Isaac thought about the lady from the boat. A rescue team had arrived from town shortly after she’d revealed her purpose in making the voyage to the island—to find descendants of the old Gladers, Newt and Sonya. Isaac didn’t know if they’d actually been brother and sister—he’d never read that in the histories of these very famous people. But the lady was adamant. Medjacks had taken her to the infirmary and he hadn’t seen her since, now four days gone by. But those two names had flashed in his mind over and over, like the blinking of the sun between fast-scuttling clouds.

Newt. Sonya.

Everyone learned the story of Newt in primary school. They had his journal, required reading as soon as kids were able to put letters together. He was almost a mythical figure—and if he had any descendants, that’d be news to every person on the island. Sonya was less mysterious but almost as legendary. She’d been one of the survivors, arriving on the island with Thomas and everyone else over seventy years ago. She’d died a few years back, but had left behind several children and grandchildren.

A woman stepped up to the podium placed at the front edge of the stage. It was Sadina’s mom, Ms. Cowan. As First Chairperson of the Congress, the job fell on her to add stability to the wild rumors that blanketed their island.

Ms. Cowan held her hands up. Waited for people to notice, then quiet down. It didn’t take long.

“Thank you,” the stately woman said. She was like a shorter, older, wrinkly version of Sadina. Everyone respected her, even when she pissed them off. That was the kind of bearing she had. “Thank you for coming. It’s been an interesting few days.”

Sadina leaned into Isaac. Very quietly, she said, “You know Sonya only had one kid, right?”

Isaac pulled back his head, frowned in confusion. “Huh? She had three or four didn’t she?”

“Nope. Just one. Now be quiet and listen.”

Sadina was always pulling crap like that, and curiosity over the whole damn thing was just about enough to drive him crazy. He’d missed the first item or two that Ms. Cowan had announced from the podium. The woman’s voice bounced off the cliff walls and seemed to come from every direction.

“—a little disconcerting to all of us. But after several extensive interviews with our guest, we believe that what she’s told us is the truth. However, the fact still remains that this is a person who, by her own admission, drugged, shot, and killed her shipmates. That’s not a thing that we as a Congress can take lightly.”