The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Luna, now 11, is smart, clever, and skilled at creating and building things. She is also moody, “prickly,” and impatient. She finds everything and everyone “horrible” and frustrating, especially the fact that Xan won’t take her on all her journeys. Now, Xan is away and Luna is testy. Luna wishes Xan were back. Glerk recites a poem about patience and its slow, constant nature, but Luna doesn’t want to hear it. She walks up to the top of a ridge to see if she can spot Xan.

Fyrian accompanies her, and Luna feels that somehow Fyrian is getting younger than her, or maybe she is going forward in time. Luna looks at the world below her and knows that beyond the northern forest is the Bog. Glerk has told her that the world came from the Bog. Luna has a terrible headache, like a clock is ticking inside her head. She closes her eyes and sees the colors blue and silver, and observes a hard kernel in her mind. Luna also has a vision of a cheerful, comfortable home and a black-haired woman with a birthmark like hers. Luna hears a voice and the word “mama.” She doesn’t realize she is crying. Luna knows she has seen this house and family before but can’t remember where. Fyrian is upset at her distress, and Luna comforts him, saying she is thinking about her love for her family.

Another Day of Sacrifice approaches, and Xan leaves to rescue another baby. She knows that her age is catching up to her and her magic is decreasing. Xan is not afraid to die, but pain and deterioration leading up to death worries her. Still, Xan is doing everything out of love for Luna. Xan also knows she must tell Luna the truth about her origin, someday.

Xan feels guilty for not aiding the people in the Protectorate as she does those in the Free Cities. She can’t explain her aversion to the place. Xan remembers her childhood in the castle of magicians, and how, while she cried at night from bad dreams, she heard a voice outside her room whispering, “more.”

The madwoman’s magical skills are increasing. The madwoman knows that Sister Ignatia is a Sorrow Eater who hungers for her sorrow. The madwoman watches the Elders take the sacrificial infant into the forest. She sends a paper falcon there.

Grand Elder Gherland misses Antain but is glad he left the Council before they had to execute him. Now, Antain is married to Ethyne, and they love each other deeply. Antain questions the stories about the Witch and the necessity of the sacrifices. Antain determines to change things so his child can come into a better world. He rushes to the clearing and finds the paper falcon.

Antain surprises Xan as she arrives to pick up the baby. He shouts for her to stop, but Xan’s fear and worry fuel her magic, and she tosses Antain aside. Transforming into a hawk, Xan picks up the child and flies away. Antain unfolds the paper falcon and read the words “Don’t forget” and “I mean it” (150-51). Watching Xan, the madwoman thinks of birds and feels a flock of them in her soul lift into the air.

Turning 12, Luna is deeply attached to her odd family. She is quick-tempered and quick to learn. She already has many skills, from caring for animals to inventing small machines, but the more Luna learns, the more irritated she becomes with all the things “she does not yet know” (152). Luna snaps at those she loves best, even Fyrian. Luna also knows there are books in Xan’s workshop that she hasn’t read and can’t read. When she looks at them, she cannot even see the words; her eyes simply slide away. Luna starts drawing everything from maps and towers to a black-haired woman.

Luna also worries about Xan, who is getting weaker. Luna is protective of Xan. When the two travel to the Free City called Agony, Luna tells the townspeople in advance that Xan is ailing, and they come out en masse to care for her. In the city, the Star Children share memories from as far back as they can remember. This sparks one of Luna’s memories. She tells the other children about a man in dark robes who didn’t like her, a woman with long hair on the ceiling, and a boy “who smelled like sawdust” (160). Xan dismisses these images as dreams or simply other things Luna has experienced before. But Luna knows these are real memories—something she doesn’t have too many of. She realizes that Xan rarely talks about her own memories. Luna makes a list of things she knows for sure. When Luna helps Xan care for some pregnant ladies, Luna realizes she must have a mother of her own. Xan calls Luna “mine,” triggering Luna’s memory of a woman screaming “she’s mine” (163). On the way home, neither Luna nor Xan talk about their memories.

Luna becomes the first-person narrator in this chapter as she tells the story of her life—as she knows it so far—to Fyrian. Luna lets Fyrian cuddle with her and then begins a series of statements that begin with “Once upon a time” (165). Luna lists things she knows about herself and her family. She says (twice) that she has no memory and adds that she doesn’t know how she lost it. Luna amends that statement to say that she does have memories “that followed her like shadows” (166). Luna describes Fyrian as a dragon who “never grew up” and Glerk as a swamp monster who has trouble knowing the “right thing to say” (165). Luna shares the memories she talked about with the Star Children, of a “vulture-faced” man and the woman in the rafters screaming “she is mine” (166). Luna doesn’t know how her story ends but concludes that perhaps there is something evil in the woods and that the whole world is full of lies. Fyrian expresses disbelief, and Luna admits she doesn’t think the part about the evil and lies is true.