NIKI FLORICA

Born a house slave on Whitehaven Plantation, Pheobe knows how to watch and listen and hide secrets away where no one will find them—secrets like the words she collects, though slaves aren't permitted to read or write. Secrets like an impossible hope of freedom from slavery. When a bird doctor comes to Whitehaven and wants Pheobe, a mute, as his guide, Pheobe can sense danger on the wind, sure as any chickadee. This white man from the north has brought secrets with him—dangero

The children of Israel have suffered four hundred years of bondage to the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, clinging to El Shaddai's sacred promise to one day deliver them. Miriam is a prophetess—the one Hebrew who hears El Shaddai's voice in their time of tribulation—but as the four hundred years reach their end, she feels as if El Shaddai has gone silent. Without His voice whispering in her thoughts, Miriam is lost. When her long-exiled brother, Moses, returns from the wilderness,