Rue stood stonelike as Themis presided over her grandmother’s funeral. Her breath choked in her throat. Her uncle Skywalker stood right beside her. He had his head bowed. Rue stared at the bodies of her family. “Vader, little Vader . . . You were a fine soldier among our group. You truly had grown into a fine wolf. Rest well, little one. I’m sorry you’ve met your end. And Natalya. You were an excellent mother to little Rue. She’ll be safe here under our watch, don’t worry. I promise to look out for her always. I hope you know you were never alone in this pack. We are your family. Rest easy, Natalya.” She then turned to Rue, to offer her condolences. Rue nodded. If she spoke, she would lose it. She could still remember turning, seeing her mother’s broken neck. A Tarben man walking away from her. She shut her eyes against the pictures of her grandmother speared by ice daggers, her uncle torn apart. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. So she just sent some silent, mournful well-wishes with her family.
Skywalker, however, stepped up to speak. “My siblings. You were so different, yet so same. You could be real bitches to me, as I could to you, but that’s siblings, I think. Vader, no matter if it was your own conscience or Mother or Natalya’s insistence, you usually apologized to me, and Natalya, thank you for being so kind. You made my world a whole lot better.” His voice cracked. “Mother, you were so brave. I don’t know how it was me, and not skilled Vader or smart Natalya or courageous you, who survived. I wish it could’ve been all of us.” He stepped back, allowing others to speak.
Rue could track them down. The ones who had killed her father were dead. But who had murdered Elara, Natalya, Onai, Jack? She could make them pay. But, not now. Now she just wanted to be alone.