Book One: Chapter Two
Chained Innocence A man stood nervously on a wooden platform with his arms behind his back. He had short hair and a large nose. There were heavy bags beneath his eyes, presumably from lack of sleep. A rope noose was placed about his neck by a tall individual in a black skullcap. The sound of a crowd could be heard around him. Then a burlap sack was placed over his head. The crowd was murmuring louder now and jeering. The man with the black hat went to a lever and pulled it. A trap door opened beneath the man with the sack over his head. He fell and the noose caught his neck with a jerk. Those in the crowd cheered. The twins and their mother sat in a small carriage looking over the crowd towards the spectacle on the wooden execution stage. Allora wasn’t looking towards the hanged man, she had decided to look down at the crowd. If she had looked completely away, her mother would have been upset. She had made that mistake too many times to repeat i...