In the cold light of this world, after the Summer of Fire, when so much blood had been spilt and so many souls had been lost to end an evil only to have another spring up in its place, he would not try to rescue him. Tollie no longer believed that he could save any one, because he believed that no matter how far he took them, evil would always catch up somehow.
When he examined this view, which he did with alarming frequency, his opinion remained unchanged; cynicism such as this was entirely the purview of those who could be called veterans of the Summer of Fire and of those veterans alone. He sighed wearily, and shelved these thoughts for another day. The material point was this: he had everything he had set out to get and the boy was lolling sleepily on a sack, his stomach sated and qui
