Nettle & Bone

Chapter 2 begins with Marra remembering her life as a child. She describes herself as a sullen child. She loves her oldest sister, but the middle sister, Kania, tells Marra she hates her when they are children. Marra never forgets that moment. Her oldest sister, Damia, goes on to marry the prince from the Northern Kingdom. The match will protect the tiny Harbor Kingdom and ensure its future, as Damia’s firstborn will inherit both kingdoms. Marra learns of Damia’s pregnancy shortly after the wedding, but news of Damia’s death via an apparent accident arrives only a couple of months later.

Marra returns to the present as she considers the barrier between the cursed land and the next. She wonders “if the outside crows hate the crows of the blistered land the way that the villagers outside hated the people inside” (13). She crosses over, feeling the curse barrier, and a man challenges her immediately.

The narrative slips into a memory of Marra’s from the year after Damia‘s death. Marra asks Kania not to go marry the same prince, but Kania says she has no choice. The queen sends Marra to a convent shortly after Kania’s marriage. Marra soon realizes that Prince Vorling is holding Kania as a hostage. She also realizes that all Kania’s future children are also his hostages. Most people in the convent and neighboring village assume Marra is either a highborn younger daughter or the illegitimate daughter of a king. Marra learns to weave and sew. She also mucks stalls and performs any task the convent requires of her.

Back in the present, the villager man tells her to return to the cursed land. Marra tries to tell him that she is not from there, but he relents only when he sees a monster approaching. The man flees, leaving Marra to her fate, but the monster turns out to be the friendly bone dog. Marra and her dog begin their journey back to the dust-wife.

As Marra makes her way, the story reverts to her time in the convent. The convent is dedicated to Our Lady of Grackles, who is a bit of a mystery. The abbess tells Mara that “occasionally someone has a vision, but [The Lady of Grackles] doesn’t seem to want anything much, and so we try to return the favor” (22). Marra goes to the library and teaches herself new ways of weaving and knitting, experiencing intellectual curiosity for the first time in her life. She falls in love with an acolyte at 18, only to have her heart broken when she hears the boy bragging about bedding the king’s bastard. Marra realizes she is “outside the hierarchy and so had been assigned a story that made sense of her position” (24). Her heart mends as time passes with nothing but pleasant news from the queen in her monthly letter from home.

At 20, Marra joins the Queen on a journey to the Northern Kingdom for the birth of Kania’s child. When Kania gains a moment alone with Marra during her labor, she tells her sister to do everything in her power to avoid marriage with Prince Vorling if she dies.

Kania gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Marra stays outside the circle of courtiers surrounding the Northern Kingdom’s royal family. She soon realizes they think she is simple. Her attendant tells her the entire palace stands on the catacombs that hold generations of the royal family, including queens and princesses. The whole place is haunted, the attendant claims; even the souls of attempted grave robbers wander below, claiming new victims. Marra meets the king and finds the old man intermittently clever and withdrawn. Marra’s attendant shocks her again when she tells Marra that the king is only 50 years old.

At the christening, Marra sees Prince Vorling for the first time. She describes him as small with flat eyes. The ancient godmother of the royal family emerges to bless the child, Virian. Marra notices that the godmother receives far better treatment and reverence than the king. The godmother gives the child the same blessing she has given every member of the royal house: “No foreign magic will harm them. No enemy shall topple their throne” (34). The baby begins to cry, and a nursemaid whisks her away.

Marra returns to the convent. Many residents question her about the experience, but Marra only remembers the king, the prince, and the godmother in any detail. Six months later, Marra receives news of Kania’s new pregnancy. However, as many months pass with no word, Marra realizes Kania must have lost the baby.

Marra begins assisting the Sister Apothecary with local women’s births. She realizes that “peasants and princesses all shit the same and have their courses the same, so I suppose it’s no surprise that the babies all come out the same way, too” (36). Marra learns how to prevent herself from getting pregnant and hopes to share her knowledge with Kania. She fears her own fate should anything happen to Kania.

A fever plagues the kingdom in Marra’s 15th year at the convent. She falls ill but survives. She spends her recovery helping tend to those who take longer to recover or never recover at all. During this period, she receives news of Virian’s death. The queen will pick her up and accompany her to the child’s funeral. Marra examines how detached she feels from her niece’s death. After the funeral, Kania manages to arrange a private vigil for the child with just her and Marra. In this rare moment of privacy, Kania confides in Marra the nature of her fear of her husband, who regularly abuses her physically and sexually.

Robbed of any freedom or autonomy in the Northern Kingdom, Kania exists to serve the prince’s desires. She never got to spend time with her daughter. Marra tells her to kill Vorling, but Kania laughs. The prince is never alone with her, insisting that guards maintain their watch even when he sexually assaults her. Kania has no opportunity to fight him.

Later, Marra comes to her mother with what she has learned. The queen merely replies that Kania’s position might improve if she gives Vorling an heir. Marra fears that the prince will just kill Kania instead and, appalled, asks her mother if she knew what Vorling was like before Damia married him. The queen knew he had peculiar appetites but did not realize he would torment his wife to miscarriage and death. Marra realizes not only that Vorling killed Damia but also that, despite knowing, her mother still sent Kania to him. Prince Vorling holds the Harbor Kingdom’s safety hostage.

Marra returns to the convent. Unable to focus on anything but her sister, she approaches the Sister Apothecary for advice. The Sister tells her she can do nothing, but Marra cannot accept that. She worries more and more. Marra does not know how to be a hero, but she must do something. Yet she still does not act. Each plan she imagines has fatal flaws. Word arrives from the Northern Kingdom, and Marra’s heart sinks. Instead of Kania’s death, though, the message announces the king’s passing. Prince Vorling is now King Vorling of the North. Marra’s fear begins to turn to rage: “If I were a man, I would fight him. If she were a man, no one would force Kania to try to bear child after child. If I were a man, I would not be the next in line to be married if he killed her. If I were a man…” (58).

Marra overhears two women talking. One advises the other to go to the dust-wife for magic. Dust-wives are not common in the West, but Marra knows they’re a combination of gravediggers and witches. The dust-wife blesses the graves, ensuring the dead can rest easy, and speak the language of the dead. Now motivated to act, Marra seeks out the local dust-wife. The woman instructs her to find a proper and powerful dust-wife for her predicament. In the Southern Kingdom’s necropolis, Marra should seek the dust-wife who is “married to clay and bone and grave dirt” (61).

Marra embarks on the long road, relying on her nun’s clothing to protect her. She tells only the Sister Apothecary where she is going. The journey takes weeks, but eventually, the walls of the necropolis come into view. Marra finds the cottage of the dust-wife outside the borders, but as she makes her way up the path, the call of a chicken surprises her. She laughs, thinking it is difficult to be frightened by the “unknown when the unknown keeps chickens” (66). Just then, the dust-wife calls out to Marra from her window, warning her to give the brown hen a wide berth. That one has a demon in her. Marra squares her shoulders and walks in.