Page 134 of Requiem of Silence

The man fighting Papa falls, and Papa swings around, grabbing Ulani and lifting her up. Two more angry red-haired men begin to shout aboutgrols,but they can’t push their way through the tight mass of people.

Mama knocks another angry man in the head with her club and stands there panting, looking around, madder than a homeless hornet.

Ulani closes her eyes, Papa’s arms are tight bands of safety encircling her. “There’s two more angry men here,” she whispers. “But they’re waiting.”

He repeats this to Mama who begins speaking in Lagrimari to someone. Ulani senses two men being pulled from the crowd andbrought forward. Their energy feels like a deep, dark hole, sad and bitter and endless. Someone shouts that they’ve found some rope in the corner and all the men who wanted to fight are quickly tied up.

“Zann Biddel planted his people in the shelters,” Mama says into Papa’s ear.

“What did he think he was doing?” Papa asks.

“I don’t know. Sacrifice the Lagrimari to the True Father, barter for peace that way? Only one of them is talking, the rest are staying silent. Loyal to their leader to the end.”

A shiver races down Ulani’s spine and she opens her eyes to look up toward the door. “Link hands!” she yells.

A dark column of smoke emerges through the wood of the closed doors. It hovers over the stairs and the people rush and leap, falling over themselves to join up.

Ulani is still in Papa’s arms with Mama pressed in close. Hands shoot out to grab any part of their neighbor they can, arms, shoulders, heads, feet. She pours the spell through funnel after funnel, protecting everyone who’s touching, hoping she can reach them all in time.

But something startles her and the trickle of protection wobbles, though it still flows through the funnels. A lady is staring at her from across the room. She’s really a girl, a skinny teenager with long, red braids. Her eyes are hot coals, and Ulani missed her anger because it wasn’t thick and slimy like the men’s. It’s lighter, like a cloud of poison.

The dark spirit hovers above them all, looking for someone to attack. But even the men tied up on the floor are in the funnel, they’re being pressed down with feet on their chests.

The angry girl is linked to those on either side of her, but continues to stare daggers at Ulani. The funnel holds and everyonehere is part of it, until the girl releases both her hands, pulling herself out of the chain. Her neighbors are safe because the funnel is a circle, the person on their other side keeps them a part of it, but the girl with the braids is at risk. No one dares move out of the chain to grab her, just about everyone else is focused on the spirit floating overhead.

The angry girl grips something in her hand that Ulani can’t see. Hatred pours from her like smoke from a chimney. Meanwhile, the spirit swoops down, angling for the one unprotected person. With one hand around Papa’s neck, Ulani reaches toward the girl, who’s racing forward, lifting her arm.

Raven lunges forward directly into the girl’s path, but she kicks him viciously. Tears form in Ulani’s eyes as he rolls away, whimpering. The thing in the girl’s hand is a rock. She’s still too far away for Ulani to reach, too far away to protect. The spirit arrows toward her, a breath away from her skin as she lunges forward.

Papa twists, turning Ulani away from the blow, putting himself in its path. The fist with the rock hits Papa’s head just as the spirit starts to breach the girl’s body. But the girl joins the funnel when she touches Papa. The spirit can’t penetrate and bounces off.

Papa stumbles and begins to fall. Ulani feels his pain as if it’s her own.

Mama grabs his arm on his way down, and the man next to him lunges for his leg. They’re all still connected, though Ulani lays in a heap on top of him. The girl howls as feet from all around press her body into the cold ground.

Ulani has to focus on the funnels. The spirit arcs and dives overhead, still threatening. Other spirits slide through the walls, seeking hosts to infect. The room is soon darkened by their presence.

Papa’s head is bleeding. She wishes she could fix it, but she’snot sure if she can split her focus. She doesn’t want to risk it, but he’s sleeping a kind of sleep that isn’t really sleep and it’s giving her a bad feeling. Raven limps over and licks Ulani’s cheeks, tasting her tears.

She’s sorry she wanted to see a spirit so badly—she takes it back. She wants them to go away so she can heal her father. They have to go away soon so she can make sure he wakes up.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Let unseen evidence guide us toward

the mysteries of being.

Pay close attention to

the eyes unseeing.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

Varten had a tight grip on his father’s shoulder as the two of them raced down the street. He hadn’t been here for the other two wraith attacks, but he could already sense that this one was going to be worse. The portal was somewhere out of his line of sight, but the sky darkened ominously, filling quickly with writhing spirits ready to find hosts.

“There’s a shelter down that street,” Papa said, pointing.

“No, I have to get back to Zeli. I have an idea about how to restore the Songs. I think they’ll be needed sooner rather than later.”

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