gathering_blue_novel-2

"The accuser will speak first," the chief guardian instructed.
Vandara's voice was firm and bitter. "The girl should have been taken to the
Field when she was born and still nameless. It is the way."
"Go on," the chief guardian said.
"She was imperfect. And fatherless as well. She should not have been kept."
But I was strong. And my eyes were bright. My mother told me. She wouldn't
let me go. Kira shifted her weight, resting her twisted leg, remembering the story
of her birth, and wondering if she would have an opportunity to tell it here. I
gripped her thumb so tightly.
"We have all tolerated her presence for these years," Vandara went on. "But
she has not contributed. She cannot dig or plant or weed, or even tend the
domestic beasts the way other girls her age do. She drags that dead leg around
like a useless burden. She is slow, and she eats a lot."
The Council of Guardians was listening carefully. Kira's face felt warm with
embarrassment. It was true, that she ate a lot. It was all true, what her accuser
was saying.
I can try to eat less. I can go hungry. In her mind, Kira prepared her defense,
but even as she did, she felt that it would be weak and whining.
"She was kept, against the rules, because her grandfather was still alive and
had power. But he is long gone, replaced by a new leader with more power and
wisdom —"
Vandara oozed compliments designed to strengthen her case, and Kira
glanced at the chief guardian to see if he was swayed by the flattery. But his face
was impassive.
"Her father was killed by beasts even before her birth. And now her mother is
dead," Vandara went on. "There is even reason to think that her mother may
have carried an illness that will endanger others —"
No! She was the only one to fall ill! Look at me! I lay beside her when she
died, and I am not ill!
" —and the women need the space where their cott was. There is no room for
this useless girl. She can't marry. No one wants a cripple. She takes up space, and