“Tarsha Kaynin, you listen to me! You cannot go back there. You can never go back. These people won’t tolerate you. They’ll do whatever it takes to drive you out.”
“Who are you?” Tarsha demanded.
“Name’s Jes Weisen.” The old woman frowned as she glanced back in the direction of Backing Fell. “I live in Yarrow, up the road. Do my business in gardens and plantings, but I know about some things I wish I didn’t.”
“Do you know about my parents? Do you know where they are?”
“Dead, girl. Dead and gone. Sorry to tell you this, but there’s no way to spare you. Terrible thing.”
Tarsha swallowed hard. Her eyes filled with tears. “What happened to them?”
“Torn to pieces in their cottage, they were. Like wild animals had got to them. Wasn’t hardly anything recognizable left. Just…blood. A lot of blood. Wish to all that’s good and merciful that I hadn’t seen it for myself, but I was the one that found them.”
Tarsha’s legs gave way, and she sat down slowly. She didn’t want to hear the rest, already fearing what it might be. But she knew she had no choice.
Jes Weisen sat down next to her. “I was bringing an order of plantings to them. I’d come up from Yarrow in my cart to make the delivery. Stumbled on this boy in the middle of a set-to with a larger boy. Didn’t know who either one was until later. The smaller boy was your brother, Tavo. The larger was named Squit Malk. They were about to go at each other, but I broke it up. Sent the bigger boy packing when he threatened me, the fool.”
She paused. “There was blood on your brother’s clothing. I thought it was his at the time, but I was wrong. It was your parents’ blood.”
Tarsha closed her eyes in despair. “I knew it. I knew he had done something terrible.” She began to cry. “Tavo killed our parents?” she whispered, still trying to make it seem real.
“He must have, because I continued to your cottage after meeting him and found two bodies. Couldn’t hardly think it was anyone else under the circumstances. Given how fresh the blood on him was, it had to have been his doing. He was leaving Backing Fell when I met him, heading away east. He didn’t tell me what he had done, but when I reported it to the townsfolk, I heard the stories about him.”
The stories. About the things he sometimes did. About his use of his magic. About the wishsong.
She shook her head in despair. “Maybe he was seeking help.”
“He wasn’t running toward the town,” the old woman said quietly. “He was running away.”
Tarsha nodded, unable to speak. What more could she say? Jes Weisen’s words only confirmed her darkest fears. She knew Tavo was capable of such madness. She had been witness to it. “Did they go hunting for him?”
“They did. They went after him as soon as they saw what he had done to your parents. Angry and frightened both, they were, but they went—until they found the other boy. He was in a field, miles away from where they had started the hunt. Or what was left of him was. They only knew him from a belt buckle some recognized. He was the same as your parents, torn all to pieces. This was half a day’s journey farther on. But your brother was well away from Backing Fell by then, so the searchers gave up, realizing what they would be facing if they caught up to him.”
Oh, Tavo! Tarsha’s heart went out to him, in spite of the anger she felt for what he had done to their parents. Where was he now? She felt so many conflicting emotions, but she allowed herself to think only of her parents for now. Her mother and father were gone, victims of their son’s madness—and of a magic wielded by a child who could no longer differentiate between right and wrong. They had tried to help him, to understand the forces that were driving him, but they had failed. Instead, they had made things worse by sending him to live with his uncle—a decision that had likely cost them their lives. A wash of regret and frustration surfaced, leaving her raw and torn.
“I’m sorry, girl,” Jes Weisen said.
Tarsha nodded wordlessly. Her family was destroyed, her hopes for Tavo flattened, her plans for finding a way to help him scattered to the four winds.
“You must have seen what happened to your home,” the old woman added. “The townspeople burned it right after they abandoned the hunt for your brother. I watched them do it. I told them not to, but they refused to listen. Perhaps they were just superstitious fools, not wanting any reminder of the terrible thing that had been done. Or maybe they just wanted to be sure there was no home for your brother to come back to. Or for you, either.”
Tarsha was crying hard now, and Jes Weisen reached over and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “There, now. You cry as much as you need, girl. It’s a terrible burden you bear.”
Tarsha shook her head wordlessly. Was her burden any worse than Tavo’s? There was reason to think hers would ease. How would her brother ever find relief?
“I have to go after him,” she said finally, wiping away the last of the tears. “What happened is my fault. I was the only one he would ever listen to. I can still help him.”
Jes Weisen snorted. “You’re taking an awful lot on yourself. You really think you could have changed things? You think none of this would have happened if you’d stayed in Backing Fell and tried to look after him?”
“He depended on…”
The old woman brought a finger up to Tarsha’s nose and touched it reprovingly. “You listen to me, girl. Here’s the rest of what you need to know. Your brother didn’t tell me where he was going—didn’t tell anyone, far as I know—but I know the direction he took and what towns and hamlets he would pass through on his way. A small village—if you could even call it that—was one of those on his route. Several days after leaving here, there was a report of something unspeakable happening there. Want to know what it was?”
Tarsha couldn’t help herself. She nodded slowly.
“A boy went into a place he shouldn’t have gone, a tavern with a rough crowd. Your brother, from the description we got. There was a fight—I don’t know the details—that got out of hand. Fifteen to one, if the serving woman who survived could count properly. Your precious brother tore those fifteen men to pieces with that magic of his.”
She paused, her gaze steady. “So you listen to me. Anyone who would do that is beyond help. He isn’t thinking clearly, and one person can’t alter the way another’s mind works. So don’t go thinking you should set off on some mission to save him. He’s beyond that. He’s beyond anything rational. Likely he’ll be dead before you even reach him, if you’re still foolish enough to try.”
Tarsha nodded, appalled that Tavo had used his magic for such terrible destruction. But if he could kill his own parents, he could certainly kill anyone else who crossed him.