“Yes, you did,” said Roo.
With delight, the old man said, “Do you by chance know my boys? Tim and Randy?”
Roo said, “I do, sir.”
The old man picked up Roo’s hand slightly, as if for emphasis. “If you’re one of those rascals who is always stealing apples from our tree, don’t admit it!” he said with a laugh. “I’ve told Tim to keep the other boys out of that tree! We need those apples for pie! My Eva bakes pies every fall!”
Roo looked at Helen, and she whispered. “He gets confused. Sometimes he thinks his sons are still children. Eva was his wife; she’s been dead thirteen years.”
Roo shook his head and released the old man’s hand. He said, “I can’t.”
“Tell him?” asked Helen.
Roo shook his head no.
“Randy?” said the old man, motioning to Roo. Roo leaned over to put his head next to the old man’s. Whispering, the old man said, “Randy, you’re a good lad. Look out for Tim; he’s got such a temper. But don’t let the other boys steal the apples!” He reached out with his good hand and patted Roo on the shoulder.
Roo straightened up and spent a few moments watching the old man, who was again lost in whatever dreams or memories he spent his days within. Roo stepped away and said to Helen, “What purpose? Let him think his sons still live, for the gods’ mercy.”
He thought of the coming fleet and the destruction that would be upon Krondor within a few years, and said, “Let us all have a few years of pleasant dreams.”
Helen led them away from the garden and said, “I thank you for that small gesture, sir.”
“What will you do?” said Roo.
“Sell the house and business.” She started to weep again. “I have family in Tannerus. I’ll go to them. It will be hard, but we’ll endure.”
Roo said, “No.” He thought about the boy and girl and his own two children, then said, “I do not think the children need suffer for the . . . mistakes of their fathers.”
“What do you propose?” asked Helen.
“Let me take charge of Jacoby and Sons. I will not take a copper of profit from the company. I will operate it as if it were my own, but when your son is old enough, it will be his to control.” Roo glanced around the house as they walked toward the entrance. “I never spoke more than a word to’ Randolph, but it seems to me your husband’s only flaw was to love a brother too well. It was only Tim with whom I had dispute.” Taking the woman’s hand, he said, “Let it end here, now.”
The woman said, “You are generous.”
Roo said, “No. I am sorry. More than you will ever know. I’ll have my solicitor draw up a contract between you as surviving widow of Randolph Jacoby and the Bitter Sea Company to operate Jacoby and Sons until such time as either you wish to dispose of the property or your son is ready to take control.
“If you need anything, anything at all, you only have to ask.” He pointed to Dash. “My associate will come fetch you this afternoon and take you to the temple. Have you other relatives who should come with you?”
“No. They live out of the city.”
“I would bid you a good day, Mrs. Jacoby, but that would seem an empty sentiment. Let me depart by saying I wish we had met under different circumstances.”
Holding back more tears, Helen Jacoby said, “So do I, Mr. Avery. I even suspect had circumstances been otherwise, you and Randolph could have been friends.”
They left and entered the carriage. Dash said nothing and Roo put his right hand over his face. After a moment, he began to weep.
Calis signaled and the column came to a halt. They had encountered small commands of the Pantathians over the last three days. Calis judged they had moved twenty miles north of where they had encountered the large well in the heart of the mountain. Several times they had found more signs of struggle and destruction. Occasionally they encountered Saaur corpses, but as of yet they hadn’t seen a single living lizard man. Having faced them once, Erik was grateful for that small boon.
Erik fought against a growing sense of futility. The galleries seemed to wander under the mountains forever; he remembered maps back at the palace that suggested this range might be as much as a thousand miles long. If the Pantathian home realm wasn’t as closely confined as Calis’s theory proposed, they would be dead long before destroying the snake men’s nest.