“You have to slow down with all of this,” she said.

“I’m fine,” I snapped.

She drew back, surprised by my coldness.

“I’m going to do this,” I said. “Because you know what really puts pressure on me? Renewals.”

“I didn’t mean…” She bit her lip. “I’m just worried about you, El.”

My resentment burned red hot, but I knew that I had hurt her.

“I’ll visit Finn when we get back to the city.” My voice came out hard and bitter. I swallowed, tried to soften it. “Look, Millie…”

“You’re right, we should keep going,” she said, and got up.

The wall ran straight along the base of the hill. Parts of it were crumbling with age, and long-dead ivy spread across the stones like grey veins.

In the distance, I caught the faint murmur of voices from the house, too indistinct to understand. Another door closing. A sudden cold wind rustled through the leaves of the trees above us and chilled the sweat on my face. Millie peered over the top of the wall.

“Found the renovations,” she said.

I stood on my toes, and followed her line of sight. The barn doors stood wide open, but there were no farming implements or animals inside. Instead, mounds of loose earth were piled up next to the building, and the ground inside sloped steeply downwards beyond the door.

“I wonder what she’s trying to dig up,” Millie muttered.

I could not see much of the pit, but if the excavated dirt was anything to go by, it ran deep. Enormous steel panels lay stacked beside the entrance, shining in the sun.

“Maybe she means to bury something.” I did a quick count of the number of panels beside the barn. At least enough to cover the floor of the building. “Something she doesn’t want found?”

Millie shook her head. “Then this is far too conspicuous. If your Reverend had bodies to hide, she’d be better off throwing them over the Edge.”

As I stared, the vision emerged from the barn. Despite the distance between us, I could hear him breathing. His skin was stained with mud, like he had crawled out of the ground. His eyes found mine, and for a few seconds, he just stared at me. I balled my hands into fists.

He turned away and began rubbing himself against the wall.

“I think we’re done here,” I said, my voice flat.

We kept to the perimeter wall until we reached the road. Millie noticed I was shaking, and touched the small of my back.

Although I shared most things with her, I would never speak about this vision, or the fact that the man bore a striking resemblance to Declan Lars.

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

We reached Ceyrun as the sky darkened. Dusty workers queued at the gates, and an Acolyte checked their names off her roster one by one. At the roadside, an ox cart waited for indentured labourers to climb aboard. The convicts would be taken to lodges in the Berai province—their home until the completion of their sentences.