THE FIRST TONGUE

, soft and slow, as if afraid to touch what remained. Smoke still drifted from the collapsed church, curling through the skel

nd unfocused, fixed somewhere far beyond the smoking ruins and the haunted woods. She hadn't spoken in over an

w feet away, ten

only piece of fabric not scorched by black fire or soaked with blood. He used strands

ingers to his own lips, then to Jonas's forehead. "You

ough the empty windows

r voice was hoarse. "We'r

t here. This ground's no

slowly. "

ere someone can remembe

ches long and thin, brittle enough

brushing ashes from her

lias said. "But not

enched. "They

kno

t confess t

idn't h

king hard. "How many

said n

ready knew

-

ees stood like blackened sentinels on either side, their branches clawing at the sky. Behind them, the church

dn't lo

s's body. Elias pulled it alone, refusing Clara's offer to help. He didn't sa

til they reached the cross

st a withered tree,

orehead, half-healed and crusted with dirt. He looked smaller in the daylight-l

," he sai

ked. "You'

oice was hollow. "I heard everything. The screaming

rd. "And you still

id. And I will answer fo

s said. "Y

rd the cart. "

es

he

nally at

is gaze back toward Raven Hollow. "We'l

muttered. "The le

ne," El

," Wren

s tattered coat-a scrap of parchme

nfes

in a sha

the fire. Before the doors shut. I thought i

ment, reading the in

lieved it was penance. I beli

th caught. "

she'd be baptized. He said.

he chain can be broken. We saw it. When

tell the Coun

n't beli

they've seen what we've seen.

ere the sky bent low over the horizon.

-

lick with frost. Fog hugged the road like a cloak, blurring the edges of every shadow. Elias walked beside it

ra yet what was in

all

erved t

ped below the treetops. The great bell rang onc

all man with white hair and robes trimmed in crimson, he

the one?"

s no

the g

aks for

ou claim to have seen a ho

m," she said.

eyes. "We'll hear your t

ith gold-leaf saints and towering stained glass. Beneath the crucifix, a

ped forwar

them eve

e. The ledger. The

ession, ev

y si

shed, the ha

laughed-a dry,

corpses. Of priests who feed on

beside Elias.

epeated. "Then wh

his coat and held u

gan t

raised a ha

kept r

stood. "You

spoke

ne-a nail in the

oice cracked.

uards did

ey were li

-

as let the letter fall. It

e back of the ro

oved h

is mouth had

across his thr

toned hi

ed them

ds burned in

as So

th shal

hop tur

riests

by

le

rk

viv

d in horror

ered witho

oug

collapsed t

we

-

d of the abbey, beneath stars that looked sharper than

ise's letter clo

us," Clar

voice to free

d n

toward the

find the