Chapter Ten
Excerpt from Testimony of Mio Akasawa
Ada Olson: Why was it so hard for these girls? The Orphans?
Mio Akasawa: You have to understand something about The Palace.
Dawn wrote that whole book about her Fear Training, like she could build an army of loyal robots.
But girls are not machines. Their bodies get hurt, and their brains long for things that have nothing to do with skating.
No one was there to help them with any of that.
But even worse—some were just waiting to take advantage of them.
Ada Olson: Like who? Emile Dresiér?
Mio Akasawa: Emile, the other skaters, the mothers in the stands, the world outside—something bad was bound to happen.
Ada Olson: You mean what happened in the field?
Mio Akasawa: Yes. But first, what happened to Indy.