Chapter 8: Yes and No

I walked up to the Moon Stone in the middle of the afternoon, with Rowan beside me.

Everybody saw us come.

The high pasture was a wide bowl of yellow grass with the Stone standing at its center, taller than two men and flat as a table on top.

The elders stood in a half circle around it.

Clara lay on the litter at the foot, under a pile of blankets, with her eyes shut.

I heard the murmur go through the crowd.

"That's her."

"She's got color in her face."

"Look at her walking, she's not even limping."

Rowan took my hand and held it up between us where everyone could see.

"I'm Brynn's friend," she said, in a voice that carried to the back row. "I've been her friend for ten years and I'm not leaving."

A cook's daughter in muddy boots, saying it to a crowd of elders.

I could have hugged her.

My mother pushed through the grey jackets and stopped in front of me, red-eyed.

"Brynn," she breathed. "Oh, thank the Goddess."

"I'm not here to stay," I said. "I'm here for Clara."

I knelt beside the litter.

Clara's skin was clammy, and her breath came in small, shallow pulls.

The burn at her throat had opened, and Hester's dressing was soaked.

She opened her eyes and saw me.

"You came," she whispered.

"You keep saying that."

"You keep doing it."

I put my bare hand over hers.

I had been afraid of this, a little, because I did not know what I would feel.

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