Rhun the Elder smiles tightly and leads the way.
A wake of Sayer cousins streams after them, pressing behind Rhun and Mairwen, none of whom quite cross the threshold, afraid of Nona Sayer’s ire. She’s clanging around at the hearth while Delia Sayer, Rhun’s aunt, prepares a chicken carcass for the pot. Brac’s wife, Sal, is stirring a large bowl of cream, seated on one of the odd Sayer stools.
“Ah, you’re here!” Sal says, pushing bright curls off her face with the back of her hand. “We were just talking about who we think killed the surviving saints.”
Nona hisses with frustration, slamming a lid onto the savory-smelling pot simmering over her fire.
Mairwen says, “Grace witches.”
“You must be joking,” Nona says, fists on her hips, though the rest of those present are slower to react, shocked.
“Do you have a mirror Mair can use?” Rhun asks, diverting conflict. Since Arthur kissed him, he’s been walking a razor’s edge of hope.
“I do,” his mother says. “Think of another culprit, Mairwen Grace. Your mother is a witch, not a devil.”
Mair shifts into a stance Rhun knows well: stubborn and challenging. She says, “My mother knew our blessing ointment for the saint would tie Rhun to the Bone Tree, dooming him. It creates a binding charm that draws the saint back to the tree even if he survives his night, even if he leaves the valley. That’s as good as killing them, to do it knowingly. Rhun’s blood would have been on my hands, because I made the charm. That is the Grace legacy.”
Nona stares at Mairwen with hard eyes. “My boy isn’t dead. That’syourlegacy.”
Mairwen opens her mouth but says nothing. She stares at Nona.
“The mirror’s upstairs in my trunk, girl. And pick out a nicer shawl if you would like.”
With a twirl, Mair heads up.
Rhun’s mother sends everyone else away too, so it’s only herself and her son. Then Nona turns to the fire like she’s nothing to say after all, and Rhun stares at her shoulders. At the strength of them, their broadness, the length of her neck and the curls of black hair sticking to it. “Are you still bound to the tree, son? Is what she said true?”
“Yes,” he answers. “Though it’s different, because of Mairwen, and everything.”
Suddenly, Nona spins faster than Rhun has ever seen her move, and her clenched jaw is so like his own, the carmine in her eyes sparking like his. “I am so very proud of you for ending it, Rhun Sayer. You ran and you fought and you changed everything. No matter what happens now, whatever the bargain becomes. I couldn’t bear to change my life outside the valley, for the risk it would be, so I only ran away. But you do what you know is right, for everyone, every moment. I am so proud of you.”
Rhun’s knees loosen and he sits. He draws a ragged breath. “It was Mairwen and Arthur who made me, who changed it. Not me.”
“I don’t believe you. They went into that forest for you: They might have begun the change, but they never would have without you.”
“I lived my life expecting to be a saint. It isn’t such a great sacrifice, if you never expected to have a future.” Rhun shrugs one shoulder. “That’s why I’m not better. The best. I didn’t really give anything up at all.”
“Rhun, you gave yourself up every day, again and again. I watched it constantly. Always choosing other than yourself. My selfless boy. I wish you’d been more selfish. I hope you’re learning it now.”
“Maybe. I—I love Arthur.”
And?her eyebrows ask.
“Mom, I mean... I love him like you love Dad, like I love Mairwen, like... I kissed him. He kissed me.”
Nona presses her mouth into a line and stares at him.
Rhun’s stomach finally catches up with his confession, twisting hard.
“Well.” Sighing, she slumps down onto the bench beside her son. “Well.”
“It’s just love, Mom,” Rhun whispers. His hands clench because he wants to touch her hand, pat her shoulder, or give her a hug.
“Nothing isjustlove,” Nona says almost as softly.
•••
THE SECOND STORY OF THESayer house is one long room divided by wood panels into two. The front is Nona and Rhun the Elder’s bedroom. Gray sunlight stretches through the large windows, casting the room in cool pastels. Mairwen crouches at the top of the ladder, listening to the painful conversation between Rhun and his mother. Her old, easy love for Rhun grows up again as she listens to Nona reveal how proud of him she is, and it flares hot as the sun when Rhun tells his mother about Arthur. She’s ready to fall back down the ladder and get in Nona’s face if the woman makes even the slightest move to chastise him.
