Requiem of Silence Read online

  “That was intense,” Ella said in Lagrimari. She held a hand to her throat and spoke again. “What is…? What am I saying? How did I do that?”

  Ulani threw her arms around her mother and squeezed. “Mama, you can speak like us now!”

  Ella swallowed, blinking rapidly. “Yes, darling, I guess I can.”

  Begrudgingly, Kyara acknowledged that the Cavefolk had given the woman a gift—to be able to speak to her children in their native language—in addition to understanding the Cavefolk. The visions didn’t appear to have frightened either of them, which was a blessing.

  “Thank you,” Kyara said to Murmur. The others all repeated their thanks and then they were off.

  Mooriah guided them through tunnels embedded with sparkling stones, which reflected back the moonlight from an opening somewhere far above.

  “Did the Cavefolk create the caves? Did they dig them out of the mountain?” Ella asked as they ascended a gentle incline. Now that her daughter was back with her, she spoke to Mooriah with tight civility.

  “No, the Mother provided. Blood magic was used to call upon her when the population grew and more dwellings were needed. They are created by her hand.”

  The wondrous views around them could not have been a natural occurrence. Kyara supposed the cave city could have been man-made, over hundreds of years of mining and digging … perhaps. It was an incredible feat no matter how it had been achieved.

  After nearly an hour, they ascended a gentle incline and emerged in the crisp night air, on a wide ledge high on the mountain. The space was ringed with a natural rock border that offered limited protection to the unfortunate or clumsy. Darvyn sat before a small ball of fire hovering just off the ground. He stood, grinning as they approached, then hurried over to embrace Kyara. Tension and worry she didn’t know she carried melted away with his touch. Her eyes closed and she lived inside his hold for as long as she could.

  When he pulled away to greet the others, she opened her eyes and nearly swooned due to the height. The ledge overlooked the Elsiran countryside, where distant trees were losing their clinging leaves. A lustrous moon illuminated the land.

  Behind them, hidden by the gnarled peak, was Lagrimar. A pang actually went through her at the thought of her homeland. A cold winter would be descending on the desert, not as frigid as the temperatures promised on this side of the mountain, but bad enough. Who had stayed there and what would become of the refugees headed back?

  She retreated from the edge and the steep drop down. “Be careful where you step,” she called out to the children. Ella kept her daughters close.

  Kyara turned back to Darvyn and went to sit beside him at the fire. “How have you been holding up? Sorry you insisted on coming along?”

  “Never sorry, not when I get to see you. Even if it is just once a day.” He grinned again and pulled her near, kissing her all too briefly.

  Sadness clung to her where his hands wrapped around her waist. “Well, now I know the way. We also wanted to see if you can unbind Tana. The Cavefolk are unable to unlock her magic, but they say it was done by a Bright One. You’re the closest thing we have.”

  Darvyn turned to Tana, who looked up at him shyly. “I can’t sense her with my Song. I’ll try again, but Nethersingers are invisible to my power.”

  The girls took a seat around the fire and Darvyn inhaled deeply, staring in Tana’s direction, brow furrowed and eyes soft. Then he shook his head, eyes clearing. “I see nothing. No binding, no Tana, nothing. I’m sorry, I wish there was something I could do.”

  Tana looked dejected but just nodded, appearing used to accepting whatever hand fate dealt her. Kyara’s heart broke. She squeezed Darvyn’s hand, knowing he hated to disappoint the girl as much as she did.

  “We’ll try—” but whatever she had been going to say was interrupted by a ringing sound, as if the temple bells in the city were chiming. Everyone jumped up in alarm. She and Darvyn stood protectively in front of Ella and the girls, backing them toward the cave entrance.

  The already bright moonlight rose to a blinding level as a glimmering, golden ripple tore the air. The radiant disturbance became a hole—a portal—through which daylight was visible. The thought of wraiths was foremost in her mind. Not yet! We’re not ready!

