The Cursed Luna's Tenth Awakening novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Braid

Rorik's POV

I have never been afraid of a woman before.

I stood at my mother's grave before dawn with the silver pin in my fist, and I was afraid.

The white birch dripped on my shoulders.

I had told no one where she lay, except my brother and the two men who dug it.

Joren found me there as the sky went grey.

He did not say anything for a while.

"Harlan says the pin is hers," he said at last. "He says the Luna handed out a dozen last month for her scouts."

"I know what he says."

"He cried, Rorik. In front of the whole hall. He said he'd found the vial and kept it because he couldn't bear it."

"I was there."

"Then you know it's cleaner than hers." Joren kicked a stone off the path. "Her story needs a curse, a goddess and nine deaths. His needs a poisoner."

"And a man who dies saying her name."

"A man he sent. Or she did."

"The one at the well was dead on the field," I said. "She told me so herself, before he spoke."

Joren looked at me.

"A man with a spear in him yesterday carried a bucket to our well tonight."

"Yes."

Joren had nothing to say to that.

I turned my left wrist over, and the braid lay against the skin, grey with years.

"Brother," Joren said, more gently. "Why do you wear that thing?"

"I don't know."

"You've worn it since I was a boy."

"I know. I found it when I was twenty. It was tied round my wrist when I woke from a fever, and I couldn't cut it. I've tried."

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