Free Legon Ascension by Nicholas Taylor Page A

the place he always found Emma when she ran off or when she wanted to be on her own. Sometimes in her wanderings it would take her a bit to get there, but that’s where it ended. Legon liked that place too, and so did Sasha. His throat tightened a bit at the thought of his children.  
    Thankfully the day was mild. The trees wouldn’t turn for another month at least, but the air was starting to cool, which was nice when you tried to follow someone half your age up a steep hill. He wound his way through the familiar trees, with only the sound of his increasingly heavier breathing and twigs snapping underfoot.  
    When he got to the top there she was, of course, sitting on the ground covering her pale blue dress in grass and dirt. Her sable hair caught the breeze, a few strands twirling around her head. She made no move to put the renegades back in place, she didn’t even seem to hear him. She must have been hurting badly today if she didn’t hear him. He heard himself, and every animal in the forest heard him too. It wasn’t just his breathing and heavy steps they heard. He was willing to bet most of the valley heard him stub his toe on the root of a tree.  
    He plopped down next to her and wrapped his right arm around her. She tried to shy away, but he pulled her into a half bear hug. He didn’t talk, he just waited. That seemed to work best for women—just wait, don’t fix it. If you try and fix it you get in trouble. It went against his better judgment to do this, but he fought the urge to talk. This was how it was when Sasha was upset too. Just give her time Edis, she knows you’re here and you care, he thought.  
    “Is your toe ok?” Emma asked after a bit.
    He winced. “Heard that, did ya?”
    “I think everyone heard that.”
    “I know I’m too old to come up hiking like that anymore. I’m not like you children.”
    She was silent again. What was on her mind?
    “Edis, you don’t want to comfort me,” she said, dejected.
    “Really? Wish you’d said something before I walked up here, would have sent Laura instead.”
    “She doesn’t want to comfort me either, or she shouldn’t.”
    “And why is that?”
    He thought he knew where this was headed.
    Her words came out in a rush. “I was horrible to your daughter and made her suffer so much. I used her, made fun of her, I even told her she was going to be made into a whore once but I don’t know if she heard me.”
    He felt himself tense. Was he ready for this conversation?  
    She went on. “So you see, I don’t deserve your love or anything from you. If anything,   you should hate me.”
    “She heard you,” Edis said soberly, remembering that time on the hill too.
    Emma seemed to collapse in on herself when he said it.
    “I’m so, so sorry Edis. I didn’t, I didn’t think about…” she trailed off.
    He felt the air in his lungs leave in a breath. “Look kid, you weren’t any different than anyone else. If you can believe it, you were pretty nice, comparably speaking, and we know everything people did to her. You aren’t the first person I’ve tried to console up here.” He wasn’t trying to be mean, but he wasn’t going to sugarcoat it either. His daughter should not have been treated the way she was.
    Emma sobbed. “I was one of the good ones?”
    “Yes, you were,” there was flint in his voice now.
    She looked at him. The dust from the trail was separated by tear tracks on her face like rivers on a map—a face not unlike his Sasha’s. Memories of his hurt daughter assaulted him, and he felt his heart begin to break.
    “Look, Sasha would have and did forgive everyone, frankly, and so will I. You’ve grown up, so to speak, and I don’t see you treating anyone badly again, am I right?”
    She nodded vigorously. “So you don’t hate me?”
    “No I don’t, and neither does my wife. We like you a lot kid. Also it’s not like it’s all your fault either.”
    She looked confused. “What do you mean?”
    Did he want to