Chapter 19 — The Boy Who Bowed
The eastern district was where Ironridge had put its hunger to keep it out of sight.
Sierra rode down into it at first light with twenty guards, three grain wagons, and a list of things she intended to be angry about. The blight had started here — she could see the exact line where good soil turned to gray, like a tide mark on a wall. Beyond it, the fields were dead. The cottages had straw where glass should be. The children playing in the lane moved slowly, and did not run to see the horses, because running costs food.
"How many households?" she asked.
"Forty-one, Majesty," said the district head, an exhausted woman named Bo Harlan. "Was sixty-three before the blight."
"And the other twenty-two?"
"Some left. Some didn't." Harlan didn't dress it up. "We
