Though he dreaded it, Parl Dro now had his own confession to make.
“You can’t, you couldn’t be my rotten father. Unless you started very young. I suppose you could have. I was too scared to—there was never any opportunity —no, I was too scared. A carter’s wife seduced me when I was twenty. Twenty. She was the first. I was grateful. You must have been at it when you were fourteen. Or less. And with a mature woman. That doesn’t seem very salubrious. Did it with her and strolled—sorry, hobbled—off and left her. Left her with my drunken pig of a father—only he wasn’t. No wonder he hated me. Whenever he thumped me, he was thumping you. I don’t blame him. I’d like to smash your head in. Father. Travelling ghost-killer. Can do clever tricks with knives. You’ll have to teach me that one. Padding, metal plate, fake blood. Or is it the knife that’s the trick, the blade bends or something? You really will have to teach me, Daddy. You owe me something. If it’s even true.”
“It s true.”
“Well I’ve only got your word for it. And either way, what’s your word worth? I’ve lost the only thing that was any use,” said Myal. “It’s down the slope, in pieces.”
“Where you originally tried to throw it to save me from Ciddey and Tulotef,” said Dro. “I realised then, you’d have to be told.”
“I don’t want to hear anything else,” Myal said.
“And, frankly, I don’t want to tell you anything else,” Dro answered.
“Great. We’ll keep it that way.”
Myal got up. His head bowed forward, eyes on the ground, he strode away, long fast strides that Dro’s crippled leg should have some trouble competing with. And then Parl Dro was standing directly in front of him. Myal pulled up, eyes swimming.
“What—how did you manage that?”
“The same way I managed the knife. The same way I got from Sable’s hovel in the forest to this hill in less than a minute.”
“You tranced yourself, after all,” said Myal. “You’re here in the astral, just like I am.”
“There’s a low wall behind you. Sit on it.”
Myal retreated a step, and the wall caught the backs of his knees. He sat, not entirely meaning to. “All right.”
“Now,” said Dro, “if you can keep quiet, I’ll explain. Despite the fact I may not want to, and you may not want to hear.”
Myal gripped his hands together, and stared at them trembling.
“Why do it, then?”