CHAPTER TWENTY
Jovanna had learned long ago to trust no one. Her own parents had abandoned her when she was four, scared of what their daughter might be. She had scrounged in the trash heaps of the town, fighting with rats and other vermin to simply stay alive. When the local orphanage took her in, they soon began treating her like her parents did. Jovanna knew now that it was fear that caused people to act the way they did toward her. Fear of the unknown often caused people to treat others differently.
She knew she was different. Even when she was four, she knew she was not like other children. Not like anyone, regardless of age. But when she had been brought to Palindrom, she felt like she finally belonged. The people there were more like her than anyone she had encountered before. The
