Page 11

Chapter 11

Karus

As Lia told the story of Visalia’s stillborn child, I pressed my own hands protectively over my belly.

“ By the time I arrived,” she finished, “ Visalia’s babe was dead. There was nothing anyone could do.”

“ And she was overdue? By how long?” I asked.

“ Four weeks, give or take.”

“ It was a girl?”

“ Yes .”

“ Visalia never recovered.”

“ She did not.”

“ She tore out her own heart and gave it to him.”

“ Yes . It was then that I left. I couldn’t watch my sister turn into a monster.”

My lip trembled. “ You left her? In her darkest hour, you left your sister?”

Lia shifted on her feet, her head bent. “ I … I struggled to watch the two people I loved most fall apart. She blamed Adaynth for the child’s death. I ,”—she patted down the skirts of her apron—“ I didn’t stick around to find out why. I know it was wrong. I know I should have stayed, but?—”

“ You just left her?” I scoffed. “ How could you do it? She’d just lost her child, Lia , of course she was broken.”

“ I have spent time at the bedsides of countless mothers since then to do what I could to make up for?—”

“ But you left her!” I lashed out.

“ I was young. I didn’t know what would become of her or what she would be capable of after that. I know I should not have left.”

“ Visalia experienced the darkest moments of her life without the sister she loved. What happened to her is no excuse for what she has done and continues to do, but I see her more clearly now.” I turned toward the door, adding, “ I see you both in clarity.”

I rushed back through the long corridor, picked up the sack of cheeses, and with a wave of my hand, gathered the flour on the stone. I didn’t bother finding a broom, and I didn’t bother to look behind me to see if Lia would follow.

I climbed the steps out of the cellar, filling my lungs with fresh Felgren air, scattering the flour into the wind. I burst into the kitchens, dropping the cheese on the small table, and followed our bond straight to Revich in Viridis .