Ruthless Vows

Tobias leaves to take Attie and Iris’s articles to Helena. Meanwhile, Iris helps Marisol tend to her garden. They spot a nightingale, and Marisol tells Iris that many were caught and put into captivity years ago for a scientific study. When migration season arrived, the birds “eventually killed themselves trying to escape, bashing their wings and their bodies against the cages that held them” (98). Marisol gifts Iris a green bird book to take with her on her travels.

Roman writes to Iris again, asking about her. She explains with details of what she is doing (sitting on the laundry room floor while typing her reply) and divulges many facts she’s recently learned from the bird book. In return, she asks to know more about Roman. Frustrated that he cannot remember anything from his past that he can tell his pen pal, Roman falls asleep listening to bird song from his open window. He dreams of the Oath Gazette on the day that Iris Winnow appeared as a new hire in the office.

Dacre inquires about Roman’s old wounds and his dreams on their way eastward the following day. Roman claims not to remember rather than tell Dacre of the mysterious Iris Winnow.