Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

Lenny shot him a look.

“No, then, huh?” Tom said, more to himself than Lenny. “No . . . I guess that’s not like you, Dolans, is it? At least from what Brutus and others have told me. ‘Dolans don’t run’ and all that.” Tom gave Lenny a sideways look. “So, it’s the other plan then, huh? What comes next for everyone inside who’s already forgetting what it cost to get them to get this far?”

“Maybe . . .” said Lenny. “Or maybe I just wanted to be alone for a while.”

“A word of advice, kid? Aye, something my wife was trying to teach me all those years of making new friends; alone only gets you so far in life, Dolan. Take it from one who knows. Had to learn that lesson the hard way in Røyrkval.” Tom smiled half-heartedly. “But I imagine you know that already. That your father would’ve taught you as much.”

“He did,” said Lenny. “Or tried to, at least.”

“Good man, your father,” Tom said quietly. “Hindsight being what it is, I wish I’d believed him sooner too. All those warnings he gave us about what was coming. What we should have done different.”

“Me too,” said Lenny.

“Yeah.” Tom clucked his tongue. “Full truth be told, I kinda think me and Declan might’ve gotten on pretty good together, if we’d had more time to get to know one another. Maybe knew each other in a different life. Different circumstances.”

“Probably so,” Lenny agreed, taking up his old position on the flooring nearby when it appeared Tom Weaver would not move away from the door.

They sat in shared silence awhile then, Lenny’s mind blanking as to what reason Tom Weaver had truly come out to join him, or even noticed his absence to begin with. Yeah, you and Pop would’ve gotten on real well, Tommy, he thought when the elder Weaver seemed content to allow the quiet between them to linger on, much as Declan had done in life. And, as all the times when his father had done the same, Lenny could not tolerate it for long. “You really think there’s a war coming, then?” he asked.

“I think it’s already started,” said Tom. “Or the last one never ended. After you’ve been around awhile, it’s hard to say where one war ends and another begins. Then again, I guess you could say there’s always one brewing somewhere to tie them all together. Way I figure it, the wars won’t stop coming until there’s not but a couple people left, Dolan. And even then, those two would likely find something to spat over. It’s just in us, I guess. Greed. Envy. Murder. All of it.”

“Yeah, but who put it in us?” Lenny asked.

“Don’t know,” said Tom. “But whoever did, or wherever these instincts come from, they sure don’t mean for such things to die easy in us, I can tell you that.” He shrugged. “Then again, some of us don’t really die easy to begin with. Maybe we gotta have all that need and drive to keep us going too. Can’t have one without the other.” He gave Lenny a sideways look. “All that to say, I don’t guess you have a lot of quit in you, Dolan.”

“Picked up on that, huh?”

“I did,” said Tom. “And some others filled me on all that I missed after them Orcs took me away. What Vasili and them others tell me is that busting free of Røyrkval might have been Declan Dolan’s plan, but it was his son who pulled it off.”

Lenny scoffed. “I didn’t do nothing except get Pop killed,” he said, fending off the memory of his father slipping down the ice before the Orcs mauled his seal body and flung Declan Dolan away for their commander to finish.

Tom Weaver distracted Lenny by reaching over his shoulder and rapping on the wooden door behind him. None answered it, the noise lost to those inside. “You hear that, Dolan?”

“Hear what?”

“The sounds of all the lives you helped to save.”

Lenny shook his head. “I’d trade them all to get one back, Tommy. You included. No offense.”

Tom nodded. “I know the feeling,” he said. “Wish I could help you there too. Honest, I do. But seeing as nobody can bring your father back, you might think to honor his memory instead from here on out. Give yourself some credit for helping to see his plan through too. ‘Cause all that noise in there?” He motioned his head toward the door. “That’s the sound of more than empty bellies getting filled right now on account of what you and your father did to help us all.”

“What Pop did,” Lenny clarified again. “If it wasn’t for his plan and his being able to get free of his seal form without anyone releasing him, then none of us would’ve gotten out.” He glanced toward the door and the continued chatter from inside. “And most of those in there have already forgotten him.”

“Short memories tends to be the way with most folk,” said Tom. “But I think your confusing forgetfulness with gratitude.”

Lenny’s eyes widened. “Gratitude?”

“That’s right,” said Tom. “It don’t always come in the way we expect or hope, but it don’t mean people forgot either. When the dust settles and all those who survived look back on things, they’ll remember those who showed the way and led them out. The true legends never die, Dolan. And your father was one, if ever I met any. Someday, they’ll sing songs about what you and him did for our kind.”

“Yeah?” Lenny asked. “Well, when that day comes, Tommy, remind the singers it was Declan Dolan who did it all and leave my name out of it, will ya?” He scoffed. “The greatest catcher there was or will be, killed trying to save his worthless son instead of taking care of himself like he should’ve done.”

“Succeeded,” said Tom.

“What?”

“You said ‘he died trying to save his son’,” said Tom. “Given that