Page 73 of Kept to Kill
‘Who would hold me?’ she asked.
‘Not your mother?’
‘I don’t remember my mother,’ she said. ‘My earliest memories are of this city.’
‘Kitore?’ He sounded surprised.
‘Yes. Vineri took me from here when I was a child. Before that tower, my home was on these streets with the others.’
‘Others?’
‘The other children,’ she elaborated. ‘Did you know your mother?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Dead now,’ he replied without emotion.
‘And your father?’
‘I never knew him. He was a lowly soldier in the Dark Army. They met when he traveled through her village, and they fell in love, but by the time I was born, he was dead. She joined the camp when I was still a child.’
‘What did she do in the camp?’
‘She was a seamstress and a wise woman who was good with herbs.’
Lily frowned. ‘I didn’t realize people … just joined.’
‘Yes,’ Quin said. ‘It happens all the time. If they prove themselves to be useful, they are taken in. The Army can always use a healer, so she was welcomed gladly and I grew up in the camp. I became a soldier and then I went through the trials to become a Brother.’
‘And then you became the Commander,’ she said.
‘Yes. I worked towards it for most of my life.’
‘But why did you want it?’ she questioned. ‘What little I heard of the Army made me believe that you’re all bloodthirsty mercenaries, a plague on the land.’
‘A necessary one,’ he said amusedly, ‘I think you’ll find.’
‘Why? Do you do anything else?’
‘We help to keep the balance of power.’
‘I thought that’s what the Brothers used to do, but surely now you’re just a group of mercenaries trading coin for services.’
‘Sometimes,’ he said. ‘There are many of us and we must eat.’
‘But once the Dark Brothers had a different purpose, didn’t they?’ she asked.
‘How do you know that?’
‘Vineri had a library of books and all I had was time to read. I know many things about the history of our realm.’
Quin looked at her with a newfound respect. ‘There’s more to you than meets the eye.’
‘Thank you. I think.’ She chuckled.
‘We were once considered to be sentinels of our realm and the others.’
