Half Claimed novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Ring
The ring is a circle of trodden earth below the hall, forty feet across, with a rope of plaited grass around it.
By noon every pack at the Gathering stood three deep along that rope.
I stood at the front, between Odell and Lorne, with my burned palm wrapped in clean linen.
Idris pulled off his shirt and gave it to Odell.
The nineteen stitches had gone from red to pink, and a gasp ran round the rope at the sight of them.
"You will not fight with that open," I said.
"It's closed."
"It's a seam I put in. It's not a wall."
He put his forehead against mine in front of four hundred people.
"If it goes wrong," he said, "I want you to walk out of the gate. Please. You said you wouldn't hear it, but I'm saying it."
"Idris."
"Say you heard."
"I heard," I said. "I'm not going."
He almost smiled.
Then he stepped under the rope.
Cutter Torrance was already in the circle, in his shirtsleeves, with his thick forearms bare and his three rings catching the sun.
The oldest Elder stood between them with a white ash staff.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of Half Claimed are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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