The Moonshaped Sorrow (Open Novella Contest 2020)

Chapter Three: The Cursed Castle

"If our funds permit, I may be able to get you a gift from the market," his mother said on the brink of her departure. "Is there anything you'd like me to look for?"

"I don't need gifts," he said.

"No expensive gifts," she said. "But I may be able to get something small, to help lift your spirits. What would you like?"

He smiled. "Bring me the loveliest flower you find on your journey, and I'll be satisfied. Just have a safe trip."

"I won't be long," she promised, and then she left.

Life in the cramped float without even his mother for company was not pleasant, to say the least. Without even the task of preventing her from worrying herself into an illness, the only thing Cori even had to do was work, and work, and work without end. Even with the looming hope of their fortunes changing, he had to work harder than he had before to make up for the cost of the boat his mother took north, and the two boys that sailed it for her. In the week after she was gone, the only times Cori stepped out of the room was to use the outhouse ten minutes away. He had no reason to leave, except perhaps for his own enjoyment, but he would have felt too guilty doing anything solely for his own pleasure at a time like this.

On the tenth day she had been gone, a letter arrived. Cori didn't have to open it to know it was from his mother. Inside, it read in his mother's hastily scribbled hand:

Cori,

I know I've only been gone for hardly more than a week, but already I miss you. Are you taking care of yourself while I'm gone? I'm sure you are, but a mother can't help but worry.

As for me, I'm sorry to say the situation here isn't as good as I'd hoped. My ship had indeed arrived at the market with all my clocks intact, but some of the original buyers are no longer interested, and finding others in the market are not as easy as it would have been in the spring or even midsummer. And all the debts I've acquired in the last months have enough interest that paying them off is not so simple.

Oh, I'm making things sound far too bleak!

It may not be the miracle we've hoped for, but our luck has still changed. The good news is I've recovered enough of our finances to be able to get new raw materials. It may take us a few years to get back to where we were, but we'll get there. I'll tell you more when I return home. The day after I write and send this letter, I'll be setting off. If the seas are good, I'll see you again two days after this letter reaches you.

With much love,

Ma

The fact that there were still debts left to be paid was a disappointment, but it was a disappointment Cori had expected. He clung to the news that his mother would be home soon as his way of getting through the long hours of washing clothes in isolation. But two days passed, then three, then four, all without any sign of his mother. Cori's worry over the future of the family finances quickly turned into fear that something worse had happened.

On the fifth day, he spotted the two boys that had been sailing his mother's boat crossing the bridge. All other thoughts forgotten, he rushed across the street. At the sound of his footsteps, they flinched, but their faces changed when they recognized him.

"What happened?" he demanded. "Where's my mother?"

The boys, perhaps four or five years younger than Cori himself, looked at one another, then hung their heads in shame. Cori's heart quavered.

"We don't know," the taller of the boys said.

Cori's hands shook at his sides. "What do you mean? How can you not know? Did you just leave her behind?"