Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 471
how noble they were."
"Tamsin--"
"They killed my, my parents--" She buried her face in
her hands. Awkward, he rode alongside her, scratching his
neck and scowling at the sands. He might have said something
sharp--Jordan had his own miseries, after all, which Tamsin
seldom acknowledged--except that he sensed something
different in her tears today.
all this time. I just let Uncle drag me around, and I said to
end of the adventure, with mom and dad and everything okay
they burned Integer. And I saw it, I remember looking back
happen."
He thought of the pile of bodies they had seen. Fools, or
monsters? For a long moment Jordan felt lost--real men had
done that, they were out there still. If men could do that... were
the Winds any worse? Maybe their rule was more just than
He closed his eyes, and pictured the queen of Iapysia,
standing lost within the fine clutter of her library. But I had to
try, she had appealed, to end this long night that has swallowed
the whole world.
Tamsin continued to weep, and there were no words he
could have said to take away her pain. Some things, once
broken, could never be healed.