Chapter 2

The next day I came home carrying my bridal wreath in my hands. Wendy’s eyes crinkled with a smile when she saw me. "Sif, you're back just in time. Father has something important to announce."

I stopped. My father cleared his throat, took out a yellowed scroll of parchment, and pushed it across to Wendy. "Wendy, this is the deed to our family's ancestral woodland in Emerald Valley. It goes with you as dowry."

Karl unfastened the emerald-set short blade at his waist, the family's warded heirloom, and held it out to Wendy with a smile. "This one is from me."

Wendy gathered up the deed and the blade in delight, turned, threw herself into Karl's arms and thanked him over and over.

I stood in the corner with my chest tightening in waves. The woodland in Emerald Valley was the last substantial asset the family had, and the short blade was meant to protect its bearer's life. They had given Wendy everything they had to give.

My mother's eyes turned on me, sharp. "Sif, as the elder sister, what do you plan to send with Wendy?"

My fingers closed slowly around the wreath. I took a breath. "Mother, let me ask something first. What is my dowry?"

The hall went quiet in an instant.

She looked away, picked up her cup, drank, and did not answer.

My father set his face. "Sif, this house has its limits. Wendy is marrying into the Royal Court, so she needs a proper dowry. You're marrying that human. In a few decades you'll be a widow. What would you want with a dowry?"

Because my blood was not pure, because I had fallen in love with a human whose life was short, I was to be drained of my own life and stripped of everything.

Karl rapped the table impatiently. "Enough, Sif. You've been the master weaver's apprentice for decades. Surely you've put aside a good many moonstones by now? Bring them out for her dowry."

They had cut down my bonded tree, divided up everything the family owned, and now they were coming after money I had bled for. I laughed coldly. "Wendy has been drinking tea at the Royal Court for decades. What has she prepared for me?"

Wendy went pale and her eyes reddened at once. She shrank into Karl's arms. "Sif, I know I'm not clever with my hands and can't earn the way you do. You don't have to mock me like this..."

My mother shot to her feet and pointed at my face. "You're demanding dowry from your sister? Have you no elven decency left at all! You needn't bring much. Two hundred moonstones will do!"

I looked at that mean face and refused flatly. "And if I don't?"

She faltered, and her face went iron gray. "You won't? Then don't expect a single member of this family at your wedding! You would shame us to death!"

I thought of the bundle of human clothes Leon's messenger had brought, and the cloak his mother had sewn for me herself, and the crooked little note tucked inside. "My child, I've learned to cook a great many of the dishes you like, and I've learned to brew moonflower tea as well."

Strangers were going out of their way to love me while my own blood was eating me alive.

"What are you staring off into space for!" My mother slapped the table.

"All right. I'll bring them."

I took the old leather pouch from my belt and poured out two hundred moonstones, cold light running over them.

Two hundred stones to buy out a hundred years of family. Not a bad price.