  The ringing sound grew louder and more intense. Then it was gone and the night was as quiet and dark as ever with only the flickering firelight and the glow of the moon to see by. The sudden change in brightness made Kyara blink rapidly to clear the searing impression the portal had left on the backs of her eyelids. When her vision settled, a gently glowing figure stood at the edge of the ledge, balanced on the short rock barrier. He rapidly dimmed, revealing the form of a man.

  “Fenix?” Mooriah said from somewhere behind them. Darvyn sucked in a breath.

  The strange man they’d met inside the Physicks’ stronghold stood before them. He wore a light-colored tunic and loose-fitting trousers made of a strange, shimmery material. His skin was the color of sunset in a dust storm, no longer illuminated from within but a shade unlike she’d ever seen. His eyes were a shiny, bright gold, full of swirling colors.

  He nodded in greeting at her and Darvyn, giving a slight smile. Then his gaze passed over Ella and the girls and appeared to get stuck on Mooriah. His expression teetered and Kyara could not define the emotions she saw on his face. He quickly muted them and stood still as Mooriah made her way toward him.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice accusatory.

  He gracefully leapt from the rocky border onto the ground, but still stood two heads above her, forcing her to look up. “It is today. The first frost.”

  She gasped.

  “You’d forgotten.” His smile was rueful. “I came every decade as promised. Well, every decade I was able.” His gaze shot to Kyara before he swallowed and lowered his head. “Even when I was too late and you were gone.”

  Mooriah’s jaw worked, shifting from side to side. “You were always a fool.” But her tone held no malice. She reached up to touch his cheek, tentative, fingers quivering. She stroked him once then dropped her hand, curling her fingers.

  “How are you here now?” Fenix whispered. He took a step closer to her and she stiffened, then relaxed a fraction.

  “The prophecy is coming true. I am needed.”

  Fenix nodded. “Yes. I saw the ones who first tore the hole between worlds. The Physicks. They did not know what they were starting.”

  They stared at each other for a long beat, so long that Kyara felt awkward, like she shouldn’t be witnessing whatever was happening. She sensed a pained history between the two. But both appeared to get themselves together with a little shake.

  Fenix looked Mooriah up and down. “So you returned. I had a feeling you would not go easily into the Flame. Whose body did you take?”

  Kyara froze. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask exactly how Mooriah had come back to the Living World. But Kyara, too, had witnessed the spirits brought by the Physicks from the World After take over bodies. Had she thought Mooriah different? Were there other ways the dead could come back to life? Perhaps she’d given it little thought because the spirits she’d seen in Yaly had been angry, set on revenge, and using incredible power. In comparison, Mooriah seemed … normal. Annoying, to be sure, reckless and foolhardy, but not a vindictive, vengeful creature.

  Mooriah brushed away Fenix’s question. “She was just an old hag I found in a prison. One who had tormented my descendant. She will not be missed.”

  Mooriah had descendants? Kyara looked at the woman again with sharper eyes. Caught in avoiding her own guilt, she hadn’t asked Mooriah about a great many things. Hadn’t wondered more about her life. That had obviously been a mistake.

  Fenix turned to Kyara and Darvyn. “When you saved me, I made a promise to return and bring aid. Though, in that, so far, I have failed. My long-awaited homecoming was not as I’d hoped. I could not convince anyone to come and assist this world.”

  Moori
ah snorted. “Your brethren always cared only for observing.”

  Fenix firmed his lips, disappointment evident. “I have not given up all hope. Not quite yet.”

  “There are only us three to stand in the way of the army of the dead and their dominance. She is untrained.” She pointed to Kyara. “And she is bound.” She motioned to Tana.

  Fenix’s gaze passed Kyara to settle on the younger girl.

  “None here are able to unbind her,” Mooriah said. Fenix took a few steps toward Tana, but Kyara blocked his path. He tilted his head in silent question.

  “What are you going to do?” Sure, he had helped them escape in Yaly, but she still didn’t know who or what he was. “Where is it you come from, and what power do you have?”

