the emperor’s men came through the zone asking after a young woman and a child. Dyrell denied it, having forgotten all about your mum; there were too many going hungry to remember any one in particular. But, a few days later, Dyrell saw your mum again and put things together after that. Enough to realize your mother was in trouble.”

My mother had told me she’d run from my abusive father to start a new life. Talk about the understatement of the century.

“When Dyrell asked if Ryhl was in trouble and offered to help, your mum ran off,” Dyter broke off. “But four weeks later, your mother knocked on the back door of my sister’s tavern and asked for food. She was starving, and her milk had dried up. She could no longer feed her child.

“Your mum worked for Dyrell for a month, for room and board, and then the king’s men stumbled into Dyrell’s tavern with several Druman. Your mother hid again, this time returning a few days later. Dyrell wrestled the truth from her. Zone Eight had more money than Seven, so there were more patrols, and your mother insisted she leave. So, my sister and your mother fabricated a story between them, and my sister sent the pair of you to me. We told everyone your mum had recently been widowed and decided to start afresh in a different Harvest Zone. My sister acted like your mother’s dear friend, giving plausibility to the story and fooling everyone in our Zone. We got her a house, and she kept quiet for a good long time, and after several months, it was as though she’d always lived in our part of the realm.”

“Didn’t guards notice someone new?”

Dyter nodded. “They did.”

“And they didn’t think a new woman and child in a Zone that suddenly had more food a bit suspicious?”

“What would you do if you were hungry and you found a patch of carrots hidden in the middle of nowhere?”

Easy. “I wouldn’t tell anyone about them.”

“Exactly,” Dyter said. “And Ryhl was our patch of carrots. She could grow things. Not only that, she helped a lot of others grow things. I’m not sure you realize how many people revered your mother, Rynnie. In such hard times, many people of Verald would’ve gone to significant lengths to ensure her safety, not merely myself.”