Page 10 of Phoenix's Fire

"No, it worked out," Meri assured me. "I learned to be obedient enough for Gideon to trust me with chores. I was washing the laundry one night when Callah came in. It was, you know, her time." Which meant Callah had been washing the cloths she used for her monthly flow.

"So you finally got to talk to her?" I asked.

"She told me what happened to you," Meri admitted. "Ayla, you stabbed Mr. Saunders with a fork?"

"It was all I had," I admitted.

"Oh, butInever could've done that. I would've been too scared. And being married to him?"

"Which was why I'd rather die," I agreed. "But how did you get out, Meri?"

She looked over at the quickly filling tub, then back. "Well, I told Callah about my brother not caring at all that I'd been hit. He was horrible about it, Ayla. Hesaid I deserved it because my husband is my lord, and I should treat him the same way I'd treat God!"

"But you didn't do anything wrong," I hissed.

"I know!" Meri said. "I mean, I kind of did, but I didn't deserve that! And Gideon had been so nice to me! He'd always smiled, but then - as soon as we were married - he changed. He stopped caring about me, and stopped trying to make me happy. He just wanted to breed me over and over, saying it was a man's right, and that he had needs!"

I grumbled in disgust. Sadly, I wasn't surprised.

"So Callah told my brother I needed to see him again. Then she did it again."

"When?" I asked. "Before or after I left?"

"After," she assured me. "All of this happened after. Well, except for my brother's first visit. That was only a few days after Gideon hit you so hard."

"Okay," I said, assuring her I was keeping up. "So you saw Callah recently, and she said she'd gotten my message?" Which meant after the last battle.

Meri nodded. "She'd been reading things in that room you found. She said she'd been climbing in there and learning all the things you knew because it had made you stronger than everyone else and she wanted to be brave enough to get kicked out. Well, when she got your message, she came up with a plan, and having my brother come see me when Gideon wasn't there was a part of it."

"Okay?" And now I was confused.

Meri just smiled, and the look was cruel. "I told Gideon the child was Nateniel's."

I gasped. "Is it?"

"No!" Meri assured me. "It's Gideon's, but because my brother came that first week, and Gideon knew, it worked. See, Nateniel and I have the same mother. A baby from that?"

"Would be an abomination," I breathed. "That's why they make the lists, so we won't inbreed and cause deformities!"

"Mhm," Meri agreed. "But when I said I was in love with my brother, and that I couldn't resist him, Gideon lost it. He said I'd committed adultery. Ayla, that's the seventh commandment, and since the child was believed to be incestuous, it's an abomination. They chained me for the Dragons as a sacrifice because it's one of the ten crimes that demand banishment."

"Gideon told them?" I asked.

Meri stood a little straighter and shook her head. "No, I did. I told Gideon in the dining hall, so when he reacted, it was loud. I made sure it would be a scene, because Callah said it would work. She said she'd gotten proof you were out here. She said you would find me and make it okay, and now you have!"

All I could do was stand there with my mouth open. Not only had Meri lied - a thing she'd been terrified to do the last time I saw her - but she'd made it work. Even more confusing, Callah had come up with this? She'd seen my arrows and knew I would help? But how?

Never mind all the rest of that! I would've expected the elders to throw Meri inquarantine rather than banish her. Granted, maybe the Righteous women didn't ever go to quarantine? Come to think of it, I'd always heard the threat, but I'd never known of anyone to be put in there.

"Callah came up with this?" I asked, just needing to make sure I understood.

"Yeah," Meri breathed. "She found the rules that are punished with banishment. She figured out how to make it look like my brother had done something wrong."

"What happened to your brother?" I asked.

Confusion took over Meri's face. "Nothing. Ayla, he's a man. He said it's a lie. Gideon said it wasn't and that he knew Nateniel had been there. Mr. Saunders said I must've seduced him, so I agreed, and I was banished. I mean, he and Gideon hit each other, and it took five men to pull them apart, but I didn't care. It worked! It actually worked, although I was so sure the wild men were going to abuse me."

"Reapers," I said, moving towards the tub to turn off the water. "They aren't really wild men, Meri. They're called Reapers because they reap what they sow. They're farmers, and they're where the Righteous get the vegetables and tubers."