Chapter 1

"Wipe that blood up, quickly. Don't let the Royal Court see this disgusting mess!" My mother threw a rough-woven cloth at me and turned to shield Wendy's hands.

Wendy wore a gown of pure white elven silk with a crown of woven gold on her head. She carried every mark of pure high elf blood. I had inherited only my father's ordinary wood elf line.

I pressed a hand to my aching chest as the taste of blood rose up out of my lungs.

With my bonded tree's trunk cut through and its roots torn, my life was draining away with the sap, past any hope of stopping. I looked well enough. Inside, every organ was failing by degrees.

I crouched down and wiped the blood off the tiles a little at a time.

My brother Karl came in carrying two rolls of fine hides and laid them carefully into the chest.

He didn't so much as glance at me. He smiled at Wendy instead. "Lord Sorin is the commander of the Royal Court. When our sister marries into it, her dowry cannot look inferior to those of the pureblood nobles."

My hand stopped on the floor. I forced the sweet iron taste back down my throat and said hoarsely, "My wedding is in half a month too."

The hall went abruptly silent.

The smile vanished from Karl's face and his brow knotted.

"You're still bringing up that lowborn human? You should be grateful we haven't stopped you from ruining yourself. Do you have any idea how much talk a forest elf marrying a human brings down on this family?"

Wendy leaned into our mother's arms, turning a sapphire the size of a thumb over in her fingers, and pouted. "Sif, I say this for your own good. What can a short-lived creature like Leon give you, when his kind don't even reach a hundred years? Don't drag the family down with you."

Our mother snorted and set her silver teacup down hard. "If you want to marry, then get yourself off to the human border and don't expect this house to prepare anything for you. If you get in the way of Wendy's match with the Royal Court, I will skin you alive!"

They gathered around the silver-bound chest again, finding fault with every treasure that went into it. Not one of them cared how long I had left to live now that my bonded oak had been cut down.

I held my empty wooden bowl and looked at her. "Mother, my bonded tree is hurt. Could you brew me a little moonlight tea?"

The wooden spoon in her hand clattered into the fruit dish. "Why are you always so much trouble? Wendy has to keep her skin in condition, so we’re eating nothing but ice berries for the next half month. Eat them or don't. If you don't want them, get out!"

With one sentence I became the one who had spoiled the mood of the whole family.

With my bonded tree damaged, my hands and feet were cold as ice and even my breath came out chilled. I could not have swallowed those ice berries.

My father frowned and turned a hard look on me. "Sif, stop pretending to be ill for attention. You're the older sister. Can't you let Wendy have this one thing?"

That sentence again.

I had heard it more times than I could count since I was small, and the answer was always the same.

There was only one ration of the rare spirit spring water in the house, and my mother said I should let Wendy have it. When I earned a fine bow after decades as a weaving apprentice, Wendy wanted that too, and my mother again said I should let Wendy have it.

I bit my bloodless lip, looked down at the frost-crusted berries in front of me, and said nothing more.

After the meal my father wiped his hands on a leaf and announced to the family, "First thing tomorrow we go to the Sacred Spring of Life and ask the High Priest to perform a family blessing rite. Before Wendy marries, nothing matters more."

I was wiping the table, and my hand paused. "Father, I have to go to the market first thing tomorrow to collect my bridal wreath."

He didn't even lift his eyes.

"Go on then."

In his mind it was still a family blessing rite without me in it. I dropped the cloth and went back to my little wooden room with a hand over my aching chest.

Leon, the human I was going to marry, sent a letter by raven.

"Sif, we've repainted the stone house and laid down your favorite wool rugs. The wedding is a day earlier. Has your father agreed? I've arranged the finest wedding carriage there is. Wait for me."

Reading it, my throat closed, and I coughed a mouthful of black blood onto the floor without warning.

I pulled some dry grass over the stain and wrote back to Leon.

"Don't ask them. I'm leaving with you."