Page 64 of Requiem of Silence

She blinked her eyes and focused on the room again. A doctor in a white coat kneeled next to the prisoner who had stopped seizing. Jasminda breathed in deeply, releasing her hold on Earthsong. The ocean of energy receded as if it had not been a torrent within her moments earlier.

“Yes, you’re right.” She stood, grabbing her gloves from the table and placing them on shaking hands. No one was paying attention to her, they all watched the man on the floor. None suspected what she had done, how could they? It wasn’t visible and not even most Lagrimari knew what was truly possible with a powerful Song.

Her breathing stuttered as they retreated down the hallway and up the stairs. Agent Verall met them on the main level. “The prisoner will be transported to the dungeon once the physician gives the go-ahead, Your Majesty.”

She nodded in agreement, but didn’t trust her voice to speak. Her throat was dry and aching and she felt as if she’d run a race. It was the Song she’d expended. She wasn’t drained by any means,but she had unwittingly lost control. A glance at Camm showed him staring at her warily. He suspected something, though he wasn’t any more well versed in Songs and what they could do than anyone else here.

Outside, he handed her back into the rattletrap auto that had brought her here in secret. No one would know what she did. No one but Zann Biddell. She peered at Camm out the window as the vehicle pulled away. She had asked him to alert her if she went too far, but she didn’t really need the warning. She knew today that she had indeed crossed an invisible line.

She just wasn’t certain if she regretted it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Embody your hopes in your work.

Let your deeds be a home for your

good intentions.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

Zeli spent the passage to Yaly almost entirely with her jaw hanging open. The as-yet unnamed ship sailed down the coast, passing mountain ranges and forests and other ships of all kinds on the busy waterway. The well-traveled route was far more congested than she ever would have expected the sea to be, though between Rosira and Fremia’s capital city of Adara, there were no other ports of note.

Eskar, their captain, was a wealth of information. He explained that though Raun had only embargoed Elsira, the action hadcaused a disastrous ripple effect to the trade in and out of the country. As such, Adara was far busier than ever.

The ship didn’t slow as it passed the Fremian city’s metal spires and glass towers. Smoke and noise and congestion wafted from its shore, and Zeli was glad not to be going there. She’d thought Rosira a big city, but it was a Midcountry outpost compared to the megacity that was Adara. The taciturn Lanar made a rare statement advising them that Yaly’s cities were even larger. She tried to prepare herself.

The body of water that led to land-locked Yaly was called Dunbay. After her first glance of a true urban labyrinth, the greenery and marshland on the banks of the bay were quite welcome. Eskar pointed out the course they were taking on the maps, and Zeli tried to commit this new, vast world to memory.

“The majority of the bay belongs to Fremia,” he explained, “however, it is the only way to access Yaly from the Delaveen Ocean. Fortunately for the Yalyish, Fremia remains neutral in times of conflict.”

“But Fremia is so much smaller,” she said. “Couldn’t Yaly crush them?”

“There is a reason they haven’t all these years. Yaly is a large land, but fractured. It would take the movement of mountains to make all the commonwealths come together to work as one. A broken thing is never strong. Fremia is smaller, but cohesive. Unity is part of their culture. Unity and excellence. Their small force can, and has, routed one twenty times as large.”

“How do you know all this?” Varten asked in wonder.

Eskar dipped his head. “I worked with the Sisterhood for the past few years. Some of the Sisters were very politically minded. I learned much through listening to their conversations.”

Zeli had been happy to spend the majority of the journeychatting with Yalisa, whom she never thought she’d see again. The former mistress of Zeli’s employer had been sent to the camps in Lagrimar, a victim of political scheming. Zeli told her of how the Magister, in whose home they’d both lived, had been nearly killed by his daughter’s fiancé, but little Ulani had saved his life. They mused on the man’s whereabouts.

“He was likely arrested as one of the True Father’s agents,” Yalisa said, sadness filling her voice. Though her former lover had been the one responsible for her arrest, Zeli could tell she still had feelings for him. Once Yalisa had held a position she’d envied—but it hadn’t lasted.

“You think he will be executed with the others?” Zeli whispered.

Yalisa blinked. “He probably deserves it.” She took a breath, shaking off the moment of melancholy. “What do you hope for in Yaly?” she asked with a small smile. “I’m surprised you’d be so interested in such a rowdy-sounding event. Didn’t you always like the quiet, simpler things?”

“I did. But… this is practically once in a lifetime. I’ve realized that the way I used to think about things needed to shift. The world is changing, we need to as well.”

“Hmm.” Yalisa looked thoughtful. “Yes, change is inevitable… Eventually. It did take Lagrimar quite a long time.”

“What do you hope for?” Zeli whispered.

Yalisa laughed, a sound full of both mirth and uncertainty. “Anything. Everything. Life. I do not think we even know how to live properly. I would like to learn.” She tilted her head up to the sky where the midday sun brightened her face. “I want to breathe in life. To have it empty its lungs inside of me, and rise into the air filled with all of the experiences and feelings and joys and fears and everything in between.”

She sobered somewhat and turned back to Zeli with a chuckle. “But I don’t even know what to hope for, and that is the real tragedy, is it not?”

Zeli nodded, in complete understanding. “But I know you’ll find out. I’m so happy for you, and I hope not to lose touch with you.”

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