The Thirteenth Moon novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Gate
The silver went into Davin's shoulder, an inch below the collarbone.
He made a short, surprised sound, and he did not fall.
He took hold of his father's wrist with both hands.
"That's enough," he said.
Torin reached them in one stride.
He wrenched Orrin's arm back, and the blade came out of Davin and rang on the stone.
Two of the envoy's elders took Orrin by the shoulders.
He didn't fight them.
He looked at his son, at the red spreading down the white shirt, and his mouth worked.
"I made you," he said again.
"I know," said Davin. "That's the trouble."
The old man from the pass pressed a folded cloth to the wound.
Davin pushed him gently off.
"Not yet," he said. "I'd like to say something first."
I looked at the envoy.
She nodded.
He walked to the front of the dais on his own feet, with the blood dripping off his fingers onto the stone.
"I stood at a table with my promised Luna," he said to the pack. "I told her I was sparing her. I told her to say she was fine."
His voice was steady.
"I said she had never answered the moon. That was a lie. I made it up so you would stop asking why I had done it."
Nobody moved.
"She fed every one of you for thirteen moons. I took her name, and her vine, and her place. I did it for myself, and then I did it in the name of kindness, and that is the worst of it."
He turned to me.
"I don't ask you to forgive me. I won't ask you for the seat again, or for anything. I'll leave the lodge tonight."
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