Chapter One

"Solieil, wake up."

I cringe, squeezing my eyes shut as though I could force sleep to once again overthrow my senses. It almost works, except for the small hand nudging my arm. I groan. Sleep seems to be the only place where nothing goes wrong, where I can escape all of my family's misfortune. 

But you don't really. 

I fan the thought away and open my eyes to see my younger sister's slight figure, and bouncy honey curls.

"What is it Althaia?" I almost dont respond to her urging for fear that something has gone terribly wrong. 

"It's Asaiah again." 

Our older brother doesn't seem to know how to stay out of trouble; he caused much of it even before our parents died. He started being a real pain after they were put to the sword by a theiving band of Chaldeans while the three of us had been tending the sheep for the night. It wasn't that long ago: five years, but it might as well have been antediluvian times. I had been twelve, the others fourteen and two. The mere thought terrifies me that if it werent for Asaiah's forcing, Althaia wouldn't have been brought along, and she would have been beheaded next to our parents.

"What did he do now?" I note the carelessness in my voice, and force a worried look onto my face. Only for Althaia, who is still too young to understand that Asaiah can't keep apologizing to us forever and actually continue to mean it. 

"The priest told me to come and get you because Siah broke another covenant he had with the-" I stop her.

"You were out alone again?" I sit up now, my bare feet planted on the rug in our small tent.

"I was with Siah. Anyways," She draws out the A dramatically, and I smile at her antics.

"The priest said to get you, bring you to the temple, and make sure we bring the sum we owe-" She shifts feet, her brow crinkled in concentration.

"-we owe or... The sum we owe or an equal barter of fattened firstborns!" Her eyes sparkle with satisfaction and pride in her memory. My smile shrinks and turns into a firm line. My teeth find my lip and start chewing, a habit I haven't cared enough to break. Althaia still looks excitable, and I wish I could share in her positve, careless mood right now. She doesn't know that we don't have money. Much less any fattened lambs.

"Well, let's go to the temple and see what we can do."

        The day is searing, not unusual for Derbe, but uncomfortably sweaty for all it's citizens. When we reach the temple steps, we are greeted by Asaiah's bright smile. 

That smile tells me clearly that he is in deep and wants to leave with his head attached, so he better be nice. Don't think that will shirk off the knot I'm going to put on your forehead. He won't listen to me no matter how many times I tell him that we can't afford him be imprisoned. We can't even risk it. Yet here we are. Again. Perhaps a significant other would be able to hold back his compulsive nature; He has already had three men come to him and offer their daughters up as spouses. Of course, if we were in a better situation finance-wise, I'm positive he would have had more. Not to mention those offers had been before our family became known as poor as the dirt of which our tent sits upon. I would know, considering that our garden has failed three years in a row.

"Don't give me that." I say between my teeth. My head naturally dips in a courteous head bow, and Althaia follows suit. The old man returns it and gives an understanding look.

I turn to Asaiah and whisper so only he can hear. 

"How much and why?" His grey eyes bore into my chocolate ones, and I can see him calculating, forming meaningless apologies, and plausible escape routes. 

"Five shekels. Just food." He knows better than to shower me with a kind words. My eyes widen.

"I know we need to survive, but of all things holy! How are we supposed to pay that off? Asaiah, we didn't even get that much worth in food last time we stocked." Then I figure it out. My head leans to the side, dread sawing through every bone in my body. Every nerve.

"You gave it to the beggar on the corner didn't you?" My whispers are fierce now. 

Asaiah nods once. 

"We're still alive aren't we?"

"We won't be if we can't pay back what we now owe the priest!" I shake my head and close my eyes,  not wanting to think about the enmity this is going to create between the kind old man and my brother. No, not just Asaiah, all of us. 

The priest steps in.

"If you would like, I can ascribe to you a document detailing the borrowed shekels." He turns to Asaiah and raises his bountiful eyebrows.

"I presume you know that borrowed means you will return it, young man?" He smiles and pats Asaiah's shoulder.

I nod for my brother, unable to do anything else right now.

"Thank you."