The Man’s Decree – Chapter 6376

Freevale had never been this lively before.

The clearing at the heart of the vale was packed with tables and chairs. Every piece had been hauled out from somebody's home. None of it matched. Sizes were all over the place, colors clashed, and a few chairs were missing a leg, propped up with stones to keep them from tipping over.

The tables were heaped with food and wine jars. The food wasn't delicate or fancy. Most of it was roasted beast meat, coarse grain cakes, and pickled vegetables. But to the people who had spent hundreds of years in Blackstone Gaol eating feed fit for pigs, this spread was worth more than any feast from the mountains or the sea.

The wine had been brewed in Freevale. They'd made it from spirit grain grown in the vale and wild fruit, fermented the old rough way by hand. The taste came out harsh, but it hit hard enough.

Rowan sat at the main table with a bowl of wine in his hand. His hand was still shaking. Not from his wounds. From the way the night had hit him all at once. For the first time in three hundred years, he was sitting out in the open drinking.