know nothing. Everything I’ve told you could just as well be false.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Leave where?”
“The Temple. Did you leave because they started killing people?”
“What?”
“Jack?”
“Did you blame yourself? Why do you live out here with animals? Is it because you don’t trust yourself around people anymore?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“My mother is dead,” Jack bursts. “And her parents are dead, and our home is gone. It was burned to the ground. Burned by a man named Arana Nezra, and you knew him. You knew him when he was just a child. He has blue eyes. And you knew his father. You were there when it started. And all I want to know is why? Why?” he fires, red-faced and trembling. “You have so many answers, can you tell me that? Can you tell me why my mother is dead? Is it part of your cycle?”
Miles is stricken. Ruck jumps up on all fours and skitters to his master’s feet and glares at Jack, a low growl working in the back of his throat. Miles sinks to his knees and soothes the wolf, smoothing back his fur and whispering in his ears. He looks back to Jack.
“Sit down,” he says softly.
Jack remains standing. Lia watches the confrontation with dark, wet eyes.
“I am he,” says Miles. “Please. Sit down.”
Eriem’s side of the bed is cold. He left for the night watch before sundown. Jeneth sets her bare feet on the floor of their tiny, two-room cottage. Muffled cries have awoken her and she rubs sleep out of her bleary eyes, then shambles across the room to gather Mariset in her arms and rock her back to sleep.
The crib is empty.
As the fog of sleep clears, she realizes that the cries had not come from inside their cabin, but from the hillside and grounds. In a frenzy of panic she moves to the sideboard and lights a candle and flashes it around the room. All of Mariset’s clothes and toys are gone. Her hand flies to her gaping mouth. She feels like she’s been struck in the chest.
She treads cautiously toward the door, toward the screaming. As she reaches for the lever, the door bursts inward and two men move slickly through it and grab her by the arms. Thoughts of spies and far-away armies flash through her mind, until she catches a glimpse and recognizes them as friends of Eriem. They have sat at dinner together in the Temple Hall and talked and laughed and got along well. They force her to the ground and bind her hands behind her back, then haul her back to her feet by the elbows. She flails and fights against them.
“Settle down, Jeneth. We’re not going to hurt you.”
“Where’s my daughter?”
“She’s safe.”
“Where is she?”
Jeneth screams through clenched teeth and tries again to pull away. They jerk her roughly though the door and march her down the path toward the Temple.
The grounds are chaos. They are being carried away, all of them—all who were not born here. People who have been at the Temple longer than Jeneth are being escorted from their cottages with their hands tied behind their backs, pulled screaming from their children and carted away as prisoners.
Strands of Jeneth’s fine hair adhere themselves to her tear-wet cheeks, flushed with an anger more profound than any she’s ever known, stronger yet than the anger she felt years ago when they first stole her away from her own parents. The only image that burns in her mind is of her daughter’s face. She turns her head and bares her teeth and bites at her captors.
Someone calls her name from the dark entrance by the amphitheatre and she looks up to see Elise being dragged toward the Temple as well. They hand her off to sentries and she is whisked away—an assembly line of forced bondage, swift and efficient. Jeneth goes limp and contorts her face in fathomless anguish. My daughter, she thinks, my baby.
They cart them through the sanctum at the heart of the Temple, with panoramic frescoes of fire ensconcing the fevered prisoners as they are led to their confinement. Lines of young children are led down from the dormitories and set along the same path until a sizable crowd stands gathered at the mouth of the secluded staircase.
Jeneth looks around for her friends and sees Haylen down the hall, bound with ropes and sobbing. She sees Aiden and Creston far behind, just making their way down. At the head of the stairs, wearing an oddly