My Brother Bet I'd Be Dead by Spring, So I Made My Ruin the Strongest March in the Realm novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Penhal Chooses

I read the writ a second time, and then I folded it and gave it back to Enora.

"Ring the bell," I said. "Everybody in the yard."

Penhal had no bell.

Gwenn banged her stick on an iron pot by the gate until the whole crag could hear it.

They came up from the market and in from the fields, the three hundred and the forty who'd stayed behind.

The ten who'd been to Kerys stood at the front with their bad coats on.

They knew already, and the yard was reading it off their faces.

I climbed up on the rim of the well, because it was the highest thing in the yard.

"The king isn't my father," I said.

It was easier to say than I'd thought.

"My mother was the lady they took down the river in the closed boat," I said.

"My father was the lord they hanged on that beam."

Every head in the yard turned to look at the gate.

"The law says a traitor's child holds no land," I said. "So the king has taken back Penhal and given it to my brother."

"Who isn't my brother," I said. "Which I'm finding I don't mind."

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