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Chapter 1

ORPHANAGE OF THE ORDER OF THE SISTERS, KERRVILLE, TEXAS

Later, after supper and evening prayer, and bath if it was bath night, and then the final negotiations to conclude the day (Please, Sister, can’t we stay up a little longer? Please, one more story?), when the children had fallen asleep at last and everything was very still, Aainst this; the sisters had all grown accustos Like an apparition sheup and down the rows of beds where the children lay, their sleeping faces and bodies in trusting repose The oldest were thirteen, poised at the edge of adulthood, the youngest just babies Each cas left at the orphanage by parents unable to pay the tax, others the victim of even crueler circumstances: mothers dead in childbirth, or else unwed and unable to bear the shame; fathers disappeared into the dark undercurrents of the city or taken outside the wall The children’s origins varied, yet their fates would be the sa their days to prayer and conte for the children they themselves had been, while the boys would beco an oath of a different but no less binding nature

Yet in their dreaht Her own childhood was the most distant of memories, an abstraction of history, and yet as she watched the sleeping children, drea eyes, she felt closer to it-a ti in the world, innocent of what lay ahead, the too-long journey of her life Time was a vastness inside her, too many years to know one fro them: she did it to remember

It was Caleb whose bed she saved for last, because he would be waiting for her Baby Caleb, though he was not a baby anyetic as all children were, full of surprise and huh, sculpted cheekbones and olive-hued coaze and dark wonderings and coarse black cap, shorn close, that in the familial parlance of the Colony had been known as "Jaxon hair" A physical aamation, like a puzzle assembled from the pieces of his tribe In his eyes Amy saw them He was Mausami; he was Theo; he was only hiht, the same ritual It was as if the boy could not sleep without revisiting a past he had no e of his cot Beneath the blankets the shape of his lean, little-boy’s body was barely a presence; around the children, a chorus of silence

"Well," she began "Let’s see Your mother was very beautiful"

"A warrior"

"Yes," A black hair worn in a warrior’s braid"

"So she could use her bow"

"Correct ButDo you knohat that ? I’ve told you before"

"Stubborn?"

"Yes But in a good way If I tell you to wash your hands before dinner, and you refuse to do it, that is not so good That is the wrong kind of stubborn What I’ is that your ht"

"Which is why she had ht thing to bring a light into the world"

"Good You reht, Caleb"

A warm happiness had come into the boy’s face "Tell me about Theo now My father"

"Your father?"

"Pleeease"

She laughed "All right, then Your father First of all, he was very brave A brave man He loved your mother very much"

"But sad"

"True, he was sad But that hatof all You knohat that is?"

"To have hope"

"Yes To have hope when there seems to be none You must always remember that, too" She leaned down and kissed his forehead, moist with childlike heat "Now, it’s late Time for sleep Tomorrow is another day"

"Did theylove me?"

Amy was taken aback Not by the question itself-he had asked this on nu assurance-but by his uncertain tone

"Of course, Caleb I have told you many times They loved you very much They love you still"

"Because they’re in heaven"

"That’s right"

"Where all of us are together, forever The place the soul goes" He glanced away Then: "They say you’re very old"

"Who says so, Caleb?"

"I don’t know" Wrapped in his cocoon of blankets, he gave a tiny shrug "Everyone The other sisters I heard the"

It was not a matter that had co knew the story

"Well," she said, gathering herself, "I’h to tell you it’s tiht her short "Caleb? How do you see theaze had turned inward "At night When I’, you mean"

The boy had no answer for this She touched his arht, Caleb You can tell me when you’re ready"

"It’s not the same It’s not like a dream" He returned his eyes to hers "I see you too, Ah Not how you are now"

She waited for hi Different how?