Chapter 19: The Moon Festival

The Festival came eleven days early.

The priestess announced it from the Temple steps the morning after the invitation, and by dusk the whole capital was in the square.

Nobody had said why it was moved.

Nobody needed to.

I knew exactly who had asked.

I walked into the square in the white dress I had died in, with my hair loose and five men behind me.

Elias walked at my left hand and watched the rooftops.

Corin walked at my right, counting heads under his breath and looking at the crowd's hands.

Nolan carried nothing, because I had told him a man with empty hands is a man who can reach.

The healer came last, with his black bag over his shoulder and his grey eyes everywhere.

Ronan walked beside me, and he had left his sword at Larkspur.

The crowd saw us, and the noise in the square died away.

It was strange to hear a whole kingdom go quiet for me.

In my first life they had made noise.

I stopped in the middle of the paving stones, where I had once stood chained to a post.

The pyre was not there now.

Only a long table stood on the dais with a white cloth, seven silver cups and a tall jug, and the priestess waited beside it with her hands folded.

Dahlia stood at the end of the table in pale blue.

She had a ribbon in her hair, and a plain silver chain at her throat where the stone had been.

She saw me and smiled, and her blue eyes filled.

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