Page 48 of Requiem of Silence

She squatted down to face her. “I’m not any of those things,uli.I’m afraid all the time, and this power.…” She shook her head. “It is terrible. I’m sorry that you must share its burden.”

“This power is a gift,” Mooriah declared, stepping up beside her. “That is why you are both here. You are to learn control over it and mastery of it so that you may go out and save your people. This is what you have been called to do. It is your purpose, one chosen by the Breath Father for you.”

Kyara stood, patience thinning. “I don’t know anything about the Breath Father, but if he gave us this power of death, then what kind of deity is he?”

“A mighty one,” Mooriah said gravely.

Kyara crossed her arms, defiant. “Fine. She can stay and be trained. And I will stay and protect her.”

“So you want to continue to be selfish and holed up by yourself, squandering your gift.” Mooriah’s voice brought an additional chill to the air. “You are a force, and she will be, too. Both of you will be needed if you plan to have a land left to live in.” The harshness of her tone made goose bumps spring up along Kyara’s skin.

“I have kept the watch from the World After for many, many years. I could not see much of the Living World, but what I did would leave you cold. Nethersingers born and slaughtered over and over again. Few managed to survive their births.” She glanced over at Tana. “Though, a handful did. Those who were bound as children by other hands. They would live sometimes. But when the bindings wore out and there was no one around to restore them, they would go the way of the rest. Slaughterers to be slaughtered.” She spread her hands apart.

“Her power is bound?” Kyara asked.

“It was bound. Now it is leaking out. When yours began to emerge, you were lucky that Ydaris and the True Father kept you alive and trained you.”

“Lucky?” Kyara spat out the word. “It was not luck for those I was forced to kill.”

Mooriah waved away that little detail. “You learned some skill, but true mastery eludes you. That must change.”

“I don’t want to know any more. I don’t want any more death. Train Tana, she is eager to learn.”

Murmur slowly rose to his feet, drawing everyone’s attention. “Both of you will be trained or neither will.”

Kyara’s head snapped back. “What about the prophecy?”

“I would ask you the same thing. Will you really allow the child to fight alone?” He shook his head. “Both or neither.”

A roiling heat rose within her with nowhere to go. She took a deep breath to steady her. Tana squeezed her arms around herself tighter. Kyara caught the movement from the corner of her eye. The girl looked small and alone. Frightened, not of her surroundings or the strange, ancient beings present, but of herself.

Kyara closed her eyes on a long blink.Couldshe allow this child to face the battle ahead alone? She saw so much of herself in the girl and recalled the brutality of her own training. Though she did not trust him, she was certain Murmur’s training would not be so merciless. She did not want this, not even a little, but her protestations had been pointless from the beginning, she recognized that now. She hung her head and gripped her fists tightly at her sides.

“Can you at least allow Darvyn entry into the city?” Her voice creaked with strain.

“The spell keeping him out is ancient and was settled into themountain by the force of our people when we were strong. Now that we are weak, we cannot undo it.”

“Why is it so important that people like… like whoever his father was not come here?”

“Did Mooriah not tell you?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

“She said Fenix made a mistake. Why punish an entire group of… beings?”

“Fenix disrespected the Mother to such a degree as to throw into question the trustworthiness of the entire race of Bright Ones.”

“He didn’t know,” Mooriah said quietly, staring at the ground.

“He tried to take a piece of the Mother with him as a trophy. Thievery is not permitted. No stone not freely given can be removed. That is one of our most sacred rules. He broke it, through ignorance or not, and his kind were punished.”

“That’s rather harsh, don’t you think?” Kyara asked.

“Harsh it may be, but that is the way it is… was. I cannot change it now. Perhaps if you beseech the Mother, she will alter it herself.”

Kyara didn’t believe the mountain cared a whit about Darvyn, regardless of whether or not he was the love of her life. “Well, you must at least promise that you won’t harm anyone else while we undergo training. No more bait, no more tests… of any kind. I won’t have you tossing this girl’s mother off a cliff just to see if she can save her.”

Ella gasped and took a step back. But Murmur had the nerve to chuckle.

“What’s funny, old man?” Kyara asked, seething.

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