"Running away again, Uncle?" The contempt in his voice was palpable. "That seems to be your specialty. Tell me, did you run from the massacre? Did you hide while your brothers and sisters burned? Or did you simply allow it to happen?"
"I was on patrol," Hawkin said, his voice breaking. "Sixty miles north when the attack came. By the time I received word and made it back, there was nothing but corpses and ashes. I searched for survivors for three days. THREE DAYS, Jorghan! I found no one. They told me everyone was dead. Everyone."
"They lied." Jorghan's form shrank back slightly, the rage receding just enough to allow words. "Or perhaps you didn't look hard enough. Perhaps you were too busy negotiating your new life, your comfortable position in a clan that welcomed a traitor with open arms."
"I never betrayed the sol'vur!"
