The Talk

"I'm not sure if we'll ever see Ector again after all this."

"What do you think he could have done to make Roil close down the faire?"

"Not sure at all, but it must have been major. That Ector is something else I tell you. Roil will most likely never find him."

"Yes, he's the type wants something bad enough, he's going to get it."

"Could probably force himself through the eye of a needle if he needed to."

"The man has got to be ninety at least, how does he stay so young?"

"I suspect his gift of magic must have something to do with it."

"You knew him for a time. Where do you think he could have gone off to?"

The ancient hag leans her creaking spine forward, and motions with her withered hand, fingers like melted candles, for the other woman to come closer. And even though her voice is hardly above a whisper, the fourteen year-old girl listening by the cracked door can still hear what she says.

"He always said if it came to it he'd get to his son before it was too late."

"Egads! You're telling me Ector's son didn't die?"

"Quiet your voice. Peach is somewhere around."

"Sorry, but it's just so hard for me to believe, 'specially after what Roil did to them."

"Ector saved his son because his son knew magic and helped save himself. Rain did not have the gift and Ector could not save her."

"Where did Ector send his son?"

"A small town in, in America...Gasparian it's called."