Renegade

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by Rachel Starr Thomson

“I don’t know. It has been days.”

  “Days.”

  “My parents said I was going to die anyway.”

  “They were wrong.” She kept her voice steady, not betraying her anger at a mother and father who would stop feeding their own child. Yet, she knew the poverty of some in the countryside was desperate. Perhaps there were other children to feed. Perhaps they felt they had no choice.

  She smiled at Niccolo as she reached out and smoothed a long, sweat-thick lock of hair from his brow. Her soul was bonding to this child, her heart mothering him even as her hands followed her natural impulses. She hoped he would come into the Oneness very soon.

  Franz reappeared, not carrying the called-for porridge himself, but ushering it in via the helpful hands of one of the older sisters. He looked much like a master ordering a servant, which bothered Teresa a little, but she was too grateful for the food—and the sister’s company—to dwell on that overmuch. The sister sat on a low stool across from the bed and watched while Teresa helped the boy sit up and hold his bowl and spoon. He seemed capable of feeding himself. The sister fidgeted, and Teresa felt her impatience to be going. There were needs. Great needs. Every hand ought to be engaged in meeting them, not in chaperoning. But Franz did not seem inclined to leave the room.

  The boy took his first few bites tentatively but gained speed as his strength began to return, until Teresa had to put out her hand to slow him down lest he make himself sick. She supervised his eating until the last drop of porridge was gone and then helped him lie down again—he seemed exhausted by the surge of effort. His face had gone white and his hands shook.

  “Sleep,” Teresa said, making up her mind to leave him alone—though her heart wanted to stay. “I’ll come back to check on you. Just sleep for now.”

  He nodded, but his eyes were already closing of their own accord, and when she looked back just before stepping out of her quarters, she was sure he was asleep.

  Other Books by Rachel Starr Thomson

  Novels

  Worlds Unseen: Book 1 in the Seventh World Trilogy

  Burning Light: Book 2 in the Seventh World Trilogy

  Coming Day: Book 3 in the Seventh World Trilogy

  Exile: Book 1 in The Oneness Cycle

  Hive: Book 2 in The Oneness Cycle

  Attack: Book 3 in The Oneness Cycle

  Renegade: Book 4 in The Oneness Cycle

  Rise: Book 5 in The Oneness Cycle

  Taerith (Fantasy)

  Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe (Juvenile/Humour)

  Lady Moon

  Angel in the Woods

  Reap the Whirlwind

  The Babel Chip

  Short Stories

  Magdalene

  Butterflies Dancing

  Ogres Is

  Fallen Star

  Journey

  Wayfarer’s Dream

  The City Came Creeping

  Of Men and Bones

  Non Fiction

  Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled (Humour/Memoir)

  Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer

  Letters to a Samuel Generation: The Collection

  Fifty Shades of Loved

  Mind Soul Ink Paper

  Now For the Not-Yet

  Undivided Devotion

  Still Praying in the Wilderness

 

 

 


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