The gilded shackles sat, open, on the velvet cushion to Kaitlyn’s side. So long as the curtains were drawn and the doors of the carriage were shut, Kaitlyn was free. But the shackles were not the only restraints on Kaitlyn. Her emotions had been capped so aggressively since she helped Matthew rob Happfield Chapel. Those were the shackles that could not, or should not, be removed.

  The carriage door opened suddenly, and Kaitlyn reached for the cuffs, but Maribel calmed her. “Don’t worry, just me,” the priestess said as she climbed in and sat across from the shamaness. She had a tight grip on a sky blue kerchief. “We’ve found the Stone Circle. They are right between Elmsmith and Crossroads.”

  “How long is that?”

  “Two days.” Maribel sounded sad. “But I can stretch it to three.”

  “What’s the point, Sister?”

  “Gives me more time to get to the bottom of this. I just found out that your arrest is not even being made public knowledge at The Throne. As far as the civilians there are concerned, all of the attackers and everyone involved was killed by the Inquisitors.”

  “Why would they say that?”

  “The theory so far,” Maribel began, looking down at the cloth in her hands. “The Church wants to make it clear that this is a special situation. Their response was complete and decisive.”

  “I was on the street, though, sister. It was chaos. More civilians than clergy were helping.”

  “That may be,” Maribel conceded. “But what do you want them to do? Admit they were caught off guard? Outsmarted by some bandits? The priest I just spoke with was a former assistant to a Justicar. He said that, most likely, the council is aware you have to be punished for relic theft, but they want to reward your help. So they are sending you to your tribe instead of killing you outright.

  “And in that, they are also silencing a witness to the chaos. Sending away someone who could, and likely would, speak to the truth of the situation.”

  Kaitlyn shook her head. “But I wasn’t the only one. That paladin from Happfield was with me.”

  Maribel perked up. “A paladin from Happfield?”

  “Yes. His name was Sam. We fought for the Halcyon Band, but after-” Kaitlyn’s breath caught suddenly. She redirected her focus to stifling her expressions.

  Maribel was not sure what to address. The fact that Sam had been in the street, or that something was upsetting Kaitlyn. But there were still two days left. Time enough to address everything, hopefully.

  “Kaitlyn, why will your tribe kill you?”

  Relieved to be distracted, Kaitlyn exhaled. “The saying we use is that the stone can not decide to roll off. To choose to leave is to renounce your identity as a stone. My family did not stop me when I left, but they will not support my return.”

  “So you chose to leave?”

  “Yes, we went to a small town near the Scorched Cities. I had just turned eighteen and was finally a woman in the eyes of my family. I was invited to join the laborers. The town had asked for our help rebuilding the main road. And I met Matthew there. He and his father were rebuilding a storefront.”

  “So you both knew each other for a time?”

  “We did,” Kaitlyn said, smiling at her happy memories, regardless how distant they were. “He followed us to a few towns, doing small carpentry jobs. And I looked for excuses to see him, too. The tribe sends scouts out to look for work. Whenever it was going anywhere near Matthew, I would volunteer.”

  “Love at first sight, then?”

  “That is what it felt like. Lust and manipulation in hindsight. I was such a fool.”

  Maribel watched Kaitlyn carefully. Something was churning within her.

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  “Would you believe that last year I was doting over him, crying and swooning the same way I did when he proposed to me?” Kaitlyn looked at Maribel, saw the concern in her eyes, and decided to continue. “The Stone Circle? We have this giant, circular slab we carry with us everywhere. It’s the center of settlement whenever we camp. It is a holy site. And Matthew climbed up on that thing and called me up there.

  “I can still feel the stares and hear the offended gasps, Sister. If I could go back in time I’d put my hand on that idiot girl’s shoulder and never let her go near him. But I hated their rules and Matthew was such a risk taker. He was this dark, handsome rebel. And he was defaming this sexist, unyielding society that treated me as little else than a uterus with callused hands. So I leapt up there and accepted his proposal right there.”

  “How did the tribe react?”

