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Bright-Eyes
Seasons of the Sword #2
I meant to take the knife that Mieko was holding out to me, the handle toward my hand.
I meant to. But I couldn’t.
“Risuko,” whispered Mieko, her eyes locked on mine. The rest of the Full Moon’s girls and women were also staring at me.
My eyes flicked toward the pig, which struggled against its bonds, squealing.
We were outside the Full Moon’s kitchens, next to the well. The pig was stretched out, its legs tied to four heavy pegs that Emi, Toumi, and I had hammered into the still-frozen packed earth.
What stopped me, what kept me from being able to take the long, narrow blade from Mieko-san’s hand, wasn’t that the pig was in distress. Its squeals knotted my stomach, but I had slaughtered animals for the kitchens before — chickens,
