29
" Picket nodded and blinked back tears. “I will go, Uncle.” “Fight for me, Picket,” Wilfred said, his cough returning. The nurse, eyes worried, coughed quietly. Cole came to stand beside Picket. “We have to go, Pick,” he said. Picket nodded. “I love you, Uncle. I will try to make you proud.” “You already have, son,” he said. "
― S.D. Smith , Ember Falls (The Green Ember, #2)
30
" The battle is on, Your Highness,” he said, “but you still have some time to do what you will before the first wounded arrive. Everything will change after today.” He looked into her eyes, and his voice quavered. “I have tried, my dear, to do the best I could for you. I never wanted you to find out this way. I wanted it to be happy news after the war was won, with your brother on the throne and you a princess in the Mended Wood. I’m sorry it could not be so. But know this,” he said, “I shall always love you like my own. Today I fight for the Mended Wood, and for the community I cherish. But no cause is greater than my love for you. I fight because you are in my heart.” “My father,” she said, rushing into his arms. "
― S.D. Smith , Ember Falls (The Green Ember, #2)