A Sparrow Stole My Place as Heir novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Maelis's POV

Maelis's POV

I woke up with the key under my pillow and the bruise still on my hand.

My mother's maid had left a tray by the bed and gone without a word, because nobody in my house was speaking to me.

I sat up and looked at the gold thread on my wrist.

I had asked three servants, and my mother, and the old keeper of the Water Court archive where it came from.

None of them had ever seen it before, and none of them could cut it.

I had tried scissors and a knife, and the blade slid off the thread without leaving a mark.

So I got dressed, put the key in my sleeve, and went to hear the sparrow sing.

They gathered in the garden at breakfast now, under the white lemon trees.

All nine of Daelan's sisters sat on the grass around Perrin's stool, and the youngest one sat a little further out than the others, with her knees drawn up.

Wynne looked at me and I looked back, and neither of us said anything.

Perrin saw me and smiled.

"Maelis," he said warmly. "I was afraid you'd stay in your room all day."

"I wanted some air."

"Then sit. I'll sing something soft."

I sat on the edge of the grass, and he began.

It was the old lullaby.

I knew it. Every child in the Sky knew it.

Thessaly's eyes closed, and one of her sisters leaned her head on another's shoulder, and the sister of Noon began to cry.

I listened as hard as I could.

I heard a sparrow.

It was a small, quick bird sound, a little trill with a rising end, pretty and nothing more.

The words did not matter, and the tune did not move me.

I looked around the circle in horror, because I had heard that same song two weeks ago, and I had wept like everyone else.

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