Page 27 of Tempests of Truth

“And so you faked your own death,” Costas said, his jaw tight.

“I made sure to go over the waterfall when half of them were there to see,” Isolde said. “I needed to be sure they wouldn’t come looking for me.”

“Why didn’t you take us with you?” Costas demanded.

Isolde shuddered slightly. “There was enough danger in what I did for an adult healer. I couldn’t possibly have taken a small child or toddler over that waterfall with me. And besides, they didn’t care about losing me—I’d fulfilled my purpose and delivered the next generation of Constantines—but their own blood would have been a different matter. For all I knew, they might have torn the forest apart just to find your bodies.”

“Not me,” Costas said bitterly. “They never wanted me.”

Isolde sighed. “They were fools until the end if they couldn’t see your value. But remember, back then you hadn’t been tested yet, and they were still assuming you had a healing seed.”

“And after?” he asked. “All those hours I spent in the forest alone. I’m not sure they would have even noticed if I never returned.”

“I wanted to tell you so many times,” she said. “But by then Chloe had married, lost her husband, and fled. I had seen just how far they were willing to go, and I was being more careful than ever to hide the existence of the forest families. I couldn’t be sure they would ignore your disappearance, so I couldn’t risk it. All I could do was watch over you when you were away from the manor,” she said softly.

“I used to call you Forest Lady, and I thought you were so kind,” Costas said quietly. “You were nothing like Grandmother or Aunt Kendry or Father. Whenever I came out, I would look for you, and I was always disappointed if you didn’t appear with a kind word or special treat to share.”

Fresh tears slipped down Isolde’s cheeks. “It was all I could do for you, but it was far from enough. I’m painfully aware of that.”

“So over the years you’ve been smuggling out families in danger and setting up a network of homes in the forest,” Amara said slowly.

“Not a network,” the patriarch said with a frown. “We’ve never met any of the others.”

Amara looked doubtfully at the two younger women in the circle.

“Except for our daughters-in-law, of course,” the matriarch said quickly.

“I kept everyone separate in case the Constantines ever stumbled on one of the families,” Isolde explained. “Given their abilities, they would easily have extracted any secrets. This way none of them could betray the locations, identities, or even the total number of the others. And it also prevented the families from banding together. There are enough of them now that it would be dangerous for them to do anything as a whole group.”

“So you travel between the houses, providing training for their young ones,” Amara said.

“And also healing as necessary. Not all the families had to flee because they had a child in danger. Mesmerization can be broken, as I experienced myself, and it occasionally happens among the townsfolk—especially those who’ve served a term at the manor. I’ll help anyone who wants to get away from the town and the Constantines.”

“I understand that as a healer, you could easily test the town’s young children before they even reach the age of official testing,” Amara said. “Especially since it isn’t something that needs physical contact. But how do you know about the discontented townsfolk?”

“Not all discontented people have actually fled the town,” I said slowly, putting something together. Looking up, I met Isolde’s eyes. “I’m guessing you know Lumi and Fergus’s mother?”

She smiled. “I do. She is one of the few who chose to stay, and she acts as a go-between when she discovers anyone who wants to disappear.”

“That’s why she fled up the mountain during the fever,” I muttered. “She wasn’t just escaping infection but was fleeing to a healer who wouldn’t mesmerize her or her children while healing them.”

Isolde caught my words, her brows lifting. “You really do know her if you know about that.”

“Actually I’ve never met her, only the children. They’re so clearly different from everyone else in the town that they attract attention.”

A shadow of fear crossed Isolde’s face before she froze, her expression slowly changing. She had lived half a lifetime in fear, and it would take time to absorb that the source of that fear was gone forever.

“I’m one of those who realized something strange and terrible was going on after being a maid for several months at the manor,” the second younger woman said in a timid voice. “Isolde found me and offered me the chance to escape.”

She smiled first at Isolde and then at the younger man who was standing behind her chair. He squeezed her shoulders in response, smiling back at her, and I realized the two must be married.

“It was my parents who realized something was wrong,” Nina’s mother said. “They were concerned enough to keep me away from further healing checkups, but they were too scared to leave their comfortable life in the town for an unknown future in the forest. But once I finished my apprenticeship, I couldn’t bear to stay in the town, surrounded by mesmerized people and watched over by the Constantines. Since I knew Isolde had offered my parents a different life, I set off by myself to try to find her.”

She shook her head, as if recognizing her youthful foolishness.

“It was a blessed day for our family when our son found you wandering in the forest,” the matriarch said with a warm look for both her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter.

Nina, who was seated in her mother’s lap, still eating, looked up and beamed at her grandmother. Her mother wrapped her arms around her daughter and pressed a kiss against her hair.

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