Page 18 of Requiem of Silence

“You must be dying to know why we’ve brought you here. One prison for another?” She lifts a shoulder. “We think you can help us, Eero. And we know we can help you.”

You pitch forward slightly, intrigued in spite of yourself.

“For a long time you wielded a great deal of power. Dark power. Power you had no business having. Then it was taken from you.”

She leans forward, setting her glass on the side table, all seriousness now. The shrewdness in her gaze sends a chill through you, unmatched even by the icy wind.

“Wouldn’t you like to get it back?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

We are aglow.

Incandescent, filled with glee

the shadows only memory until

the sun drops down beneath

the confines of our view.

Tomorrow starts anew.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

The midafternoon sun did little to warm Kyara as the wind picked up from the west. She hurried back to the cottage, slipping on the silken sand. Once inside, she stamped her bare feet and rubbed her hands together to bring some warmth to them.

Today, she’d gone south on the beach instead of north, mostly to avoid the inn and the refugees from yesterday. What would shedo with her time when the weather turned too cold for her to walk the coastline and stare at the ocean all day? She was free for the first time in her life, and had no idea what to do about it.

Suddenly, her senses went on high alert. She hadn’t perceived a sound, but some change in the air prickled her awareness. Then Darvyn stepped in from the bedroom and a smile stretched across her face.

She relaxed instantly. “I didn’t know you were home.” But tension thrummed through him.

“We finished checking the soil at the refugee camp, so I decided to stop in and get a change of clothes for the twins’ party tonight.”

Guilt wrapped around her. She’d shared a prison block with Roshon, Varten, and their father, Dansig, for weeks after being captured by the Physicks. In that time, she’d bonded with the family. She should go to their party and share in the joy of freedom, but the idea of being around so many people… Also being in the palace again, where she’d been a prisoner and then, briefly, a guest—it was too much.

She shook her head. “Please tell them I’m sorry that I won’t be there. I know they won’t understand but…”

“It’s fine. They’ll understand… But there’s more.” His hands squeezed a bit of fabric between them. A cravat, if she wasn’t mistaken. Part of Elsiran formal wear.

“What?”

“I received a call from Jasminda.” He motioned to the telephone that had been installed in the cottage shortly after they’d arrived. “It’s confidential, but I’m sure she knew I’d tell you.”

“As if I have anyone to tell,” Kyara joked, growing worried.

His expression was bleak. “Wraiths attacked the palace.”

Her jaw dropped. “But… we…”

“I know. There were only three of them, but Oola and Jasminda together barely held them off. Then they just went away. Oola wants to keep it quiet though, as to not spread panic. Jasminda said there was more bad news, but she will only tell me in person.”

“So the Physicks’ Machine wasn’t destroyed? Or somehow they’ve found another way to open the portal?” Her voice pitched higher than normal with the memory of the wraith attack she’d witnessed.

Darvyn crossed the room with rapid steps to embrace her. Kyara hadn’t realized she was shaking until she was pressed into his arms. “We’ll find out,” he said. “We’ll figure it all out.”

The destruction those spirits had created back in Yaly was burned into her brain. Now it was coming here. Something had told her that a quiet life of solitude would never be possible, but she’d hoped. A fat lot of good hoping did.

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