Chapter One

I think I met my mother once. I was six. I went to the central market a few blocks from the group home where I grew up in the village of Whynslan. The headmaster, Beltis, sent me to bring back exactly seven potatoes for the rest of the Eremos who shared my miserable existence at Nothos Hall. I approached the vendor, a short, stout man with a sweaty brow, filthy apron, and the kindest blue eyes I had ever seen. I requested my purchase and waited, watching the passersby, and daydreaming about the homes and lives of the beautiful strangers. As he filled my basket with the potatoes, a female, so beautiful I could do nothing more than stare with my mouth agape, came to stand next to me. Her golden-brown hair rustled in the breeze, and her sun-kissed skin shimmered in the sunlight. She turned toward my adoration and smiled at me with the same sage green eyes that met my gaze in the mirror each morning.

It was not her looks so much that made me wonder if she might be my mother in the market that day. My long raven hair and fair skin made us an unlikely match. It was her scent. Lemongrass and eucalyptus and something else that I could not quite put my finger on. Her scent felt like home, or as close to home as a lonely, forgotten Eremos could conjure up in a six-year-old mind...