Page 140 of Requiem of Silence

“I mean, we will. At some point. I haven’t asked her yet—”

“Why not?” Ani said, running up and striking at the legs of the opponent her mother fought.

“It’s only been a couple of months. I haven’t—”

“You need to lock that down as soon as possible,” Ani advised. “Behind you.”

Tai swung around and kicked out at the teenage boy who had tried to sneak up on him.

“She’s right,” Pia said, grunting as she swung at a large woman with vacant eyes. “Lizvette is far too good for you. You’ll want to make her yours before she wises up and realizes she can do better.”

Tai grit his teeth and took the boy down with a crack to the skull, then poured his remaining oil on the body. “So you two are ganging up on me now?”

“We’re just giving advice,” the two women said at the same time. Ani scowled and Pia raised a brow.

“And you,” Pia said, turning to her daughter, who was wiping blood off her club. “This wedding of yours has caused quite enough commotion. Since we’re all here now, you might as well have it in Rosira when this is all over.”

Ani blinked rapidly, her mouth open. “We… I mean… Well, yes, that would be lovely. I’m sure Roshon would agree.”

Four more of the True Father’s army raced down the street toward them. Ani seemed somewhat distracted as she fought, and Tai had to save her from a blow to the head. Pia’s solution had been a good one. He wasn’t sure why his mother was being so pleasant all of a sudden. He didn’t trust it.

He hoisted a body onto the truck where the Lagrimari sat hand in hand, eyes closed. He hoped whatever they were doing was working, or they’d have to fight off the bodies piling up in the truck bed.

When he returned to his sister’s side, she was looking suspiciously at their mother. Tai understood the feeling. This was the same woman who’d sentenced him to two years of hard labor for defying her.

“Since you’re in such an amiable mood,” he said, “how about ending the embargo?” Lizvette was a brand-new ambassador andif the embargo issue could be settled on her watch, Tai knew it would make her happy. He hadn’t ever broached politics with his mother before, but now seemed like as good a time as any.

Pia’s brows rose. “On one condition.”

The wails of attacking wraiths interrupted them, but others had them handled for now. He narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“You both come home for my birthday.”

He turned to Ani, who looked as perplexed as he felt. “When is your birthday?” both siblings said in unison.

Pia rolled her eyes. “The third day of harvest season.”

Ani shrugged, wide-eyed. While he and his sister were close, the Summerhawks had never before celebrated anything as a family.

“I’m getting older, you know,” Pia said. “I want my family with me in my dotage.” She spun around with incredible speed and smacked a sprinting wraith across the chest, sending him flying into an iron fence.

“I can make that work,” Ani said, eyeing her mother cautiously.

“As can I,” Tai said. He scanned the street before him. Fighting those possessed with spirits of the dead was no longer the strangest thing that had occurred this week.

“Use the obelisk!” Yllis shouted as he, Jasminda, Darvyn, and Oola raced toward the docks, where a large part of the True Father’s force was amassing. “Now that it’s awake, you will be able to feel it. Reach for it—allow it to focus and magnify your power. It’s feeding from all of the awakened Songs and will offer you more longevity and finer-grained control.”

The energy of the ancient caldera hummed just at the edge of Jasminda’s awareness, roused and restless after a centuries-longnap. Her Song glanced across its edges, still uncertain of how to best utilize this new tool.

All around her, the city was falling apart under the attentions of wraiths bent on destruction. Yllis’s voice strained to be heard amidst the noise of the chaos. “Focus the energy. They are beings of death, target them with life. Strike at them with Earthsong itself!”

The normal methods of attack using Earthsong—manipulating the elements of wind, earthquake, mudslide, ice, and more—were of little use against the incredibly powerful spirits. But Yllis had advised them of methods and techniques that had been lost for hundreds of years. Even Oola had needed to be reminded. They could conjure focused bolts of life energy that manifested as bloodred darts of lightning. Doing so was not easy; creating each one was cumbersome and unnatural, and they were unwieldy to handle. Without the aid of the obelisk, she did not think she could have accomplished it.

Jasminda concentrated and brought a crackling, red stream of energy into existence and flung it at a trio of wraiths ravaging a warehouse. Her blast found its target and she exhaled in relief. The wraiths staggered and fell. According to Yllis, the blasts shocked their systems, severing their connection to Nethersong long enough to interrupt the spirit possession. The physical features of the three men blurred and shifted, transforming back to the original hosts as the spirits inside struggled to maintain their hold.

Earthsingers couldn’t eject the spirits, but in this state the creatures were powerless and the Void took over, keeping the bodies immobile and slowly allowing the hosts’ natural life energy to bring them back under control. The spirits were still there, but dormant—for the moment.

One of the Raunian women working with them broke off to douse the prone bodies with selakki oil. Dozens more bodies, hovering somewhere between alive and possessed, lay stretched across the pavement behind the Singers as they pressed forward.

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