Ruins Among Small Sacrifice Suivre l’histoire

A massive guillotine glistened in the courtyard, ready for my neck.

"Do not touch me." The executioner trembled.

"I'll leave with the plague doctor." I sat in the back of the wagon in my best turquoise gown, but I would not give the king and his wise woman, my grandmother, a false confession.

Others who supported me left in their carriages and open wagons.

Only I noticed the sparkle on the king's skin and the vine that grew from under his suit. His illness mirrored my own.

"Not everyone will die. I told grandmother she needs to change, but she doesn't want to realize she is the problem," Alexander said to me. He attempted to give me hope.

The king and his other sons stood thousands of yards away. Fear that if they came close to us, they'd be infected, but in denial, it could spread to them.

His grandson, the youngest prince, would be spared. The magic didn't like to devour children.

"You are lucky I didn't slaughter you for unleashing the curse," he lied to the crowds of his believers.

Grandmother walked close to me. "Nancy," she whispered to me. "You destroyed everything. King Gan and I were not supposed to be infected, but you changed the rules by offering yourself as a sacrifice. I only gave birth to her to halt my death when the king's curse launched into the world."

Prince Reed, the third oldest, spoke. "It's spread by condemning others with hate. You spread it to yourself by cursing others with it."

The curse had spread to me because I took my mother's insults, a small sacrifice, she would not know anything about. Grandmother had cursed her. She and the king had unleashed it to rid the kingdom of the undeserving.

When grandmother was young, she learned words had magic and words could curse as well as heal.

My mother stared at him. "Whoever unleashed the curse will have to admit to it because if we leave and the deaths still happen, it means the magician is still among you."

Grandmother turned from me. "Die in the cave!"

The horses trotted through the village, and we passed the statue of the king and the princes.

Workers blotted out the oldest prince's face. The new regent's face would be carved in.

The other eight princes' statues stood around the king.

We stopped at the clinic, and the doctor climbed in, and a plague mask covered her face, or in this case a curse mask.

My brother Alex carried her things. He smiled at the woman.

She handed him a mask. "For your safety. It might not be a plague, but it acts like one."

As we left the safety of the village for the mountains, the sky darkened.

I stared at my grandmother. Her skin shimmered in the darkness. Thorns grew from her skin.

Everything moved around me, and my brother carried me to the cave.

I sat on the grass mat and waited for it to fade like the others. My body collapsed, and I slept for hours.

Painful chills ravaged my body, and I wondered if today was the day I'd die. Vines that wrapped around my wrists broke. My skin lost the shimmer.

Heavy winds blew out the last candle. Darkness fell over the cave. I felt cold and wrapped the thick blanket around me.

I awoke again. Only Alex stood there.

"Where is everyone? Is everyone else dead?"

"No, of course not, but Grandma died. Everyone is hosting a home-raising party, building a warm home for us, and starting a garden."

I sat up. "Why can't we go back to the kingdom?"

Alex didn't answer me. "I was a fantastic nursemaid." My brother smiled to himself and thumped his chest. "Doctor Ford says she will train me to be an official nurse."

I stretched. "You seem eager for a man who lost their grandmother."

"She was a terrible person, and don't lie. Like King Gan, she kept condemning people until the hatred consumed her."

"But her soul," I whispered.

"You can't change people by condemning them." My brother was blunt and honest. "Sis, when you feel better, we're going back to the kingdom. No one can curse now that Grandma has died. In her last few seconds, she realized she couldn't blame anyone else."

"But we've been banished," I said.

"Something's happened."

It took another three weeks until I was well enough.

We walked through the kingdom and leveled. Only the statue of the boy prince remained.

Could it mean only the five-year-old was alive? Or did he starve to death after Reed died?

"Poor Reed," I said to my brother.

"I’m fine." Reed carried his son.

"What happened?" I asked.

"They couldn't stop cursing each other. I blotted myself out. If I were a successful prince, my family, and our people would have listened. Only ten remain untouched, but another 100 have been recovered. Those were usually those who begged for forgiveness or were cursed but didn't condemn another…" Reed paused. "Vines have destroyed the gardens."

Alexander handed him candied crab apples. "We'll rebuild. Kindness is no small sacrifice, but it's worth it."

I realized it had to be my brother who stopped the curse. He was a kind and blunt man.