All Chapters of Bound by the Cursed Moon: Chapter 541 - Chapter 550

Point of View: Rhen"All my life you held my hand through every fever and every fear, Mother. You never once said a stranger held it first. Tell me why, before I forget how to trust you."I am Rhen, and my daughter said it to me in the cold dust of the quarry, with the whole village singing in the dark behind her. I had faced armies. I had faced the council. I had never faced those eyes, so like her father's, so full of hurt."Briar," I said. My mouth had gone dry. "Please. Not here.""Where, then?" She did not raise her voice. That was worse. "He says he knows you. He says you hid his name. Is it true?""Yes."One word. It fell between us like a dropped glass.The old man leaned on his cane and watched us with wet, tired eyes. "I am sorry, Rhen. I did not mean to make you say it this way. But the singing will end at moonrise, and the stones will wake again. We are out of time.""You do not get to be sorry," Kieran said. His sword still shook in his hand. "Not after the rope, the lett

Point of View: Rhen"You cannot go in there, Isolde. I am sorry. I know it is your mother. I know every part of you is screaming. But I will not lose anyone else to this."I am Rhen, and I said it with both arms wrapped around a girl who was not mine. Isolde fought me like a cat. She kicked, she cried, she called her mother's name into the dark crack in the rock. I held on."Let go! Please, Rhen! She is right there!""I know.""Then let me go to her!""Listen to me." I pressed my cheek to her wet hair. "He wants you to run in. That is the whole trap. A door in the stone, a mother tied up, a frightened daughter. It is the oldest trick in the world.""I do not care!""I do." My voice cracked. "Because if you go, he will have the cord. And your mother will not thank you for that."She went limp. Her sobs shook us both. Behind me, I heard Kieran talking low and fast to Dorian, and Sable swearing as she checked her knife. Briar sat on the edge of the cart with her wrist wrapped in Wren's s

Point of View: Rhen"I would have burned the whole world, Alden. For her. For one breath. And you want me to thank you? You want me to forgive the price?"I am Rhen, and I said it to a dying man at the edge of the Lantern Road, under a sky full of cold stars. Behind us, the cart creaked. Briar slept inside it, exhausted, with Corra on one side and Isolde on the other. The others rode ahead, giving me the space I had begged for.Alden sat on a flat milestone, shoulders hunched. He looked older than the road itself."I do not ask you to forgive," he said."Then what do you ask?""To be understood." He turned his ring slowly. "Just once. Before I lose the chance."I hated how tired he looked. I wanted to hate him fully. It would have been easier."Then say it," I said. "Say why you did not tell us. For twenty years you sat in our council. You laughed at our feasts. You raised a glass at Briar's naming day. And you never once said, I tied that child's life to my own.""Because you asked m

Point of View: Rhen"Say it, Alden. Whatever it is. I am not a child, and I am not made of glass. You tied my daughter to a thread. Now tell me what you tied to me."I am Rhen, and I said it standing in the gray light before dawn, in a field beside the broken cistern, with my husband's arm still around my shoulders. The children slept on blankets. Hesper's leg was splinted. The others hovered at a polite distance, pretending not to hear.Alden sat on a stump, ringed hand pressed to his chest. He looked like a candle burning down."Your promise," he said. "On the night. You said, any price. Do you remember?""Yes.""The ring heard it."I stared at him. "Heard?""The tenth chair is a seat of oaths." His voice shook. "When I laid the thread on Briar, the ring needed one thing to finish the knot. A second holder. Someone who would stand at the other end if the first fell. I could not ask. You were in agony. You said, any price, any promise, and the ring took your words and set them in the

Point of View: Rhen"I am not asking you to forgive him. I am asking you to listen before you vote. A frightened man is a danger. A frightened man who is also right about some things is a harder problem."I am Rhen, and I said it to a hall full of exhausted faces, at noon, in the village meeting house of Hollow Ash. Elara had called the council to sit in judgment. Thirty riders, six elders of the Order, a dozen Marrow cousins, and the whole village crowded the benches. Tilda sat in the front row with her arms folded.Alden stood in the center, hands clasped. He had refused a chair."Rhen," said Councilor Petra Hollin, from the high bench. She was a stout, sharp woman who had never once agreed with me in twenty years. "You are his friend.""I am not.""You defend him.""I defend the process." I took a breath. "Alden Quill kept a private copy of sealed knowledge. He hid a child's thread from this council for twenty three years. He let his grandson walk into this mess. These are real wro