Chapter 40

• Eliana POV
• The air was still in the shielded yard. There was not a sound of a leaf, not a call of a bird. The guard rooms glimmered dimly round the boundary, and hushed the scene over with silence and mystery. Here was a room Alexander had made for me sheltered ground where there were no eyes to spy one, no muttering elders, no eyes of anticipation.
• In the middle of the soft dirt ring I stood. My feet were bare on the ground, my knees bent a little, my hands hanging open. The sky was cloudy, gray, but it felt like the universe was waiting for a moment's breath.