Page 108 of Moon Chosen

“Okay. Stay here. But later when you’re complaining about the smell you’ll be talking about yourself and not me.”

Sora’s gray eyes opened wider. “You’regoing to wash?”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

Sora sat up. “Of course I sound surprised. I’ve never seen you clean.”

“You’ve seen me clean plenty of times. You’ve just never seen my skin or my face or my hair free of what I’ve had to cover it with for most of my life to keep me safe. I’m not dirty, Sora. I’m different,” Mari said.

Sora sniffed in her direction and then wrinkled her nose. “You smell dirty.”

“My mother died. I’ve been in mourning.”

“People in mourning don’t bathe?” Sora tried unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle.

“Sora, you are not funny. Get up and come with me. I’m going to wash all this stuff off me, and I’m sorry to say it, but I need your help.”

“Really?” Sora brushed back her hair and began to plait it into a thick braid.

Mari watched her deft fingers. “Really, and I need your help with my hair.”

“Finally! I’m glad for you, Mari.”

“Well, there’s no reason for me to try to fit in with the Clan anymore, so there’s no reason for me not to be myself.” Mari wondered why speaking the words to Sora made her feel so hollow when she’d been thinking them for weeks with no remorse at all.

“You know it doesn’t have to be like this. You and I could help each other out. A lot.”

“How so?”

“Why not have two Moon Women in the Clan?” Sora said. “That means half the effort for both of us.”

“No. I just said I’m going to be myself, and who I really am and the Clan do not mix,” Mari said.

“It was just a thought.”

“Are you coming with me to the bathing pool or not?”

“I’m coming—I’m coming.” Sora got up and as if she’d been living there forever, she went to the herb bin and began filling her mug to brew her morning tea.

Mari sighed and sat on her mother’s chair. “If you’re using chamomile, you might as well make me a mug, too.”

“Is there stew left, or did your creature devour it all?”

“Rigel prefers his rabbit uncooked so, yes, there is stew left. It’s in the cauldron.”

“Want some of it, too?” Sora asked, heaping chamomile into a second mug.

“No, we already ate. You sleep a lot,” Mari said, rubbing Rigel’s ears.

“I have a feeling I’m going to go out there and see that the sun has barely risen. That’snotsleeping a lot. You wake up at an unnaturally early hour.”

“That’s what the rest of the Clan thinks of dawn, too, which is why I get up and go out then. Unless someone is lurking about—like you—trying to find me, I’m pretty much guaranteed that I won’t see anyone from the Clan,” Mari said.

“If there’s anyone left to see,” Sora said. “The screams were terrible yesterday—like they were killing somebody. Lots of somebodies.”

“Another good reason to get up early,” Mari said.

“No, another good reason that our Clan needs two Moon Women,” Sora said.