Chapter 19
BY THE SKYLIGHTS, this truck made a lot of noise. And it bumped and jerked, and it stank. Loriane sat on the velvet-covered seat, her back straight, her hands clasped between her knees. She was hot in the stuffy cabin. The dress that the young man Farius had brought was very thick, unusually tight in the waist, and her belly was still flabby from the pregnancy she thought would never end.
Outside, the streets of Tiverius slid past at disconcerting speed, huge houses with walled yards, like Sady’s house.
The two men in the front seat seemed relaxed, the driver and the huge dark-haired and dark-eyed guard in his stiff uniform.
He had come to the house especially for her. She’d seen him before, briefly, in the corridor and shadowing Sady when he went out. And this morning, she
