(Isla)
Caius turned the page and said Maren’s name.
The room seemed to pull tighter around the sound of it. Maren stood under guard near the front ranks, her face arranged into something calm enough to fool someone who didn’t know her. I knew her. I knew the exact shape of that control and the way she used it like a clean cloth laid over rot. She had watched too much and ordered too much and walked away too often for that face to mean anything to me now.
Caius began reading her charges.
I heard each word clearly at first. Sanctioning abuse. Denial of food. Oversight of household labor under unlawful punishment. Knowledge of wolfsbane confinement. Failure to intervene. Participation in maintaining conditions meant to degrade and exhaust. His voice didn’t change as he read, and that made
