Spider's Kiss: Book One of the Drambish Chronicles by Jesse Sprague

Author:Jesse Sprague [Sprague, Jesse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-13T06:00:00+00:00

∆∆∆

Berrick paced in the small room, his badge burning against his leg. When Marim dashed in, sunshine clothed her, and his heart seized. For an instant, she seemed Polly’s ghost. He flinched as she moved, becoming Marim again.

She surged, a force of nature, to his side.

“Marim, there’re things a father says on his daughter’s wedding day.”

“Don’t, Father, please,” Marim said. She kissed his cheek.

“Do you have questions?”

“Only one, but you won’t like it. I don’t need to ask, but…” She paused and clutched his hands. “I’m afraid of so many things, Father, but there is one wound that festers. One that will bleed at an answer, perhaps, but an answer is what I need, lest doubt be an infection in my soul.”

“Ask,” he said. This will be about her mother. How will I answer? How can I?

“Could you have saved her? I recall them coming around, the planet’s elite, the day she went missing. You screamed at them and I ran and hid. But I never knew… was she already dead and your anger aimed at their betrayal and your own acceptance? Or was she alive and… you couldn’t or wouldn’t sacrifice what was needed to save her? Please, please. I know what the question means.”

Marim’s eyes burned and Berrick closed his own to block the stare. Could I have saved her? Yes, but not in the way she means. I could have fled Yahal years earlier… The moment I knew she was pregnant with Petyr and that she must have used illegal means.

“Father? Please. No answer could make me hate you. Nothing can change my love.”

“She was already gone when they came. The only one I could save that day was you and that was with a promise that I would not investigate, not call The Galactic Council’s attention.”

Marim’s arms wrapped around him and her head snuggled against his chest. A flash of Polly’s gray face flashed through his mind. Her death never avenged, her husband working for those who’d taken her. He shoved her back and turned away.

“I failed her, Marim. Darith is a good man. He’ll take care of you.”

“You aren’t handing me over, Father. I’m still yours. I always will be. Love doesn’t need limits. Wherever Mother is, she’d forgive you. She loves you.”

Berrick said nothing as her footsteps drifted away. After safely tucking away his memories, burying them beneath mental walls built and rebuilt over the years, he walked to the door of the sanctuary. He paused there, resting his forehead against the doors.

“How lucky they are,” murmured a woman from inside. Berrick couldn’t see who.

“Indeed, to have a youthful indiscretion give his house an heir. To think the night before his accident!”

Berrick huffed. He hadn’t started that rumor and though it served Marim’s interest, he didn’t like it. Speaking out would shatter her peace, so he held his.

“And her… What a match!”

“Too bad he—”

Berrick pushed past the door, cutting off whatever comment came next. These nobles grated on him now, leaving him raw. Work friends were scattered in the pews, but they were almost as bad.

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