  Fenix blinked before bowing to her. “I apologize. Our introduction was in haste as we were both prisoners. I regret that I was unable to communicate with you during our incarceration. But it was not within my power at the time.”

  He folded his hands before him. “Your ancestors, the two who came from my world and made this land their home, they were of my people. From the world on which we originated, at least. That place was destroyed and we were scattered across the worlds, using the portals to travel and find new homes. I am one of the observers sent by what’s left of those who govern us to keep track of our people. History tends to repeat itself and we would prefer not to be left to the random hand of fate for survival as we once were.

  “I came here many centuries ago to do research on the land and progeny of the two who settled here, the ones called the Founders. Virtually all of Elsira and Lagrimar are their descendants. However, the occupants of this land were less than welcoming.” His mouth twisted in a grimace.

  Kyara’s mind went blank for a moment, then restarted. Her current dizziness had nothing to do with the height. Other worlds? Besides the World After and the World Between? Of course she’d seen him disappear into a portal and arrive via one just now, but how many were there? What were they like?

  She shook her head and blinked. “And—your power?”

  “Our powers manifest differently on different worlds. In each place, the source is the same. Refugees from our dying home all took small pieces of the source with them, to sustain them. But for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, what we can do is always slightly different.”

  He raised a hand and a glowing ball of light materialized in it. “Earthsong you call it here. The collective life energy of all beings. So simple.” With a twist of his hand, the ball of light transformed into a blooming flower of some variety she’d never seen before. Next to her, Darvyn leaned forward, enthralled.

  The flower transformed again, into a tiny, black puppy—floppy-eared, with copious amounts of fur. Ulani gasped then squealed in delight.

  “Is that an illusion?” Darvyn whispered.

  “This is life,” Fenix said simply. He knelt and set the puppy on the ground. It yipped, and then ran straight for Ulani’s legs. She scooped him up and cradled him to her chest. Ella’s jaw had unhinged as she stared at the little wriggling creature lapping at her daughter’s cheek.

  “But Earthsong cannot do such things,” Darvyn said. “Create life from nothing.”

  “Not from nothing, life from life, from energy,” Fenix corrected, rising. “And there are a great many things possible with Earthsong that are only limited by the capabilities of the Singers currently alive. I am not, strictly speaking, an Earthsinger. One must be born here to claim that. However, the way my power expresses allows me to manipulate Earthsong.”

  Darvyn looked like he had more questions, but seemed a bit overwhelmed. He’d likely need some time to think this over and process it. They all would.

  “But then at some point you were captured by the Physicks?” Kyara asked, now in awe that such a thing could occur.

  Fenix lowered his head. “I was careless. By that time Mooriah was gone—I’d forgotten how short lives are here—but when I returned, I would check on her descendants. It was during one of those times, when I was lost in my own mind, lamenting the way things had turned out, that I fell into a trap a child should have seen through. I paid for it with many years of my life powering the Great Machine for the Physicks.”

  He took a step closer to Kyara. “So you see, it is because of both of us that this threat has appeared on this land. I will do whatever I can to rectify my mistake and help.”

  “But didn’t you banish all the spirits the Physicks allowed in?”

  “The seal between the worlds was already weak; they cracked it open. Otherwise, Mooriah would not be here, either. The door has been opened, we wait now only for someone with ill intent to take advantage of that.”

  “That has already begun.” Mooriah stepped to his side. “It is why I brought them here to train.”

  “But why was Tana bound? And who did it? Someone like you?” Kyara was still trying to wrap her mind around it all.

  “Yes, it was one of my fellow observers, no doubt,” Fenix replied. “We are meant to monitor only and not get involved, however, when one of us senses something catastrophic approaching—the creation and existence of one of your kind can be felt by us—then in order to stop tragedy, we bind the child. However, it does not last forever.” His expression was apologetic.

  Like Tana, her power had expressed at age eleven. What would it have been like if the bindings were permanent? Would she still be in the harem? One of the ul-nedrim guards keeping the women and girls safe?

