The look on his mother's face pierced Erling's heart like a broadhead fired from his bow.
It was a secret he'd never planned to reveal to her, at first, because he thought he'd get in trouble for talking to 'demonic ravens,' and later because he came to understand his mother's heart.
"Do you hate the demons who killed Father?" Erling had asked in the first years of his tenure as Baron Fayle. At the time, he'd been invited to join Tybal Aleese on a raid while Reynold followed his father as a squire. Erling had resolutely refused the invitation, afraid of what would happen if he betrayed his promise to the raven, but afterward, he'd begun to wonder if he'd disappointed his mother in doing so.
"Would you rather I ride out to avenge him?" Erling asked hesitantly, shifting uncomfortably in his mother's presence. "If it…"