  “My grandmother was the one to pronounce me dismissed. We were forced down from the slab and the tribe left us there on that road. I cried some. My parents, my friends, my life. It was gone. But I had Matthew, right? He was what I wanted. And he made sure I knew that.

  “I thought I was free, but I guess,” Kaitlyn chuckled. “I just traded one warden for another. Everything I did was for him, through him, and by him. If I wanted anything? I would have to ask him. But now that I think about it, I wanted to. I think I needed him to approve my logic. Approve my decisions.”

  Kaitlyn was becoming emotional again, so Maribel gave her the space to calm.

  “I was so stupid. I’m hearing again everything he said to me. Every time he conceded to what I wanted it was just to forward his little schemes. That’s how I got pregnant.”

  “You have a child?”

  “Matthew killed it.” Kaitlyn’s eyes locked with Maribel’s, and the priestess could feel the rage. “He murdered it. I could not stop him because I was fighting Sam on Matthew’s orders. I was a month pregnant, fighting a man with a hammer. Then I blacked out and my family was gone.”

  The tear ran down maribel’s face, a combination of the harsh emotions in the room and fear of the sudden rising temperature.

  “Are you okay, Kaitlyn?” Maribel asked.

  Suddenly, the carriage cooled. “I apologize. I-”

  “You have nothing to apologize for, Kaitlyn,” Maribel said. “Matthew is the monster here, is he not?”

  “My stupidity is unforgivable,” Kaitlyn said with a slight shrug.

  Catching her breath after the tension was dispelled, Maribel sighed. “Everyone makes mistakes, Kaitlyn. But that’s what we have friends and family for. They are there to stop us. I wanted to be a traveling singer and dancer, you know?”

  Kaitlyn smiled at the thought. “Really?”

  “Oh yes,” Maribel nodded. “I would crow like a rooster. Oh Dreamer, I thought I was a real diva. But my brother regularly informed me I was not.”

  “Thank Kraag for brothers, I suppose.”

  “Yes, count your blessings. The world is much better off without me on the stage. I was going to stylize my name as ‘Merry Belle,’ Kaitlyn. It would have been the cruelest fate this world had ever befallen.”

  Kaitlyn laughed out loud.

  “I guess, what I mean,” Maribel continued. “Is that even if you failed, it was not you who failed alone. We all support each other. And if no one called attention to or warned you of Matthew’s machinations, then the blood is on their hands, too, right? They were, as you said, just as stupid to fall for Matthew’s tricks. Or worse, they let you fall for them.”

  Kaitlyn was shaken by that. Those words etched themselves onto her heart then and there. She did not hear Maribel follow the remark with “and when the blood is shared, the stains aren’t as thick.”

  That night, Maribel was trying to sleep in the carriage. She held the kerchief from Mrs. Estin, feeling the message woven into the cloth. Her mentor told her that in the weave, she would see the threads that bind the world.

  As Kaitlyn slept, slumped against the inside of the carriage, she had a dream where she stood on a cliff overlooking a beautiful valley. Kraag walked in the distance. A funerary urn sat at her feet.

  Kaitlyn knew the container held her child’s remains. Something in her mind told her to release them. Open the dam and let these feelings flow. That would be the only way she could forgive herself. And once she was forgiven, she could hold the others accountable.

  The urn cracked, then shattered.

  Kaitlyn looked up to see flaming meteors falling from the sky as the ground split. Pillars of magma and flame surged skyward. Kraag cried out as the world reeled.

  Immediately below the cliff sat a circular stone slab. Nomads clad in brown looked up at Kaitlyn, their faces soaked with tears, as they wailed for forgiveness and mercy. Something in Kaitlyn’s heart swelled at their begging. At their prayers.

  It was feeding her and making her stronger.

  The meteors whistled and screamed as they collided with the mountains, slinging stone and slag across the valley, and these unnatural sounds blended horrifically with the screams of the nomad tribe.

  The Throne rest at the end of the valley and the hypocritical clergy rest inside. It was broken by a meteor in a flash and an explosion.

  The nomads cried louder and the power within Kaitlyn swelled. She turned her face blissfully skyward as the world was shaken apart.