Ivar nodded. “She had no skills. There’s a school down in Cashiers, and I tried to take her there, but she quit. Didn’t care for it. Didn’t care for the metalwork either. Thought it coarse and common. It’s my own fault: I had explained money to her and that in the outside world you can’t just live off the land and barter the way we do here. So she decided Colin would take care of her. One day I went up in the mountains to the old Cooper mine, and when I came down, they were gone. I had warned Colin that even if he managed to take the collar off, it would try to find him again and he wouldn’t be able to resist. The way I figure, Aurellia got it off him somehow and they must’ve sold it. There was a lot of gold in that collar.”

Now things made sense. Colin made the money. She needed him alive to take care of her. Roderick was just incidental.

“Colin doesn’t do metal smithing anymore,” I told him. “He’s an accountant. I don’t think he even remembers his time here. They way he acted when he saw the collar, I don’t think he knew what it was. He and Aurellia had a daughter. The necklace killed her. That’s their son.” I pointed down toward the valley where the boy and dog played. “Aurellia put the necklace on him to keep it off Colin.”

Ivar’s face jerked. “The necklace was never meant to follow the blood. It was only meant to keep Colin here.”

Roderick came up the stairs. His face was flushed. “We don’t have to go yet, do we?”

I would not take him back to that bitch.

Ivar looked at his grandson. There was a sadness there and regret. A lot of regret. I could see the resemblance between them now: same dark hair, same serious, somber look in the eyes.

“Do you like it here?” Doolittle asked.

Roderick nodded.

The medmage looked at the dwarf. “Second chances don’t come about often.”

Ivar’s face went slack.

“He’s right,” Curran said.

Ivar took a deep breath and smiled at Roderick. “Roderick, I’m your grandfather. Would you like to stay here for a while? With me?”

Roderick looked at Doolittle.

“It’s your choice,” the medmage said. “You can come back with me, if you would like.”

Roderick mulled it over.

“I never had a grandfather before,” the boy said.

“I never had a grandson before,” Ivar answered.

“Can I go swimming?”

“Yes,” Ivar said. “Your grandmother will be back from the market soon. We’ll have us some lunch and you can go swimming. The water’s cold but you might enjoy it. Our kind does.”

Roderick smiled. It was a tiny hesitant smile. “I would like that.”