Chapter 71: Iris Refuses the Lie

The fire in the hollow had burned low by the time they brought Iris forward. Nora stood at the edge of the circle, frozen ground hard under her boots, the ledger pages pressing against her ribs inside her coat. The women formed a loose ring around the clearing. Maeve held Hope at the back near the cart, out of the wind. Darius stood at Nora's shoulder. Silent. Solid. His hand brushed her elbow once, then stilled. Iris walked between two scouts, hands unbound, fine wool cloak torn at the hem. Not roughed up--Nora had ordered that. Roughness would have made Iris a victim, and she was not one. The scouts stopped at the firelight's edge. Iris looked at the flames, at Nora, at the ring of women watching with flat, waiting eyes. The wind picked up, scattering ash across the snow. "You want me to say it in front of them," Iris said. Her voice was steady. That surprised Nora. "Yes." "And if I don't?" Nora pulled the folded page from her coat. The last ledger page--Maeve had found it sewn into Thornveil's old banner, written in Nora's grandmother's hand. She held it up to the firelight. The ink had browned with age, but the names were still legible. "Then I read this aloud. Every name, every price, every child traded under the false-luna clause. Your name is on the buyer's side. You signed for a fertility draft the year Rowan rejected me. You knew the baby wasn't yours. You signed anyway." Iris's chin lifted. Firelight caught the hollows under her cheekbones. She looked thinner than at Blackridge, the fine coat hanging loose across her shoulders. "I signed because I thought the baby would protect me from her." "From Seraphine." "Yes." "Then tell them." Silence stretched. A woman shifted her weight. A child coughed behind the cart. Iris looked at the frost on the ash, then at the ring of faces. Her shoulders squared. "I am not Hope's mother," Iris said, loud enough, clear enough. The words carried past the fire, past the cart, into the frozen air. "I never carried her. I never gave birth. The clause was a lie. The midwife was paid. I signed the registry after Nora was gone, told the council the child was mine so Seraphine would have no reason to kill me." Nora felt the words land like a door opening. The women exchanged glances. Someone let out a breath. "Why are you telling us now?" a woman called from the ring. Iris looked up, eyes wet but unbroken. "Because I saw what she did at the bridge. She won't stop with Nora's baby. She'll take every child she can reach. And she'll use me if I keep signing her lies." She reached into her coat. The scouts tensed. Nora held up a hand. Iris pulled out a single folded sheet, yellowed, sealed with black wax bearing no crest Nora recognized. She stepped forward and held it out. "The last page of the ledger," Iris said. "Seraphine kept it hidden in her private quarters. I took it the night I ran." Nora took the page. The wax cracked under her thumb. She unfolded it and saw her mother's handwriting, cramped and urgent. A single line at the bottom: *The contract expires when the child speaks its true name.* Her breath caught. Hope's true name. Lirien. The name Seraphine had branded into Darius's skin. The countdown had been running since the bridge. Nora looked up at Iris. "Why give me this now?" "Because she's not counting anymore," Iris said. "She's listening."