  “I can unbind the girl,” Fenix said. He looked to Ella, who had an arm around each of her daughters and was dodging an overeager puppy tongue. “It will not cause her any harm or pain.”

  Ella’s eyes were wide. She hadn’t spoken at all during Fenix’s revelations, but appeared just as struck by them as the rest. Tana eyed the puppy suspiciously, but was otherwise impassive; a lifetime of disappointments had likely made the girl wary of hope. Kyara understood the feeling.

  “As long as she isn’t harmed,” Ella said. “It’s what she came here for.”

  Kyara nodded at Fenix. “Fine, then. Do it.”

  He bowed respectfully, and perhaps a bit amused, before approaching Tana. He knelt before her and inclined his head. “May I hold your hand, please?”

  Tana held out a trembling hand. Fenix smiled and it was beatific, a glorious beaming that brought to mind calm blue skies and warm spring days. “Best close your eyes.”

  She did so and at first nothing happened. Kyara held her breath, waiting, hoping she hadn’t made a mistake in supporting this. Then Tana began to glow. Ella startled, her grip on Tana’s shoulder tightening. But almost as soon as the glow hit her skin, it was gone.

  Tana’s eyes grew big when she opened them. A huge smile filled her face. “I feel it,” she said excitedly. “It’s like … I’m not quite sure what it’s like, but it’s wonderful!” Her breathing had sped up as her excitement increased.

  Kyara used her other sight to sense the girl’s Nether. The bright glow of the Nethersinger shone in the darkness. But shockingly, it was growing stronger and stronger. Tana was drawing death energy into herself rapidly.

  Where was it coming from? She shuttered her sight, watching for the reaction of the others, before sinking into it again, realizing that she could sense Fenix and he was quite odd. He didn’t have the bright light of death energy of an adult, nor was he nearly invisible to her like a powerful Earthsinger. He was … normal. Just as he’d been in real life, fully visible.

  He smiled at her, noting her shock. She wasn’t quite sure how to react. But then Tana pulled even more Nethersong into herself, capturing Kyara’s attention again. “Tana! Don’t draw it all in at once.” She could sense the girl’s lack of control, she just couldn’t figure out where the death energy was coming from or what the effect would be.

  “She’s drawing it from everywhere in small amounts, equally distributed throughout her range.” Fenix answered her unspoken thought. “Every living thing around her will lose a sm
all amount of Nethersong.”

  “And then be filled with the Void?”

  He nodded. “But being so small, their own life energy will eventually replace it. They will be healthier and stronger for it.”

  That was possible? Why hadn’t she ever thought of it before? “She’s still taking on too much, too fast.” What would she do with it all? Especially having never learned even a modicum of control. “Tana, stop!”

  Then Mooriah was there, bright as the sun in her other sight. The woman approached Tana and it looked as though their lights merged. The shining star that Tana had become dimmed as fast as it had grown, transforming back to something more like normal.

  The girl was just a girl, with a tiny amount of Nether, and she was breathing heavily. Using her regular sight again, Kyara watched her try to catch her breath. Mooriah stood next to her, swaying gently. She met Kyara’s gaze with an expression of slight exasperation, which somehow made everything better.

  Tana grinned like she’d just won a race. “I like it!” she said, giggling, a sound never before heard from the child’s lips.

  Kyara sagged, leaning against Darvyn. “Well, it’s obvious we have a lot of work to do.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Enjoy ever-deepening camaraderie

  with those whose voices rise in chorus.

  —THE HARMONY OF BEING

  Varten packed very light. He couldn’t risk someone seeing him walking around with heavy luggage in the palace and asking questions that might get back to Jasminda. But he wasn’t sure what he’d need. Gilmeria was south of Elsira, but in the northern part of Yaly, abutting the mountain range separating the two countries. Temperatures there would be frigid, far worse than in mild Elsira.

  He figured he would just have to buy additional clothing and supplies once they got there. Fortunately, money wasn’t a problem. He had a full wallet and a virtually unlimited line of credit at the Bank of Elsira, money that he would be able to access in Yaly, when needed.