Chapter 23 Summary

Kira wakes the next morning before dawn and goes to her garden to tend the flowers that her father has brought her. She ponders many questions, realizing that her mother was most likely poisoned in order to bring Kira under the protection of the Guardians. She assumes that similar fates befell Thomas' and Jo's parents, and in thinking of Jo, Kira remembers the thing that horrified her during the Ruin Song.

The metallic clanking Kira and Thomas heard during the ceremony was created by thick metal shackles that bound the ruined, bloody feet of the Singer. Kira caught a glimpse of his bonds as he ascended the stage and saw the horrific scars caused by the shackles.

Though Kira had been planning on returning to her father's new village with him to start a new life, she decides that she must remain at...