Keelan hid a smile. Precious little Light around Shastro, and none at all around Kirion—that part was true. He remembered his own years of bowing to his brother and being bullied. He’d been tricked often enough by Kirion too. Maybe the duke hadn’t been quite as much to blame as Keelan had once thought.
Hadrann listened. It wasn’t the way it had been, yet did one ever know for sure. Kirion had tempted and, with none to hold him back, Shastro had fallen. Who was so strong that offered all his desires he could not fall if there were none to aid? The song wound on before the final verses, where the tune took on a triumphant note.
The people of Aiskeep applauded the song. Hadrann added his own approval. Maybe much of the song wasn’t quite how it had happened, but Shastro had slain Kirion, that was the truth. Keelan too was clapping. Kirion was dead; he and Aiskeep were free. That was good enough for him. Aisling smiled at the minstrel, her eyes glittering with sudden tears. It had been the death of Shastro’s kin that had begun the evil. If they had not died he’d have been content.
Well, let him lie content now. The minstrel was singing the song again at the demand of those who had not heard it properly before. Once Shastro had wondered if the people would sing ballads about him after he was dead. She hoped that wherever his soul might wander now, it was with his love and his best friend, and that wherever they all were, they could somehow hear the song Kars sang. Only she of all who’d known Shastro might also know his motives, and she would say nothing, ever. Let him have his tomb and his song. In the end he’d earned them both.