shoulder, finally able to pinpoint what’s been plaguing my mind, now that I

have some distance from the city. “Why are—”

“I care about you. I told you that last night.”

“No. Not that,” I snap, unable to bear talking feelings at a time like

this. “Why are the people damaged? How has this happened? I thought the

covenant was strong.”

“The covenant is strong,” Bo says. “It’s been this way since the

beginning. You know the legend: those families who refused to sign the

covenant did not receive equal protection from its magic.”

“I thought that meant they had fewer goods, smaller houses,” I say,

voice louder than I mean it to be. “I didn’t think it meant they—”

“It means they suffered from this planet’s dark magic. They weren’t

made Monstrous, but their humanity was not preserved in the same way

that those of noble blood are preserved. They suffer from a different sort of

mutation.”

My brow wrinkles, and for the first time in more than an hour, my

thoughts begin to organize themselves. “But the Monstrous look nothing

like that. What’s happened to our people isn’t mutation. It’s … something

else.”

“Something like what?” he asks.

“I don’t know. Something …”

Something dark. Something unnatural.

Yearning for Gem grips me so fiercely it feels like my stomach is

climbing up my throat. The thought of talking this madness through with

him gives me strength and, more important, reminds me—

“I’m not sure.” I turn back to Bo. “But perhaps the covenant will offer

some insight. I’d like it brought to my rooms this afternoon.”

He blinks as if I’ve snapped my fingers between his eyes. “The

covenant?”

“Yes, the covenant,” I say. “Have it delivered to the tower

immediately. I’ll be keeping it overnight.” That should give Needle and me

time to sneak over to see Gem.

By the moons, I can’t wait to see him, to feel his arms around me, his

chest warm and solid beneath my cheek, making the world feel steady and

possible again. Night can’t come quickly enough.

“We should go,” I say. “The driver’s waiting.”

“But …” Bo’s mouth opens and closes as I circle around him and climb

into the royal carriage for the first time in my life. I was looking forward to

the ride this morning—the wind in my hair, the fields rushing past on both

sides—but now I can’t imagine taking pleasure in simple things, not when

there is so much suffering under the dome.

“Isra, I can’t have the covenant delivered.” Bo climbs up beside me,

clearly deciding he deserves to sit in the carriage rather than ride on the

step at the back with the other guards. “It’s impossible.”

“What’s impossible?”

“The covenant was lost,” he says. “Hundreds of years ago. Not long

after King Sato died.”

“What?” I want to believe he’s lying, but he seems genuinely

confused, completely at a loss.

Lost. The covenant is lost. How could that be? How could something

so important be lost?

“King Sato hid the covenant for safekeeping,” Bo says, giving the

signal for the driver to start the horses. The silver-haired man flicks his

whip, and the buggy lurches forward, throwing me back against the seat.

Bo steadies me with an arm around my shoulders. I’m too horrified to push

it away. “He died before he could tell his last wife where it was hidden.”

“But that’s …” King Sato was our third king. That means … “No one’s

read the covenant in six hundred years?” I squeak. “Or more?”

“It’s all right.” He has the nerve to smile. “Our history isn’t lost. There

are other texts that tell us all we need to know, and the sacred words

spoken at each royal wedding are engraved on a gold tablet we’ll hold

between us on the day we take our vows.” Bo pulls me closer, until I’m

wedged beneath his armpit, my spine crunched and my dress straining

across my back. “Don’t worry. The covenant is strong. The damaged people

have been that way for generations upon generations. They don’t suffer

from it the way we would. They aren’t like us.”

“Then what are they like?” I squirm free, and scoot to the other side

of the buggy.

Bo’s expression hardens at the sarcasm in my voice, but to his credit,

he maintains his patient tone. “They aren’t Monstrous, but they aren’t

human the way we are, either. They don’t know any other kind of life.

They’re happy with what they have, to be a part of our city, to be safe, fed,

and protected.”

He sounds like he’s telling the truth, but that doesn’t mean anything.

He could think he’s telling the truth—the way I did every time I assured

Gem I was tainted—and still be telling a lie. I know for a fact he’s wrong

about my people’s suffering. I could see the pain in their eyes. I could feel

the hard facts of their life weighing on me as I walked among them,

dragging me down until it felt like my feet were moving beneath the

surface of the ground.

“You said there are other texts?” I ask, brushing a lock of hair from

my face, finding no joy in the wind that whips it back into my eyes.

“There are,” he says. “Would you like me to have those delivered to

your rooms?”

“Yes, right away.” I try to feel optimistic about what I’ll learn in the

texts, but I can’t. Something deep inside insists that all I’ll find in those

writings are more lies.

I have to find the covenant. I have to discover where it was hidden so

long ago, and I can think of only one place to look for help, one thing that’s

been around for more than six hundred years and still has eyes to see.

The roses have deceived me as often as anyone else has, but tonight

I’ll make it clear that I won’t tolerate lies. They will give me what I

want—the truth and nothing but—or I will … I will …

Or I will refuse them their offering.

Even the thought is enough to make my head spin and my heart

thrash against my ribs, but I can’t help but think …

What if the stories of Gem’s people are true? If so, wouldn’t my

people be better off in the desert? Better off transformed than forced to

live with missing pieces? The nobles and soldiers and some of the

merchants are still whole, but the overwhelming majority of my people are

suffering, not thriving, under the dome.

Maybe if Yuan is abandoned, if the other domed cities are

abandoned as well … Maybe if we all go into the desert together …

Maybe I don’t have to die. Maybe Gem was right. Maybe there is

another way.

The thought should renew my flagging hope, but it doesn’t. My

entire life I have been afraid to die, but at least I thought I had something

worth dying for.

Now I have … nothing. A terrible mess I don’t know how to clean up,

and the certainty that I will find no help from those in power in this city.

The whole have beauty, pleasure, comfort, and abundance, and they’ve

convinced themselves they deserve it. Because they are more human than

the people who suffer in the city center, or the Banished in their lonely

camp, or the monsters starving in the desert.

I’ll never be able to convince them differently. Yuan will never

change, not unless I can find proof that something is wrong with the city.

The nobles are spoiled and soft and inclined to gossip, but they are not evil

people. I must convince them that Yuan is rotten at its core. I must find the

covenant and discover why it was hidden away.

BO

THE morning lasts forever. The afternoon is even longer. By the time