The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

Author:Peter V. Brett
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2013-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

Leesha was prepared for the morning sickness this time, and managed to deal with it without alerting anyone that anything was amiss. By lunchtime, she was feeling normal.

Gared came to her as she stretched her legs. ‘All right if we talk a bit?’

Leesha sighed. ‘I don’t think there’s much you can say, Gar.’

Gared nodded. ‘Guess I deserve that.’

‘You guess?’ Leesha asked. ‘Gared, you had sex with my mother!’

‘What’s it to you?’ Gared demanded. ‘You declared our promise broken a long time ago, and I ent bothered you since. I don’t owe you anything.’

‘What about my father, who took you in when your home was destroyed?’ Leesha demanded. ‘Did you owe him anything? Or your own da?’

Gared spread his hands. ‘You don’t know what it was like, Leesh. After Bruna made me tell the town I’d lied about you, no girl would let herself be caught alone with me for a second. Even after you left town for Angiers, I was as popular as itchweed.’

‘I don’t blame them,’ Leesha said.

Gared swallowed a scowl, keeping his patience. ‘Ay, maybe so. But it was lonely, too. Yur mum was the only woman in the whole town paid any attention to me. Only one who acted like I was worth more’n spit.’

He sighed. ‘And in the right light, she looked just like you. I could close my eyes and pretend …’

‘Ugh!’ Leesha cried. ‘I do not need to hear that you thought of me while you …’ She felt her nausea returning, tasting bile in her mouth.

‘Sorry,’ Gared said. ‘Just tryin’ to give honest word. Never stopped wanting you.’

Leesha spat the sour taste from her mouth at his feet. ‘Could have had the real me fifteen years ago, you’d kept your mouth shut.’

‘Know that,’ Gared said. ‘Curse myself for it every night. It’s why I was always so angry. But I wonder, maybe it was the Creator’s Plan?’

‘Eh?’ Leesha asked.

‘Whole world would be different, we’d kept our promise,’ Gared said. ‘You might never have trained with Bruna, or gone away to study in the Free Cities. Might not have brought the Deliverer back with you.’

‘The Painted Man is not the Deliverer, Gared,’ Leesha said.

‘How do you know?’ Gared asked. ‘What makes you so sure you got it all figured out? Maybe the Creator din’t make him perfect for a reason. Maybe he’s testing the rest of us, too. Maybe the Deliverer’s just supposed to show the path, and we’re the ones to walk it.’

Leesha looked at him curiously. ‘Why, Gared Cutter, when did such deep thoughts climb into that thick head?’

Gared scowled. ‘Just an idiot to you, ent I? Not worth the attention of that big brain of yurs?’

‘Gared, I didn’t mean—’

‘Course you did,’ Gared cut her off. ‘Yur always so humble, but it’s all an act as you talk to the simpletons.’ He turned to leave.

Leesha reached out, taking his arm. ‘Don’t go.’

But Gared yanked his arm away, refusing to even look at her. ‘No, I get it. I’m just a strong axe and a hard cock to the Paper women.

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