Page 213 of Phoenix's Fire

"Information about what?" someone else asked.

I dropped my things into the basin and turned it on, showing the girl beside me how it worked. That was the best I could do to keep from answering - and saying too much. But another girl didn't have that fear.

"Maybe about the men?" she asked, looking at Ms. Lawton. "Is that permissible? I know many of us share the same names."

"Since it is only us women in here," Ms. Lawton said, "and we are all of age to discuss such things, I don't see why it would be a problem. This decision has been pushed on you rather suddenly."

"What happens if we refuse all of them?" a girl asked.

My mouth started going before I could stop it. "The elders will choose for you, like they did with Ayla Ross."

That made a few girls suck in their breaths, but someone else said, "Maybe she had the right of it! She stabbed Mr. Saunders and was banished!"

"Ms. Lawton!" Rebekka hissed. "Such things should not be encouraged!"

So Ms. Lawton patted the air. "Rebekka is right. Banishment is not a solution to your problems. It is merely trading one obstacle for a worse one."

"Because if you're banished, you'll burn on the surface," another girl said in agreement.

"Or be taken by the wild men, which would be just as bad!"

"Would it?" a younger girl demanded. "Would it really be just as bad?"

My hands stilled in the water as they bickered, giving voice to all the same things I'd already thought. But that was the thing! A year ago, I would've been sureAyla, Meri, and I were unique in our fears about marriage. I would've been positive that Ayla's books had corrupted us somehow, or that our friendship had been the reason for our unholy thoughts.

Instead, it seemed these girls were all thinking the same things, and fear had loosened their tongues. The inconsistencies were too obvious to ignore, but we all knew better than to say anything about them - in public. But from the way girls looked at others, always the same others, I was realizing the three of us weren't unique at all. We weren't the only ones hiding our friendships. We hadn't been the only ones afraid of marriage, or men, or getting caught.

But I was the only one who knew all the pieces.

Somehow, I kept my hands going while Grayse said, "So if we have to marry, then maybe we should at least share the men that are dangerous, and the ones who might seem unappealing but aren't?"

"Like Tobias Warren?" Rebekka sneered.

I looked over, finding her glaring at me. "I've accepted his proposal. We'll be married on the Day of the Seven Trumpets." Then I mumbled, "But I know Gideon Kobrick is charming before the marriage and cruel afterwards."

"He's on my list," a girl said from across the room. "I'd thought..." She leaned back to see me through the crowd. "Are you sure it's not because his wife was unfaithful?"

"He was cruel on their wedding night," I said. "She snuck out to tell me, explaining consummation and how he held her down."

That made girls gasp. Ms. Lawton made a warning noise, but she didn't chide me for what I'd said. Down from me, a pair of girls began whispering about the horrors of sexual interaction, and slowly a murmur began to take over.

"I say we stab them all and band together on the surface!" Magdalynn blurted out.

"Wouldn't work," I said.

Which made the conversation stop again. "Tell them," Ms. Lawton encouraged.

I glanced around, aware they were all watching me, so I gave up on my washing. "When a girl is banished, her hands are secured in manacles with a long chain between them. Then they're escorted to the surface by a pair of hunters. Those men chain them to a tree for the animals, dragons, or wild men to get. The chain is long, so it's too high to reach and release."

"Chained?" someone whimpered.

I nodded. "And ifallof us attack our intendeds, do you really think the elders would allow an entire generation of girls to be discarded like that? They just decreased the marriage age! They need the children we will make, so why give us up so easily? Wouldn't they simply say it's shock, or because we're irrational - or that we might be possessed?"

"And my mother was in quarantine!" a girl said. "She hadthreechildren in there."

"Which means it's safer to find a man you can tolerate," Ms. Lawton said. "For some of you, this may be more challenging."

"What do you mean?" Emalee asked nervously. "Because we're so young?"