Anna departed before Ruth could follow. “I will be back,” she called over her shoulder. Ruth held her breath as Anna disappeared into the dark.

Once she was a good distance away, Anna looked up at the stars, marked her location, and turned toward the shepherd routes she had seen. She braced against the evening’s chill and sped her pace. Toward the desert.

CHAPTER 29

The western edge of the Great Desert outside ancient Palestine—33 A.D.

The shepherds had a saying that no lie can survive the desert and no trouble can overwhelm it. The sand’s insatiable thirst seeks to drink whatever it can from those who enter—sweat, tears, saliva, blood, lies, illusions, and longings. All are drained from the traveler and soak into the ground without trace. One is never quite as clean, the shepherds’ wisdom continues, as upon one’s return from the desert.

It was this saying that Anna remembered as her feet swept briskly across the sand. She had no idea where she was going. She only knew that she could not stay where she was. Something inside her wanted to move. And something in the desert was calling her. She could only hope that Ruth and Tabitha would understand.

The first day was hard. With each step the ache in Anna’s heart spread and her stomach rumbled. She cursed herself for leaving without a food stash. Having failed to find any tracks before sunset, she nestled beneath a ridgeline and built a fire. The flames crackled. In the distance, a lone wolf threw its long, sad plea to the stars.

How easy it would be just to keep on going and never look back. How easy it would be to live on her own again. In total freedom and without care.

As quickly as these thoughts arose, she chastised herself for having them.

What was wrong with her? Had she forgotten everything? Had she forgotten her life in The Narrows? Had she forgotten the example of the Sisters and Mother Susana?

Had she forgotten The Way?

The desert’s monotonous heat and Anna’s repetitive thoughts began to fuse one day to the next. Her hunger increased along with her thirst. It seemed as though she had been wandering for forty days though, in reality, it had been only a few.

She had searched and searched the sands but failed to uncover tracks of any kind. Once, when she had come upon a set of human footprints, she shouted for joy, only to discover that they were her own and that she had been walking in circles.