His eyes haunted and filled with grief and pain, Fain nodded. “He hit the ground hard. Basically his organs disintegrated on impact. His bones shattered. It was grisly.” A tic started in his jaw. “I still can’t imagine how Dancer, as young as he was, kept it together enough to wrap up his body, and carry it through that desert to get him home. For that alone, he deserved a lot better homecoming than what he got. If anyone ever earned a fucking feather for their Ascension, it’s him.”

Darling flinched at what he described. “How the hell did Hauk survive his fall?”

Wincing, Fain grabbed Caillen’s ale and took a drink before he answered. “Didn’t fall as far or as hard. Only a few hundred feet. Keris took a six-thousand-foot free fall straight down to the bottom. Dancer was able to grab the wall and some vegetation and slow himself as he fell and he slammed into a ledge. Even so, he was busted up pretty good. Some broken ribs. Broken collarbone and arm. Some internal damage. It’s a miracle he didn’t die, too.”

“What exactly happened?” Darling asked. “Hauk won’t ever talk about it.”

Fain growled deep in his throat. “Keris was a minsid idiot. He thought himself this invincible supersoldier and he was always pushing us to be like him. He hazed the shit out of us growing up. Our father thought it was funny and that we needed to be hardened. You know? We were such pusses in his eyes. And our mother yelled at us if we ever dared to complain about it. ‘Suck it up,’” he said in a nasal, mock feminine falsetto. “And the punk bastard loved explosives. He was always throwing shit at us, and laughing when it blew up in our faces.”

Darling went pale. “Is that why Hauk hates explosives?”

“Probably. Keris started throwing crap at him in the crib, before he could even walk. He almost blew Dancer’s hand off when he was only two. More than that, the sick bastard had gone in and wired the mountain for our Endurances. Every other time we put our hand or foot in a hole, it exploded on us, knocking us down. Reckless idiot. By the time I was finished with mine, I was ready to kill him. It pissed me off so badly that I never really spoke to him again after it. And he used even more with Dancer. Worse, when Keris fell and hit the ground, it detonated every charge he’d set. The entire mountainside blew up on Dancer and sent him flying. That’s what caused his fall.”

Darling covered his face with his hands. “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this before now? Have you any idea how many times we’ve mocked Hauk for his fear of explosives?”

Nero patted him on the back. “It’s all right, Darling. Hauk never held it against you.”